Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Nellie
We were sitting around Tabitha’s kitchen island later that evening, after Sage made me fill Tabitha in on everything that had transpired so far between me and Noah.
Tabitha practically swooned when I told her word for word—at Sage’s request—what Noah had said when he found out I was pregnant.
“The fact that he doesn’t even know for sure if he’s the father, and he’s all in!” she squealed, practically jumping up and down. “I’m so excited for you both, especially for Noah! I feel like the whole town’s been waiting forever for him to settle down with a nice girl.”
“Okay, hold your horses. Who said anything about settling down? We just started dating!” I could feel the familiar panic that a monogamous relationship usually inspired in me rising. Or maybe that was pregnancy related panic, it was difficult to tell.
“I know, but I feel like you guys are endgame,” Tabitha waved my protest away with her hand, as if batting a pesky fly away from her. “I felt it at the Witches’ Ball, and again at the New Year’s party.”
“Tabitha’s highly intuitive.” Sage nodded confidently.
“It’s that Hartley blood,” Tabitha giggled. “It’s diluted, but I can sense out love-matches.”
“Well, so am I!” I protested with a point. “Intuitive, I mean. I get inklings about things.”
“Yeah, but your fear of committed relationships and intimacy tends to block your inklings from working on you in that department,” Sage said.
“I have no problem with intimacy, clearly.” I gestured to my belly. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“Okay, that part you’re okay with. At least until feelings get involved.” She gave me a pointed look.
“Is it too early in our friendship to ask why you have a fear of committed relationships and feelings?” Tabitha asked, leaning against her counter, and looking at me expectantly with wide, honest blue eyes quite like Noah’s. One of the few familial resemblances they seemed to share.
“Ugh, I hate getting into it but basically? My parents aren’t the greatest, and the one relationship I had sucked, and now I run scared because I’m used to being on my own.” I shrugged, summarizing it as much as I could without getting too into it.
“Ah, I see,” Tabitha nodded, pursing her lips thoughtfully. “Well, Noah’s got a touch of commitment-phobia too, although he doesn’t really have an excuse. I mean really, who hasn’t been burned by their high school love?” She rolled her eyes dramatically.
“Oh, so we’re two commitment-phobic people trying to make a go of it. Great. This isn’t a recipe for disaster or anything.”
Tabitha smiled kindly at me. “I think you’ll both be coming from a place of understanding, which is never a bad thing.”
“She’s right,” Sage interjected. “The important thing to remember is to communicate. You feel scared? Tell him. You feel like running for the hills? Tell him.”
“I’m sure he’ll love hearing every other second that I’m having misgivings; it’ll really boost his confidence.”
Tabitha smirked. “His ego could use a little deflating, I’m sure it’ll be good for him.”
“When is your next date?” Sage asked.
“This weekend.” I rolled my shoulders, trying to work out the kinks in them. My body was a little achy today, especially after spending most of the day in a near-constant state of tension.
“What are you guys going to do?” Sage asked.
“No clue, I don’t have the energy to plan dates. My idea of a perfect date would be staying in and wearing sweatpants, but I don’t think we’re there yet. We’re still trying to impress each other.”
Sage snorted with laughter, then covered her mouth in embarrassment. “Ugh, did your sinuses get all screwed up while pregnant? Or is that a me thing? It happened with Daphne, too.”
“Ah, the classic pregnancy rhinitis.” Tabitha nodded. “I had it with the twins, but not with Bryson.”
As if she summoned them, the twins raced into the kitchen, with Daphne trailing behind them.
“Can we get a snack? We’re super hungry,” Brielle said, peering up at her mother with hopeful eyes.
“Okay, but you’ve already had cookies, so you can have fruit or veggies. What’s it going to be, girls?” Tabitha asked, opening the refrigerator and looking over her shoulder. The three girls exchanged a look with one another, as if deliberating.
“Fruit,” Brielle answered for everyone, and Daphne and Bella nodded in agreement. Tabitha’s lips twitched as she pulled out a Tupperware full of fruit and set it on the counter and grabbed three plates.
“You can eat your snack in the living room, but please bring the plates back when you’re done,” she said, putting a mixture of honey dew, cantaloupe, watermelon, and berries on each plate.
“Okay!” the girls said in unison, grabbing their plates and heading back to the living room.
Tabitha turned to face us again. “I think you guys should go to Juan in a Million. They have the best chimichangas and enchiladas, and they were featured in an episode of Food Fanatics!”
“I second that suggestion,” Sage nodded enthusiastically. “The food is delicious, and it’s more casual than The Harvest.”
“We’ll see. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds delicious, but I think we need to go somewhere a little more private. We need to talk.”
“I thought you were having issues not jumping his bones at work. Are you sure you want to go somewhere more private with him?”
“I’d like to think I have some restraint,” I frowned, but Sage raised a valid point. “We do need to talk, though, and the last thing I need is for the entire town to catch wind of things.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Sage wrinkled her nose, thinking. “Too bad it’s freezing out. There’s a lot to do in Hartwood Creek when it’s warm out. Picnics by the lake, hikes in the woods.”
“You can do stuff in the winter, too,” Tabitha argued. “Ice skating, tobogganing—”
“Things she probably shouldn’t do while pregnant,” Sage pointed out.
“Right, not really that safe. Hmm. What about a romantic horsedrawn carriage ride? Noah has a connection he could use,” Tabitha winked.
“Guys, I’m sure he’s thought of something already. And if not, it doesn’t have to be so grand. We could grab something to eat and go for a walk or a drive. The important thing is we need to talk about how all this is going to work.”
Noah
The rest of the week passed by in a bit of a blur. James started working on the plumbing in the Sprucewood cottage, and he told me tonight that he should be able to wrap things up with it sooner than anticipated.
On Friday night, I was expected at my parents’ house for dinner, so Nellie and I planned our date for Saturday.
She didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about the prospect of going out again, and kept insisting the date was to talk more about ’the situation’.
Regardless of her trepidation, I was going to make it a good one.
But first, I had to get through a family dinner. I was fully anticipating an interrogation, of sorts. There was no way that word of Nellie and I dating hadn’t reached my parents yet, especially not with Charlotte knowing.
Damien must have told her Monday night, because she came to work on Tuesday with a smug smile and quizzed me for twenty minutes, until Nellie pulled up. Blessedly, she’d left Nellie alone, but the secret smiles she shot my way every time I interacted with Nellie said it all.
I showed up at my parents’ house a little after six thirty.
They lived in the same house we grew up in, a beautiful, four-bedroom log cabin north of the resort.
My brothers and I maintained the unassumed road that led to their cabin as part of resort management, though Dad was able to keep their property itself maintained.
The cabin was built in the early eighties, using wood milled from the extensive property my dad had inherited from his parents. The resort itself was at the beginning of the property, lining Hartwood Lake and going north into the woods.
Hartwood Creek flowed from behind my parents’ house, sweeping around the back and travelling through the woods, connecting my property and Damien’s, as well as the property that had belonged to our grandparents and been passed down to Easton.
The creek went all the way to the northeast side of town.
Easton was already there, and so was Damien, Charlotte, and the girls. I’d been the last to arrive because I’d gotten held up at the resort answering a guest’s questions.
“What took you so long? We almost started eating without you,” Easton said when I finally walked in and took off my coat.
“City folks,” I sighed, shaking my head. Everyone at the table let out a murmur of sympathy.
“Was that the couple in the Whispering Pines cottage? Yeah, called it soon as I saw their electric vehicle pull in.” Easton chuckled.
“And yet, you left me to deal with it.”
“You’re the best at dealing with disgruntled guests,” Easton pointed out. “Damien scares the shit out of them, and I have a hard time not laughing in their faces.”
“That’s true,” Charlotte agreed. “I’ve had to come to the rescue a few times when Easton’s dealing with a guest. They don’t take too kindly to being laughed at.”
“Exactly.” Easton pointed at Charlotte with a smirk. “I can’t help it that my face reveals my thoughts. Damien’s the same, only his face reveals his want to murder anyone who talks to him. So, it falls on you, brother dearest, to handle the difficult guests.”
“How is the new girl at handling guests?” Mom asked, setting a serving bowl of salad down at the table.
She’d made an obscene amount of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, along with a large Caesar salad and homemade garlic bread.
Spaghetti and meatballs were the girls’ favourite meal, and Mom often cooked for their palates.
“Yeah, Noah, how’s the new girl at handling guests?” Easton smirked, ignoring Damien when he turned to scowl at him in warning. He tilted his head towards his daughters as he scooped some pasta onto their plates.
“From what I’ve seen, she can handle her own,” Charlotte interjected, coming to my rescue with a sympathetic smile. “She’s picked up on the job quickly, I don’t even have to check on her anymore.”
“Definitely an improvement from Jeannine,” Damien shocked me by putting in his two cents’ worth. “At least she shows up when scheduled.”
“Yeah, that’s definitely a perk.” It made me feel relieved that my brothers and Charlotte all seemed happy with Nellie as an employee.
“But that’s not the only perk, right, Noah?” Easton was still goading me, and I sighed. If I didn’t come clean soon, Easton would probably blurt it out for me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mom asked, picking up on the back-and-forth tension.
“We’re kind of seeing each other,” I admitted, taking the bowl of spaghetti off my father to serve myself. “It’s a fairly new development, but we like each other.”
“Oh.”
I could tell my mom was at a loss for words. I knew she was probably thinking about how I hadn’t had a serious relationship in years, and it was no secret that she wanted me to date seriously again. I don’t think she expected me to start dating our new employee.
Mom would love more grandchildren, a fact that she often told us. Damien’s girls were getting older, and I knew she missed the baby stage. But more than anything, she worried about her two remaining bachelor sons, wondering if we’d ever find love and settle down.
It didn’t escape me that if I had it my way, both her wishes would come true; I’d be settling down and she’d get a new baby grandchild to love. I knew it wouldn’t matter to her either, whether or not the baby was biologically mine.
“Are you sure it’s wise? To date an employee?” she asked as she pulled out her chair at the head of the table nearest the kitchen. Her tone was cautious and delicate.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, grabbing a piece of garlic bread and swirling it around in the sauce. “I’ve never dated an employee before, so this is entirely new to me.”
“I’m glad to see you’re interested in dating again, but be careful. We might be a family-owned resort, but there are still power dynamics in place you need to consider. Your relationship could create an unfair advantage or disadvantage. It could also cause tension between other employees.”
“You’re basically the unofficial human resources manager, Mom,” Easton pointed out with a smirk. “Can’t you draw up some kind of paperwork?”
“I mean, we could probably find a template online,” Charlotte said, thoughtfully. “A written agreement, for if things turn south for you both.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary.” The little food I’d eaten already was sitting heavily in my stomach.
Nellie was already apprehensive about the boss-employee dynamic, and she’d been worried about losing her job over the pregnancy.
I didn’t think my family would consider it an unfair advantage to keep her employed regardless, but would the rest of our staff feel the same?
Or would they feel like I was showing favouritism?
Mom tilted her head, studying me for several beats and nodding. “Well, from here on out, make sure Damien handles any employee issues she may have. Time off requests, that sort of thing.”
Damien’s jaw clenched, but he nodded in agreement.
I nodded too, realizing we’d have to fill him in sooner rather than later about the pregnancy situation so that he could accommodate Nellie’s appointments without being a total prick to her.
I’d have to talk to her about it tomorrow, which could put a damper on the whole date.
Inwardly sighing, I continued eating while the conversation moved from my dating life to the girls’ extra-curricular activities. Both Aria and Ronan played hockey for the Hartwood Creek U7 team and had several tournaments lined up. Our family tried to be there as much as possible to cheer them on.