Chapter Twenty-Four
Keeley
“You’re here!” The door to Serendipi-Tea flies open, and a flushed Nori stands in the doorway, beaming. Her eyes move from me to Beckett next to me, and her smile grows. “You’re both here.”
“Why are you so out of breath?” I ask my friend with a teasing wrinkle of my nose. “Did we interrupt you and Cash having a hot and heavy make out session or something?”
Nori laughs. “No, no, we were just setting up the chairs. If we’d been making out, I would have never answered the door.”
“Fair,” Beckett says with a grin. Nori grins right back at him.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Beckett. I’ve heard so much about you.” She gives me a wink, and I feel my cheeks going fire-engine red.
“She’s heard only normal things,” I jump in. “About you being my neighbor and… stuff.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Becks gives me a teasing little nudge, then extends a hand to Nori. “Nice to officially meet you, too, Nori. I’ve also heard a lot about you… and your tea and coffee shop. Everyone always raves about it. I’m excited to finally check it out.”
Nori beams with pride as she shakes his hand. “That’s so nice of you to say, Beckett.”
“Please, call me Becks.”
“You are such a charmer,” I mutter under my breath as Nori ushers us inside.
He’s walking just a step behind me, and he dips his head so his lips are close to my ear. “Are you charmed, Keeley?”
A shiver rolls through me. “Absolutely not.”
His responding laugh lights me up from the inside.
“Nori, it looks great in here.” I swiftly pirouette to a less shiver-inducing subject as I set my tote bag on the counter and look around the space.
Almost a week has passed since Becks and I went to visit Gramps. Since then, I’ve been hard at work on said article, writing about how Noeleen and Douglas were brought together when she lived in The Serendipity, but ultimately, their love wasn’t written in the stars.
I have a lot of the piece written—and it’s an effort I’m really proud of—but I’m having a hard time knowing where to go next with it.
It’s hard to write towards any kind of conclusion when I don’t know what the moral of the story is.
All I know is that Noeleen and Douglas loved each other, for a time.
And then that love hurt them.
I suppose my lingering question is that I have no idea if loving and losing someone is better than not loving at all.
But tonight, I’m taking a little break from writing, because it is the first official Indie Music Night. The cozy coffee shop looks even cozier than normal. The lights are dimmed atmospherically, and the sofas and loveseats have been pushed closer to make room for extra chairs that have been set out. Nori’s best friend and old roommate, Hayden, has apparently taken over Nori’s task and is setting out more chairs alongside her husband, Jasper.
In the front window, Nori’s boyfriend, Cash, is lying on the floor, maneuvering some wiring around a makeshift stage. Meanwhile, Ezra’s standing on the stage, setting up a microphone.
“Thanks, my friend.” Nori smiles almost nervously. “I’m really hoping it’ll be a success.”
“Everyone is going to lose their minds,” I say confidently. “It’ll be a packed house tonight, and you’ll get a ton of new customers putting your shop on their radar.”
“I hope so.” Nori turns to Beckett. “And I must thank you, Becks, for stepping up to fill the closing slot. I’ve had a few customers come in over the past couple of days who’ve been super excited to experience some authentic Irish music.”
He gives her a crooked grin. And even though Nori is my friend and fully in love with Cash, a strange flicker shimmies through me. It’s not that I don’t want him to smile at Nori… more that I want that smile directed at me. Always.
And I’m not exactly sure what to do with that information.
Nori grins at me knowingly before tugging Becks by the elbow to meet Hayden and Jasper.
I watch Hayden’s eyes move over him appreciatively, which I can totally understand. Becks looks even more gorgeous than usual this evening in a soft blue denim button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to expose his muscular, tanned forearms. After she’s done checking him out, she turns to give me a subtle (not) double thumbs-up.
In response, I roll my eyes at her, and she grins before going back to setting up chairs.
Becks moves on to chat with Cash and Ezra, earning a warm bro-shake thingy from my brother and a huge backslap from Cash. To absolutely no one’s surprise, he’s already charmed by Becks, too.
Funny how Beckett’s been in this town all of five minutes, and he’s already drawn so many people into his orbit.
Nori helps Hayden and Jasper with the chairs, and I’m tasked with lighting a bunch of tealights and placing them strategically on tables. But first, I duck behind the coffee bar and unpack the contents of my tote into one of the fridges.
I’m armed with tealights and approaching one of the back tables when Hayden sidles up behind me.
“He’s hot ,” she says in a teasing, singsong voice as she eyes the stage area, where the boys are working on rigging up sound equipment.
“Mm,” I say, noncommittally.
“Are you guys, like, a thing?”
“Just friends,” I reply primly.
“Really?” She smirks. “Because I heard through the grapevine that you guys have been spending a lot of time together.”
“Bahaha,” I spit out, but my laugh sounds forced, even to my ears. “That’s just gossipy Roberta from the first floor stirring the pot.”
What I don’t say is that over the past week, there have been multiple days when I’ve found myself walking towards Blue Notes after a morning at the library to pay Becks a visit between his lessons, and every night I’ve climbed out onto the fire escape, hoping for another “Insomniacs Anonymous” gathering for two.
And every night, my hopes have come to fruition. Some nights we’ve stayed out there for hours, talking about anything and everything under the darkness of the sky.
Despite what I just said, we have been spending a lot of time together.
Of our own volition, mind you, and not because we were somehow locked somewhere together.
“I don’t know, Keels.” Nori is suddenly at our side. “He keeps looking at you.”
“He does?” I blurt as my gaze flies across the room.
Beckett is, indeed, looking at me. Those hazel-green eyes of his crinkle at the corners as he smiles.
Hayden’s cackle is borderline evil. “Just friends, huh?”
I duck my head and shake it with a laugh.
“I… kinda like him, okay?” I admit under my breath, chipping a little piece of candle wax off the edge of a holder. Make that like him a lot. So much for my thinking I could avoid the smug pretty boy I met in the elevator a few weeks ago.
“I knew it!” Hayden pumps a fist, while Nori lets out a whoop, which she quickly disguises as a weird cough-splutter.
“Y’all are subtle as bricks,” I drawl in a Sissy-esque accent. “And it doesn’t mean anything. He’s nice and funny and good-looking, but he’s also here temporarily. And I might be moving to Boston soon, too.”
Nori’s mouth falls open. “Really?”
“Really.” I fill the girls in on the job opportunity at Evoke, and how excited I would be to get it.
For some reason, I leave out the article topic I’m working on in order to actually get the job, as well as the fact that Becks and I discovered that we’re connected. Have a shared history we could never have expected.
And the fact that, right now, it seems like it’s a whole lot more than just the historical thread drawing us together.
“So, what about a summer romance?” Hayden asks the same question the Hathaways asked me a while back. “See out the rest of your August with that fine, fine man over there?”
For some reason, this time, it doesn’t seem nearly so improbable.
I’m clearly attracted to Beckett. Probably too attracted to him. And I clearly think way too often about the sparks between us. To the point where I might need to put up a “Danger, High Voltage!” sign in my head.
“I don’t know,” I tell Nori and Hayden hesitantly, taking a mental step back from the metaphorical electric fence in my mind.
I’m not in the market for romance. Right? I’m focusing on my career, working towards my future. And like I mentioned, Beckett’s only here temporarily. In a couple of short weeks, I might never see him again.
“Don’t know what?” Nori tilts her head.
I shrug. “If I’m a summer romance sort of person.”
Or any kind of a romance person.
“Maybe you could be,” Hayden says thoughtfully. “Maybe that wasn’t you in the past, but you could try something new this summer.”
Nori nods. “He’s a good man. I think he’d be good for you.”
I steal another glance at Becks, and of course, my silly heart picks up pace.
A change in pace that has me considering things…
Maybe I could open myself up to something new, explore this positively magnetic chemistry between us. A chemistry that’s tangible; that’s becoming harder and harder to brush off.
With Beckett leaving at the end of the month, and me already knowing this, there’s no way I can be blindsided again. He can’t hurt me by leaving if I already know there’s an expiration date on anything we could possibly have together. If I’m aware upfront that this is temporary, then I can make sure it doesn’t hurt me.
I can protect my heart because I know what’s coming—and at the end of August, we can go our separate ways, entirely unscathed.
“Maybe a summer romance could be good for me. And maybe one could be good for him…” I find myself saying.
Apparently, I’m just leaping the fence now, no inhibitions.
And I’m kind of liking the thrill of it.
“Yeah, girl!” Hayden cheers.
“Oh, by the way,” Nori says, biting her lip. “Sorry to change the subject so abruptly, but I should give you a heads up. I ran into Andrew and Lisa in the hallway this morning, and they said they’re coming tonight. Together.”
I nod as I digest this information. Wait to feel… something.
Nothing comes. So I shrug. “It’s good that they’re coming. The more we pack this place, the better, right?”
“You don’t mind?”
“Nah,” I say, and it’s the truth.
I don’t care about Andrew anymore. Not like that. To the point where I’m glad he’s happy.
“Good for you,” Hayden says, but I’m barely listening as I sneak another glimpse at Beckett. He’s standing onstage in front of the microphone now, pushing a lock of hair that’s fallen over his forehead out of his eyes as he helps Ezra with the sound check.
I’ve seen what an incredible teacher he is. Heard what incredible music he can create.
And now, I get to see him bring his passion to life on the stage right in front of me.
I can hardly wait.