Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Noah
Keeping my distance from Nellie was a lot more challenging than I anticipated.
Of course, I wasn’t expecting it to be easy by any means.
With her being an employee of ours, I knew I’d see her at lunch and several times throughout the day.
But I wasn’t counting on how much I gravitated to her, and how hard I’d have to fight myself to keep that distance.
Nellie had picked up on all the roles and tasks of her job with an ease that didn’t surprise me, but did disappoint me a little. It was like I’d been secretly hoping she’d struggle, and I’d have to be near her to help. But after the first few weeks, she didn’t need much guidance at all.
It was for the best, though. It was challenging being close to her. Every time I smelled her shampoo, rational thought seemed to vacate the premises, and I was inundated with inappropriate urges to reach out and touch her.
I was trying so hard to remain professional and not think about how badly I’d wanted to kiss her at the New Year’s party three weeks ago, when she called me boss and all but ran out on me.
After that night, I made sure to avoid her as much as possible without coming across as rude.
I pushed my lunch until later, citing all the maintenance work as my reason for it.
Damien and Easton could see right through that, but I didn’t care.
It was more for my sake. I could feel my resolve weakening.
At the end of the day on Tuesday, my resolve was gone, and I found myself walking into the main office to give her a paycheck.
Cheques were dated biweekly on Wednesdays, and while most of our employees opted for direct deposit, I still hadn’t received Nellie’s banking information.
I could have left her paycheque in an envelope and pinned it to her timesheet, like I did with pay stubs for everyone else, but I couldn’t resist the pull of seeing her again, especially after spending the last day doing payroll in my office downstairs.
Plus…I was getting tired of keeping my distance.
“Oh, there you are! I was afraid I was going to have to come hunt you down before I left.” She let out a nervous laugh.
“Everything okay?” I asked, pausing by the counter.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she took a breath, as if bracing herself. Her brown eyes skirting away from me, then she quickly pulled them back. “I have a follow-up appointment on Friday, and I was wondering if I could head out early that day. I could come in Saturday morning to make up for it.”
“Of course, you can. There’s no need to come in on the Saturday,” I said, studying the subtle cues of her discomfort and anxiety.
I wondered if these appointments had anything to do with the family emergency her old boss had asked about.
“In the future, if you have to schedule any more appointments, Fridays are usually our busiest day for weekend check-ins, so the beginning of the week would be better.”
“Okay, that’s totally fair,” Nellie nodded, biting her lower lip. “I’ll make sure anything I schedule from here on out won’t be on a Friday.”
I smiled softly at her, hoping to ease her discomfort. “Here’s your paycheque.” I said, passing her the envelope. “Don’t forget to grab me a void cheque from the bank, so we can get you set up with direct deposit.”
“Right, thanks,” she took it, our fingertips briefly touching until she pulled her hand back.
I could leave. I’d done what I set out to do. But I found myself lingering, wanting to bask in her company a little longer.
“Any exciting plans this weekend?” I asked, leaning on the counter, and shooting her a flirtatious smile.
“Not really. I need to get caught up on laundry and do some grocery shopping.” She shrugged, her expression anticipative. “I might do a girls’ night with Sage.”
“Sounds like my weekend. Aside from brews with the boys Friday night, I’ll be doing all the mundane errands I’ve put off the last few months.”
“Fun, fun,” Nellie said.
“Maybe I’ll see you at the grocery store again,” I teased, referring to the last time we ran into each other there when she was new in town, and I had foolishly not recognized her.
“Yeah, maybe. It is a small town,” she smirked.
Before I could think of a witty retort, the phone rang, and Nellie set to answering it and booking another reservation for April.
I left her to it, not wanting to distract her further.
Friday night at The Quarter Lounge, I sat at a table with Parker, Nix, Auston, Donovan, and Kaleb, one of Nix’s employees that occasionally joined us.
I was nursing a beer, listening to Kaleb recount some hilarious mishap that happened on the jobsite with one of their new employees, and doing my best to not think about Nellie and what she was—or wasn’t—doing.
Earlier that afternoon, she’d avoided eye contact with me when I came in to take over the phones so she could leave.
She’d thanked me, but there was something concerning about the way she drew into herself.
I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of appointment she had, and why it’d brought about such tension in her.
If the guys noticed my unusual silence, they didn’t call attention to it, and for that I was grateful. But that peace only lasted until Nix, Kaleb, Donovan, and Auston went to lay claim to one of the pool tables when it became available.
Parker cornered me the moment we stood to join them. “You’ve barely said a thing all night. What’s going on, Noah?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” I said, trying to brush it aside.
“Don’t bullshit me, you’ve been weird ever since the party. What’s up? Are you that pissed I commented on your hair? Cause I’m sorry. Tabitha gave me shit for that. I didn’t realize it was such a sore spot for you.”
“I couldn’t give a fuck about that,” I scowled at him.
He sent me a pointed look, and I knew my reaction wasn’t helping.
I sighed. “I’m tired. It’s been a busy few weeks at the resort.
” And it had been. Between the winter storms we’d had, and the fact that we were booked solid all throughout winter break, I’d been spending a lot of time at the resort.
We would be seeing a bit of a decline over the next few weeks as we transitioned into the off-season, and if the weather cooperated, maybe I could dial it back a bit and take a rest, but I really had been tied up there.
I’d been busy before—every peak-season, for that matter, and I hadn’t really let myself feel the exhaustion of that.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew that a lot of my current exhaustion came from avoiding a certain brown-eyed beauty that had been steadily occupying my thoughts since her return to Hartwood Creek, and my life.
“Okay, well. You know you can talk to me, right man?” Parker asked, putting a heavy hand on my shoulder.
I willed myself not to shake off his touch. “I know, and I appreciate it. But there’s nothing to say.” I assured him.
“If you say so,” Parker said, looking at me as if he didn’t quite buy it. “But, I mean, if this was about a certain new tenant of mine…”
“It’s not,” I all but growled, my eyes narrowing.
“Tabitha seems to think so,” Parker raised his hands in a don’t-shoot-the-messenger way. “I’m just saying, if it was about a certain new tenant, you could talk to me about that. You could also come ‘round a little more. I miss having beers in the garage.”
“It’s a little harder to do now that I’m not living above your garage,” I pointed out dryly. Parker looked a little defeated. “But yeah, I’ll try to come around more,” I added, feeling a little guilty.
I used to see my friends more than one night every couple of weeks, but when my parents decided to retire a couple years ago, my responsibilities at the resort increased and I pulled back a little.
It wasn’t intentional, it was a lack of work and life balance.
I still showed up to our guys’ nights at The Quarter Lounge, but I didn’t drop by randomly when I was in town.
Usually because I didn’t make it to town often.
It'd been different when I lived above Parker’s garage. We’d had plenty of beers in his garage, and late night hangs in his backyard by the fire pit. With my cabin so close to the resort, there wasn’t much of an excuse for me to be in town unless I was grocery shopping or running errands.
“We miss you,” Parker said, trying to shrug it off. “Besides, if you did come around more, you’d see Nellie.”
I sighed. Parker knew me better than even my brothers knew me. “Yeah, well. That situation is complicated. She works for me, and she doesn’t seem interested in pursuing anything other than a working relationship, and maybe a reluctant friendship.”
“I don’t know about that,” Parker said, taking a sip of his beer. His eyes sparkled like he knew something.
“You guys playing, or what?” Nix called out from the pool table before I could ask Parker to elaborate. The game was set up and they were waiting for us to join.
My friend grinned, like he knew he was leaving me with a thousand unanswered questions, and clapped my shoulder and taking off, leaving me to reflect on his tone and expression.
Nellie
Our girls’ night in had begun around six with pizza from Pizza Picasso.
Then when Nix left, Daphne, Sage and I painted our nails and put on facial masks.
Daphne chattered about all the exciting things happening in her world.
The little girl talked until her eyes got heavy, then Sage helped her wash off the face goop and tucked her into bed.
We had an impressive spread out for snacking, even though we’d consumed an entire cheese pizza already. Our usual wine had been replaced with sparkling water, which we drank out of wine glasses—because, well, why not?
“So, have you thought anymore about how you’re going to tell Noah?” Sage asked over the movie that we weren’t paying attention to. It was mostly on for background noise.