Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Noah
After Nellie went pale and all but ran off, the spell between us broke as suddenly as it was cast, and I came to my senses. They’d been more than a little out of whack since I leaned over her to help her with Georgia Moran’s call.
That was a mistake. I shouldn’t have gotten that close, shouldn’t have let the strawberry scent of her hair draw me in.
I shouldn’t have been paying such close attention to the way her breath caught at my nearness.
I shouldn’t have been wondering if she’d been thinking about our night together, too.
I definitely shouldn’t have put my arm so close to her to needlessly point out the reservation on the booking software. Nellie had eyes; she could find it herself.
But I hadn’t been in control of myself. I’d had to force myself to step away and sit down, giving us the space we needed.
I suited up and went outside, needing the fresh air to snap me back into reality.
It was cold and snowing lightly. The perfect weather for ice fishing, ice skating, and tobogganing.
Walking aimlessly toward the frozen lake shore, I hoped the cold air would jolt me back to my senses. I needed to get my head on straight, but Nellie’s presence skewed my sensibilities. I had no choice in my body’s reaction to her. It’d been that way ever since the first night I met her.
The night of the Witches’ Ball, I’d noticed Nellie the second I arrived.
She was in the middle of the dance floor with Sage and our other friends, her back to me—her body moving in perfect time to the music.
The short skirt of her costume put all her incredible assets on display, her well-toned glutes and her killer legs that left me panting.
Half the dress was made to look like a doctor’s jacket with green spills on it, while the other half was a brown suit dress style, strategically torn.
When she turned, her ample breasts stole my attention. I wanted to bury my face in them, which was a roguish thought to have but my physical attraction to her had been like a strike of lightning.
I caught a glimpse of the half of her face not obscured by the purposely grotesque Jekyll makeup and contact lens, and it was evident that beneath the special effects makeup, she was hot.
Then she caught me checking her out and flashed me a smile, and I was hooked without reservation.
I felt the overwhelming need to get to know her.
She looked like my kind of fun, and as the night progressed she proved that she was. The moment my hands went to her waist when we started dancing, I felt the thing between us brewing. By the end of the night, our desire for each other was boiling over.
We took shot after shot, letting the liquor drive us closer and closer together, until we were all but entwined on the dance floor, until I was whispering in her ear that she should come home with me. And then she did.
That night had left more of a mark on me than I ever could have imagined.
The cold bite of winter wind did nothing to douse the flames of the memory. My desire for Nellie still lived beneath my skin, and it took her returning for me to acknowledge it.
But I couldn’t just act on that desire the way I had that first night. Nellie had been very much into it. There had been no walls erected around her for me to climb over, no boundaries in place.
Even with those walls—those boundaries—I knew that if Nellie gave even the slightest indication that she was interested in a repeat, I’d happily get on my knees for her.
Nellie
Sage texted me after work, asking if I wanted to meet her at The Hungry Hub for dinner. I managed to score a parking spot out front. When I entered the bustling diner, I spotted Sage sitting in a booth near the back.
She waved at me, and I made my way over, past tables full of patrons. The delicious smell of food wafted over, and my mouth started to water in anticipation. My appetite was out of control. I was always hungry, and if I wasn’t, I was nauseated. It was one extreme or the other.
“No Daphne?” I asked as I removed my jacket and hung it up on the hook on the wall that divided the booths.
“She’s having a sleepover with Riley.”
“Oh fun!” I sat down across from her. Sage was looking at me with a huge, knowing smile. “What?” I asked.
“Just wondering how today went,” Sage said innocently. She picked up her glass of iced tea and took a sip, waiting.
The server appeared before I could answer, so I made her wait a few minutes longer while I gave her my drink order. “Could I get a Sprite, please?”
“Absolutely!” the waitress, who’s name tag read “Emily”, said. “I’ll be right back with your drink and to take your order.”
I opened the menu in front of me, perusing it while Sage tapped her foot with impatience. “What are you getting?” I asked her without looking up from the menu. I was trying to buy myself some time before the inquisition.
“The cheeseburger. It’s to die for and I’ve been craving it all week. The home fries are also good.”
“Hmm, alright. I’ll take your word for it,” I closed the menu and sat back, lifting my eyes to look at her. She arched a brow at me, her impatience clear as day. “It was fine. Sort of.”
“Sort of?” she leaned forward, but before I could start filling her in, Emily was back with my Sprite.
“Have you ladies figured out what you’d like to order yet?” she asked, setting the cold glass down in front of me.
“We’ll both have cheeseburgers and home fries. Extra pickles and onion on mine,” Sage answered.
“Oooh, extra pickles on mine too, but hold the onion,” I made a face. At Sage’s questioning look when Emily left, I explained. “Onion is one of those foods that isn’t sitting well with me. Even the idea of onions makes me feel sick.”
Sage nodded with understanding, then leaned forward. “So, spill it. What do you mean it’s ‘sort of’ fine?”
“I don’t know,” I sighed, not really wanting to get into it all in the middle of a diner on a Friday evening.
I didn’t know anybody around me, but they probably knew Noah, or the Wood family.
“I really didn’t think this through. I mean, his entire family works there, so I’m not just keeping a secret from him, I’m keeping a secret from them all. What if they hate me for it?”
“They’re not going to hate you for it,” Sage rolled her eyes at my dramatics. “The Woods are easy going, family-oriented people. They’ll understand your…situation.”
“Sure, but that’s providing he’s not the, you know,” I looked around, checking to see if anyone was listening in, but the patrons around us all seemed pretty involved in their own meals and conversations.
“Whether he is or isn’t the father, they won’t fire you for being pregnant, Nellie. First of all, it’s illegal to fire someone for being pregnant in Canada. And if you really wanted to know for sure, why not tell Noah and ask if he’d get a paternity test?”
I chewed on my bottom lip thoughtfully. “I’m not sure I want to know.”
Sage studied me for a moment, considering. “Why not?”
“Because, then I’d have to let him be a part of everything.” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, suddenly feeling like I wanted to crawl out of my skin.
“And that makes you feel…vulnerable? Scared?” Sage was trying to understand, but good luck to her, I didn’t even understand it.
“I guess? I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I always got the impression Noah was a player who didn’t want to settle down. Me strolling into town and saddling him with a kid is the opposite of his preferred bachelor life.”
“There’s a chance he’s the father, and I think you need to give him the opportunity to be there if he wants to. You can’t make that choice for him,” Sage replied.
“I know, but…”
“You work for him now, Nell. You aren’t going to be able to hide this forever, and he’s going to have questions.”
I frowned, not liking what she said, even if it was the truth. At some point, Noah was going to notice my growing belly. Surely, he’d put two and two together and suspect.
“I’ll tell him…eventually,” I managed to say. “I want to wait until I’m absolutely certain it’s going to stick.”
My inkling told me it would, that in one year’s time, I would be the mother to an actual human being, but my fears told me to not get my hopes up. It was early, and so much could go wrong.
It was better to not get my hopes up too much, at least not until I was well into my second trimester.
Noah
I avoided Nellie as much as I possibly could for the next two days, seeing her only when I stopped back in to scarf down some food at lunch and fuel up on coffee.
I kept my distance, letting Charlotte take over on training while I busied myself with the mountain of maintenance tasks outside, or the pile of paperwork in my office downstairs.
To appease Damien I called her references, and I wasn’t surprised at all to hear her former boss Sal thought she’d been an asset to the team and was missing her something fierce.
However, I was surprised when Sal asked after Nellie’s “family emergency” that drove her to up and leave Guelph on such short notice.
I couldn’t avoid her anymore though; we needed to discuss her hours going forward.
It was the holidays, and I’d needed the office help to get through our peak season, but we typically didn’t work New Year’s Day.
Unless a guest had an issue that needed to be dealt with immediately, the office was closed.
When I walked into the office around lunch on Sunday, Nellie was there checking out one of our weekend guests. Charlotte was sitting in the far computer chair, letting Nellie handle the guests by herself, but there if she needed to help.
I debated on leaving, but something kept me rooted in place. Maybe it was seeing Nellie fitting into the fold like she belonged there, like she’d always been there.