8. Lizzie
EIGHT
LIZZIE
My job wasn’t all that exciting, but it paid the bills and allowed me to pick up and drop off my kids every day. I sat behind a glossy white reception desk at a local architecture firm and managed the thousand and one tasks that the higher-ups threw my way.
I stood next to the gigantic filing cabinet that held the architectural plans for the firm’s projects, checking that the most up-to-date drawings were printed and filed correctly. My coworker Laurel sidled up to me. She was a beautiful brunette with the biggest blue eyes I’d ever seen, and a talented architect to boot, and I would definitely have been jealous of her if she weren’t so lovable.
“How’s the kid?” she asked.
“Zach’s all better. Good Thanksgiving weekend?”
“Ate way too much, drank more, and moved as little as possible. It was amazing.” When I laughed, she tipped her head toward the exit. “Coffee break? I need to get away from my computer for twenty minutes or I’ll go crazy.”
“Sure,” I said. “Just let me finish this up and I’ll meet you at the front desk.”
A few minutes later, we were bundled up in our jackets and walking the couple of blocks that would take us to the Four Cups Café. It was a cute little coffee shop on Heart’s Cove’s main drag that boasted the best baked goods in the county. I was unsurprised to find it bustling with people, the three employees behind the desk clad in their usual pink T-shirts with glittery writing that proclaimed them Heart’s Cove Hotties .
We got our drinks to go but ended up at one of the tables near the wall, where my eyes were drawn to a landscape painting of one of the cliffs on the coast. I’d been out there to take photos eons ago and they’d turned out pretty good. That had been a long time ago, though, before life and kids got in the way. My camera hadn’t made it out of its case in years.
Laurel regaled me with details of the proposal she was working on for the refurbishment of the Heart’s Cove Hotel. “I think it could turn out really good, but I don’t know how serious the twins are about fixing the place up.”
“Is it true they’re getting a new manager in?”
“Those are the rumors,” Laurel said with a shrug. She glanced over when a man called out toward the kitchen, and one of the owners—the redhead, Simone—came out with a giant smile on her face. She wrapped her arms around the man and gave him a kiss, then towed him toward the entrance with a glint in her eye. I watched the two of them disappear through a door just beside the plate-glass windows at the front of the café.
Laurel shook her head. “What I wouldn’t give for a man who looks like that to look at me like that ,” she said.
Sean's handsome face popped into my head. Quiet, handsome Sean who went out of his way to bring me a portion of Thanksgiving stuffing. What I wouldn’t give for him to look at me with one-tenth of the love and desire that Simone’s husband had just shown her.
But Sean wasn’t for me. I knew that. He might, however, be the perfect man for Laurel.
He was a single dad, which might be a dealbreaker for Laurel, who had no kids. But she was sassy and opinionated, and I thought she’d be a good foil for him. Besides, she loved fitness; she was always telling me about the gym and her weekend hikes and her winter ski trips.
They fit together in my head, and I had a feeling they’d get along. She’d tease him out of his shell in a way that I didn’t think I could. He’d probably treat her like a queen.
I ran my finger along the lid of my coffee cup, and for a brief moment, considered saying nothing. We were coworkers, after all. It wasn’t my place to set her up with anyone.
And, okay, there was a part of me that didn’t want to set him up with anyone, either. It was ridiculous, really, because he’d pretty much asked me to follow through on the whole matchmaking thing before he left my place on Friday.
Yes, I was attracted to him. Who wouldn’t be?
It wasn’t like he would ever be interested in me. And he’d made that comment about my cooking—if he found someone half as good as me, he’d be happy.
But not actually me. Never me.
Laurel and Sean fit together because they were beautiful and outdoorsy and fit. I was a little too curvy to be fashionable, and, well, I was a mom. Everything I did, every choice I made was done with my kids in mind. There simply wasn’t enough room in my life for romance, even if there were a man who saw me and saw what he liked. Which, I’d learned, wasn’t likely.
I’d learned my lesson with Isaac. It was better to be on my own than to be dragged down by a man who didn’t care.
So, even though I wanted to hoard Sean for myself like some kind of deranged dragon, I knew that he and I could never, ever, not in a million years, ever be together.
And that wasn’t even considering that he was my brother’s best friend.
It really was a never, ever, ever.
So I met Laurel’s gaze and said, “Actually, an old friend just arrived in town, and as soon as I saw him, I thought about how the two of you would get along.”
Laurel’s brows lifted, and interest sparked in her gaze. “Go on.”
“He’s my brother’s friend, and he has a son. Is that a deal breaker?”
“Not unless the son is a terror or there’s serious baby mama drama.”
I huffed out a laugh. “The son is wonderful, and I can try to find out about the mom.”
“What does he do?”
“Carpenter. Just got a job with Grant Greene.”
Laurel hummed. “Works with his hands.”
“And they are nice hands,” I informed her.
Laurel’s lips curled into a smile as her sharp gaze read me like a book. “Are you sure you want to set us up, Lizzie? Sounds like you might have a thing for him.”
I took a sip of my coffee and gave her a flat look. “I do not have a thing for him. He’s my brother’s best friend, and he’s not interested in me in the slightest.”
“But are you interested in him?”
“No,” I lied and, seeing Laurel’s eyebrow lift in a skeptical arch, I added, “but he is very handsome. I’m not blind.”
She laughed and leaned back in her chair, shrugging. “Maybe. I haven’t been on a date in a while. Couldn’t hurt.”
A gentle kind of grief swept through me, and I mercilessly beat it back. Sean was not for me. He never would be. The sooner I realized that, the better. “Great,” I said, forcing a smile on my lips. “That’s settled.”
“I’m not making any promises,” Laurel warned.
“Neither am I. And neither is he.”
She nodded. “Good. Let’s head back. I think I can face my computer again. Oh! And send me a picture. I want to see if he’s as hot as you seem to think.”
I grinned. “I’ll work on getting one,” I said, then gathered my things and followed her out the door.
The opportunity to get that picture presented itself just a few hours later, when I waited outside the school gates for my kids to come out. A black pickup truck pulled up on the other side of the road, and I spotted Sean's chiseled profile through the driver’s window. My mouth went dry.
Shaking myself, I lifted my arm in a wave when he met my gaze, then smiled when he made his way across the street toward me.
“I have news,” I announced cheerfully.
His gaze was suspicious. “Oh?”
“My friend is interested.”
“Interested in what?” His brow furrowed, and he watched me with green-blue eyes in a way that made me dizzy. There was something about being the focus of his attention, of being seen.
I knew I was torturing myself by indulging in this attraction. Still, it was hard to shake the giddiness of being so near to him.
“Interested in you,” I answered, laughing.
His brows jumped. “That was quick.”
“There’s a dearth of devastatingly handsome men in this town,” I said, which wasn’t exactly true, but it fell out of my mouth regardless. “Not hard to get a woman interested.”
“Devastatingly handsome, huh?” he said, leaning against my car as he crossed his arms. He wore a tan quilted workman’s jacket that was open at the throat. When he tilted his head to pierce me with his eyes again, my knees went a little wobbly. “Is that your opinion, or hers?”
“Neither. It’s just a fact.”
Amusement seemed to glimmer in his gaze. “I’m not sure that’s how it works, Lizzie.”
“Are you trying to get me to admit that I think you’re handsome?” I leaned a hip against my car to stop myself from keeling over. My heart thumped a little too hard.
“Maybe,” he admitted. “Do you?”
“Fishing for compliments, Hardy?”
“Just trying to get a read on you.” His lips tilted. Oh boy.
I tore my gaze away from him and stared at the front of the school. “Let me ask you this. When you look in the mirror, what do you see?”
Despite my best efforts, my gaze was drawn back to him as he rubbed the side of his jaw with a broad palm. “Depends on the day. Few more wrinkles than I’m used to. More silver in my beard these days.”
I rolled my eyes. “Give me a break.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I turned to face him and swept my hand up and down in his direction. My eyes bulged. He was a perfect male specimen, and those wrinkles and grays only made him hotter. “Do I really need to spell it out for you?”
“Maybe I want you to.” That tilt returned to his lips.
My breath left me in a huff. “You’re hot, Sean. Okay? Happy?”
His smile spread, and I felt a little woozy. “You sure know how to make a compliment sound like an insult, Lizzie.”
“Stop calling me that.” I scowled at him and turned back to the school so I didn’t have to look at his stupid, handsome face. A face that looked real nice with a big smile on it. So nice it made my heart bang against my ribs, even though I knew he would never think of me that way. When he said my name, it made me feel things that I wasn’t used to feeling. The roughness in his voice made my name sound positively sinful on his tongue, and I absolutely would not indulge how good it felt. No way.
“You want me to stop calling you by your name?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I just do.” I crossed my arms and frowned, staring at the school’s entrance like I could will it to open. I knew I was being ridiculous. I knew I probably sounded like a maniac. But I felt all out of sorts from being so close to him, and all he’d done was call me by my own name and do it with those lips and that mouth and those eyes.
Silence stretched between us for a few moments, until Sean said, quietly, “Have I done something to upset you?”
All the fight left me in a rush. I shook my head. “No. Long day. Sorry.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I know I’m hot shit. I just wanted to hear you say it.”
My lips twitched. “That does make me feel better. Thank you.” I could feel his gaze on the side of my face, that focused attention that made me feel somehow prettier and more aware and more womanly and just more , but I kept my gaze facing forward and pretended not to.
More cars had arrived, and parents hung around the gates in clumps. A lot of the moms were sending curious gazes our way, and all the attention was beginning to get to me. So, when Cindy Reynolds detached herself from the clump of gorgeous moms standing not far away, I was both relieved for the distraction and annoyed at her for interrupting.
“Hi Liz,” she greeted, then immediately turned to Sean. “I’m Cindy. My girl is in the fourth grade. Saw you here last week but didn’t have time to say hello. You and your son just moved to town, right?”
When she stuck her hand out, Sean took it. I pretended that it didn’t bother me, even though it did, which was another sign that I was going insane. I had no claim on this man. Actually, I had less than no claim. I knew he wasn’t into me—he’d basically said so himself—and he was my brother’s best and oldest friend. And on top of that, I was trying to set him up with someone else, and one of the options that had popped into my head when I’d first run into him at the pharmacy was the woman I currently wanted to decapitate for daring to shake his hand.
I was not having a good day.
They exchanged pleasantries, and the petty, awful part of me loved that Cindy didn’t get any of those glittering looks or half-tilted smiles that I’d gotten from him. Which was a problem, because it wasn’t like he’d meant anything by them in the first place. I knew he was quieter and more withdrawn than the average man. He was probably just more comfortable with me because he’d known me longer.
When the school doors opened and finally let out the tide of running students, I let out a relieved breath. Hazel found me first, her backpack hanging off her arms as she sprinted toward me with a smile on her face. She gave me a quick hug, said hi to Sean, and dove into the car. Zach wasn’t far behind, and Cindy’s daughter, thankfully, came out in the same rush.
When Mikey emerged and made his way to Sean, he dipped his chin at me in goodbye.
“Wait!” I said, and dug my phone out of my pocket. “For my friend.” I pointed it at him and clicked a photo, then spun it around so he could see.
He blinked at the screen, then at me.
“I’ll send you a picture of my friend Laurel,” I promised. “It’s only fair.”
He nodded, and I thought I saw a tiny spark of amusement in his gaze when we exchanged numbers, and we parted ways.