Chapter 7
After a restless night, Jesse woke before dawn and stepped beneath a cold shower.
She’d spent hours racking her brain for the tiniest nugget of a memory that might give her a starting point for her search.
Had Victoria mentioned the name of an old friend or a distant family member?
Had anyone sent her a Christmas card? When she came up blank she moved to any mention of Victoria’s favorite restaurant, or vacation spot, or where she liked to shop before arriving in Canton.
Something that might at least give a clue to a general region.
Eventually, she’d conceded defeat.
Victoria was too careful to slip. Or Jesse was too indifferent to care.
Probably a combination of the two.
She was pulling on a pair of jean shorts and crop top when her phone pinged with a text from Noah, asking to swing by the bar before he went to work.
Relief blasted through her as she jogged down the narrow staircase. After hours of brooding on the past, she was in dire need of a distraction. Plus, it meant that the Tap Room would soon be on the market and she could look forward to a future with Parker.
Something that couldn’t come soon enough, she grimly assured herself.
Reaching the bottom step, she heard the soft tap on the front door and hurried to pull it open. Morning sunlight tumbled into the room, along with a fresh scent of morning air that cleared the cobwebs from her mind. With a smile, she stepped back, motioning the large man to enter.
“Morning, Noah.”
Wearing a blue uniform shirt with Allen Lumberyard stitched on the top pocket and a pair of work pants with a leather tool holster belted around his waist, Noah stepped over the threshold.
“I hope this isn’t too early?”
“Nope. I’ve been up for hours.”
Jesse closed the door and reached over to flip on the overhead lights. Noah stood next to her, big and solid and smelling like warm cedar. He glanced down, his brows tugging together.
“Not to be rude, but you look exhausted.”
Jesse ran her fingers through the short strands of her damp hair. “I’m not sleeping very well.”
“I suppose it must be hard being back here.”
“It’s more weird than anything.”
His frown deepened. “Weird?”
She hesitated. She hated sharing her emotions with anyone, but there was something soothingly familiar about Noah.
He reminded her of a time when she didn’t keep her heart so carefully guarded.
Besides, she was bubbling with curiosity after seeing him with Reese yesterday.
If she wanted him to answer her questions, she was going to have to open up. At least a little.
“Since coming back to town I don’t know who I am,” she confessed. “One minute I feel like I’m an intruder staying in a place I barely recognize, and the next I’m a teenage girl who used to sneak beer from the cooler and meet up with my friends at the old dock.”
He studied her upturned face. “I remember that girl.”
A wistful regret tugged at her heart. “Honestly, I’d forgotten all about her.”
“Maybe you should stay around long enough to find her again.”
“No. I can’t stay.” She glanced around the silent bar.
“The emptiness of this place is suffocating me. I still expect to hear my dad’s laugh when I walk into a room, or his footsteps walking down the stairs.
Even the scent of him lingers. Like his spirit is caught between this world and the next. It’s … disturbing.”
“I’m sorry.” He reached to touch her arm. “I can’t even imagine.”
“No one can.”
“True.”
Jesse forced her attention back to Noah. “That’s why I need to move on.”
“I get it,” he assured her. “Do you have somewhere to move on to? Or someone?”
“Both. I have a boyfriend. We’re going to buy a nightclub in Chicago.”
He arched his brows, as if surprised by her answer. “Nice.”
Jesse had a flashback to the sleazy nightclub that smelled like defeat. “Not yet. It’s going to take a lot of work. But hopefully, it will be a success.”
Noah paused, as if he sensed her lack of enthusiasm. “Make sure you have a thorough inspection done before you offer a down payment,” he warned. “And double-check any places they recently painted or replastered. They might be trying to hide water damage.”
“You sound like a guy who’s done a lot of repairs,” she teased.
“It’s criminal how people will cover up major structural problems. And real estate agents aren’t always honest.”
There was an edge in his voice that suggested his words were personal. A perfect opening.
“Are you referring to Reese Skylar?”
“Reese?” Heat touched his cheeks. “Not specifically.”
“I saw her at your house yesterday.” She shrugged when he sent her a startled glance. “I was walking back from the cemetery and happened to notice her on your porch.”
His jaw clenched, as if he was gritting his teeth. “She stops by every week or so to harass me about selling the house.”
Harass? That was a strong word. “I take it you’re not interested?”
“No. And I’ve told her that. A hundred times.”
“I suppose persistence is a necessary quality in a real estate agent,” Jesse murmured, wondering if Reese was being paid extra to try to convince Noah to sell. Or if there was something else driving her desire to stay in contact with this man.
“Persistence is one thing. She’s—” Noah bit off his insult, heading toward the nearby bar as he reached into his tool holster to pull out some sort of meter. “Never mind.”
Jesse followed as he pressed the flashlight app on his phone, his expression grim as he used a meter to test the electricity before turning his attention to the plumbing beneath the sink.
“It sounds personal,” she insisted, ignoring his obvious reluctance to discuss the pretty real estate agent.
“Probably.” His voice was muffled as he stuck his head in the cabinet. “No one knows better than me that the house is teetering toward the edge of collapse. I keep patching it up, but it’s a money pit. It would take a fortune I don’t have to get it back in shape.”
“So why keep it?”
He sat on the floor, sweeping the flashlight along the baseboards, no doubt searching for mold. Or maybe warps in the floorboards. He paused to make a couple of notes in his phone before shoving himself to his feet.
“At first I wasn’t ready to admit defeat,” he reluctantly acknowledged.
“With the house?”
“With the dream it represented.”
“You mean your marriage?” Jesse demanded.
“Yeah.” Noah continued with his inspection, circling the large space with slow steps as he stopped to make occasional notes. “I had this image of a white picket fence and kids playing in the backyard. It never occurred to me that I would be living there alone.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “Shit happens.”
Jesse stopped in the center of the floor. Noah had his back to her, but there was no missing the raw regret in his voice. He was still mourning the loss of his marriage.
“I said no one understood how I felt when I stepped into this empty building, but I suppose you do, in a way,” she admitted. “You were starting your family and then everything was snatched away. Like a rug being pulled from beneath your feet.”
He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes dark with pain. “That’s exactly what happened.”
She held his gaze. “I probably shouldn’t ask, but since we’re sharing, is it awkward when your ex comes back to town? I know from painful experience that everyone in Canton is always hoping for some drama.”
Noah shook his head. “That’s not a problem for Kelly. She never comes back to Canton.”
“Never?”
“Not since she left.”
Jesse didn’t hide her surprise that Kelly would walk away without looking back. Ironic, considering that was exactly what she’d done. Of course she had no reason to stay.
“What about her family?”
“Her parents divorced when she was young. Her father moved to St. Louis and he never bothered to stay in touch with his kids. Kelly reached out a couple of times after we got married, but he ignored her calls. I think being ghosted by her dad hurt Kelly more than she wanted to admit.”
“And her mother?”
“She’s in the nursing home. Early onset dementia. It was a grueling decline, until she didn’t recognize anyone. Including Kelly.”
“Tough,” Jesse breathed. She didn’t know the family, but it was a sharp reminder that everyone had their burdens to bear. “Really tough.”
Noah continued with his inspection, heading toward the back of the building.
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t as sympathetic as I should have been.
Kelly was struggling with a dozen upheavals in her life, not only being a new wife and watching her mother slip away.
She was fighting with her brothers, who blamed her for forcing them to sell their grandparents’ farm to help support their mother’s care.
I think they expected her to become a personal caregiver so they didn’t have to make any sacrifices.
In the end, Kelly had to threaten them with a lawyer.
After that, they stopped talking to one another. It was all too much for her to bear.”
“So she disappeared?”
“Exactly.” He glanced back to send her a wry smile. “Perhaps we really do have a lot in common.”
Jesse didn’t bother to point out that at least he knew where to find his ex-wife.
Or at least she assumed he knew how to find her.
Jesse abruptly frowned. It was strange that Kelly hadn’t been back, even if her mother didn’t recognize her.
What about her brothers? Or friends? Had they cut her off when she ran off with another man?
Or was she just embarrassed to show her face in town?
“Okay.” Noah abruptly broke into her churning thoughts. “I’ve made a list for the main area of the bar. It’s mostly minor stuff. Do you want me to head down to the basement?”
She nodded. “It’s really more of a cellar, so be careful. My father was constantly whacking his head when he went down there.”
“Why don’t you turn on some water so I can find the leaks?”