Chapter 14 #3
Noah seemed to deflate and turn to stone at once.
For reasons I’d yet to understand, this town was all too comfortable speaking about him unkindly and having the balls to do it to his face.
It had always been this way. I’d heard the meatball comment too many times to count when we were kids.
That everyone felt it was acceptable to discuss his body was the strangest thing in the world to me. It would never make sense.
“You must love that he’s in such good shape now,” Winnie said to me.
“Bodies are extremely temporary and they’re the least interesting things about us.
They carry us around while we’re on this earth and there’s nothing more I can ask from my body than that.
I certainly wouldn’t spend any time worrying about the size or shape of anyone else’s body.
Not when I could care about their heart and their mind instead.
” I gave Noah’s chest another pat. It was better than grabbing that ugly bucket hat and smacking some sense into her with it.
“Is there anything else you might need from us today? I have an exquisite blackberry thyme jam that everyone is going crazy for, plus a special batch of strawberry nectarine that won’t be around for long. ”
“Oh, well—” She glanced down as I gestured to the jars. “One of each. I can be a little naughty this week.”
“If jam is your version of naughty,” I said, the humor thick in my words, “you don’t want to see mine.”
“Wine doesn’t count, right?” she boomed. “It’s medicinal.”
“You’re damn right it’s medicinal,” I said, taking her money. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell on you, Winnie.”
She stowed the jars in her shopping wagon. “I’ll give you a shout on the email this week. So nice meeting you, Shay. You make such a handsome couple.”
As Winnie rotated to the next vendor and out of earshot, Gennie said, “I do not like her.”
A hearty laugh cracked out of Noah, his broad chest shaking under my palm. “She means well,” he managed.
“That’s the worst part,” I said. “It would almost be better if she recognized the toxicity wrapped around her good deeds and so-called compliments.”
His hand warm on my waist, Noah said, “You were spectacular. I don’t know how you do that thing where you change their mind without telling them they’re wrong but I love you.
” He blinked hard. “I mean, I love how you handle people. You saved me twice this morning and I don’t give a shit how much jam you move today, consider your fields plowed and planted. ”
Once again, these words did things in my mind. Dirty, depraved things.
Things my husband couldn’t possibly intend.
Instead of thinking about that for another second, I asked, “How often does that happen? The one-two punch of ambush and guilt trips?”
“All the damn time.” He took a step back and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“There’s this expectation that I live to take on the problems of the entire community.
Like I want to rescue everyone simply because my dad ran himself into the ground doing it.
” He shook his head and the weight of this issue seemed to clear from his eyes.
“How many jars of blackberry do you have left over there?”
I grabbed a jar. “Just one. What about you?”
He ran his fingertips over the jars, sorting them into groups. “I’ll be damned,” he murmured. “Just one for me too.”
“Then we both win.”
“I’ve already agreed to work your fields,” he said. This man. My god. “What else do you want from me?”
“I…don’t know.”
“How about I get some time on the calendar with my general contractor? You can give him all your ideas for the wedding venue and he can get that ball rolling.”
I nodded as I considered this. A general contractor seemed like a very large step forward with all of this. “Yeah. Maybe? I don’t know. We don’t have to focus on that right now. What about you? What do you want?”
His gaze softened for a split second. I would’ve missed it if I hadn’t been watching him. “It’s okay. I don’t need anything.”
“Maybe there’s nothing you need,” I said, “but there’s something you want.”
His ears turned a lovely shade of tomato.
Gennie piped up then. “You said you had to do something decent for Shay to make up for running into her house like an ape and not minding your goddamn manners this morning.” She adjusted her eye patch to dangle from her neck.
“You said you’d have to bring her a big fucking fruit basket.
You said fucking. I didn’t say fucking. It was you.
But I think a big fucking fruit basket is dumb. No one wants a basket of fruit.”
Noah ran a hand down his face. “Oh my god.”
“What would you suggest, Gennie?” I asked.
She drummed her fingertips together like she was constructing an evil plot. “The playground at the park near the library has a pirate ship.”
“A—a pirate ship?” I asked.
“It’s a jungle gym thing,” Noah said. “The fundraising effort for that project nearly sucked the soul from my body a few years ago but Gen loves it.”
“You think we should go to the playground when we finish here?” I asked her.
“That’s your alternative to a fruit basket?” he asked. “How does the pirate ship help Shay?”
“I really like the pirate ship. I wish I could have a pirate ship like that just for me.” She toyed with the hem of her black-and-white striped t-shirt. “The frozen lemonade truck is there a lot too.”
With Noah’s gaze locked on his niece, he pointed across the market. “The frozen lemonade truck is right over there. We don’t have to go to the playground to get you lemonade.”
“But I had to work the pay machine and there were too many people waiting for you to do it alone.” She shrugged.
“And maybe Shay wants to see me climb all the way to the top of the crow’s nest. I’m super good at climbing and being the lookout.
Noah will like it too. He can sit on a bench alone and not talk to anyone. That’s his favorite.”
Noah and I exchanged a glance. I lifted my brows. He jerked a shoulder up. I grinned. He managed a crooked half smile. “Okay, Gennie. I think I need to see this playground.”
“Are you going to sit on the bench with me?” Noah asked.
“I don’t know,” I teased. “I wouldn’t want to ruin the alone-and-silent thing.”
He hooked an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. “You couldn’t if you tried.”