Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Sam
Evie guides me along the edge of the park giving me the rundown on as many of the buildings and small businesses as I can retain while I admire the streets and how everything centers on the park.
I’ve wandered along the perimeter and taken in some details, but I haven’t walked through.
She mentions how they have festivals in the town center and there’s a moderately sized amphitheater where they hold a concert series in the summer.
It’s so quaint and adorable, and I can’t wait until “Spring Fling,” as she calls it, which happens in early May.
When we reach the market, she confirms it’s reliable and often reasonably priced, except for brand-name junk food or baby items like diapers.
The Indian restaurant, Naan Time, is amazing and according to Evie, habit-forming.
“Make sure you get a punch card, because they mean business with the tenth meal being free.”
I love the idea of having a discount card, and even more, I love the idea of living here long enough to fill up a card and get a meal free.
I’ve had so few goals other than start fresh and leave the past behind that this feels so frivolous and fun, and I adopt it as one of my personal aspirations immediately.
I can see getting to know the store owners by name. Maybe Evie and I could have a standing lunch date every few weeks, and…
Yeah. That happened quickly. All that hope I’m supposedly not giving into is sprouting up just like the grass and buds on the trees.
There’s a law firm in a gorgeous stone building one block down housing the lawyer who apparently helped Evie deal with her ex, and a real estate place she’s heard good things about.
There’s a preschool where her baby is, several more small businesses including a Mexican restaurant and a pizza place, and then we arrive at the small medical practice where she works.
“This is me. But listen, I know someone who can hook you up with a cleaning gig if you want it.”
My heart sinks.
Her eyes widen when she takes in my expression.
“Okay, so that’s a solid no.”
“No, not a no, just… not a yes?”
Her smile is full of compassion. “No need to justify it to me. I lived that life. It gave me Jack, and by extension, Juniper View, because of the way things happened. I’ll forever be grateful for that. But I wanted a fresh start all the way around here, and I get it if that’s what you need, too.”
“What I’m hoping for.” Sometimes, I worry admitting those hopes will curse me. Wanting something too much has come to haunt me before, so why would I believe it won’t again?
You got out.
It’s a good reminder from my subconscious. I did get out, and I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything more. So I’m not always doomed to lose what I most want.
I don’t know what job or path is right for me, but I don’t want to go back to the same job.
It was honest, hard work, but I can’t separate out my years as a maid from being the maid Andrew deigned to marry and attempted to control.
A Cinderella story, as he called it, but it ended up being a nightmare for me.
“We’ll find you something else then. If none of the jobs you already applied for bite in the next few days, we’ll find you something even better.”
Her words hold so much confidence, I can’t help but believe them. We hug and she turns to go right as Dr. McHottie arrives and unlocks the door.
“Hello.” He gives me a polite nod, then his stunning eyes shift to Evie. “Coming in?”
“Yes, Dr. Ryan. Thank you.” She gives me a wide, lovely smile before slipping through the doors.
Declan Ryan gives me a friendly bob of his head before following her inside. I wander around and walk off the pancakes, taking in as much detail of the town as I can before getting into my car and returning to my little apartment.
Inside, Mr. Bingley greets me the second I open the door, a trilling little meow. His cheery greeting. I pull him into my arms and cradle him close. “Did you miss me?”
His purr is so aggressive, I can’t help but smile as I bury my face in his fur. I love this bag of bones and I’m deeply relieved he made the trip. Travel for cats is not easy, and he withstood it heroically.
Just as soon as I settle in to check online job listings, the doorbell rings. My pulse jumps as I slip on my shoes and finger-comb my hair before scowling at myself in the mirror, because why am I messing with my hair just to answer the door to my grumpy landlord?
But when I descend the stairs and swing open the outer garage door, it’s not a towering, broody, hot sheriff. Instead, it’s the man who bought my dinner at the market two nights ago and a woman who looks like his matched pair with graying red hair and kind, bright eyes.
Dang, they all have such blue eyes.
“Hi.” I’m awkward. Awkward is me.
“We’re so sorry to bother you, but we heard from our youngest that you just moved in!” The woman beams and the man’s eyes crinkle.
“I’m Connor Ryan,” he says, extending his hand to me.
“And I’m Mary Ryan.” She takes my hand directly from where I shook her husband’s and folds it into hers.
“I’m Sam. It’s nice to meet you both. And thank you for my dinner the other night.” I don’t want to wait another second before saying so.
“Of course. Now. How about dinner Friday?”
Connor’s smiling eyes are still charming the heck out of me while Mary reaches for a basket I didn’t initially notice and hands it to me not unlike the way someone would pass a small child over, supporting the head and rump.
“Friday?” I’m a little slow as my pancakes and eggs have surely faded from my bloodstream entirely by now.
“You’ll come to Friday dinner at the big house. And for now, here are some local products and other favorites from town. Just a little housewarming.”
Mary’s warm voice makes me feel like I’m an honored guest.
“Oh, I can’t—”
“You can, dear. You shall!” She shoves her fist to the sky like she’s rallying troops.
I chuckle but try to hide it, unsure if she’s being spunky or just odd. Either way, she’s delightful, but I don’t want her to think I’m laughing at her. I’m simply taken by her. “Thank you so much.”
The familiar sheriff’s SUV trundles into the driveway and stops. My heart flutters with nerves and the sense that I’ve been thoroughly ambushed by these two, when Connor hollers out, “There’s m’ boy!”
A stern-looking Grant rounds the hood of his vehicle and spears his parents with a glare.
Well, good to know it’s not just me.
“What are you two doing here?”
“Excuse me for just a moment, but I think I hallucinated my son interrogating me before he’d even greeted me, and that can’t possibly have happened because I know he has better manners.” Mary’s tone is the classic mother who will suffer no fools.
I already liked her, but I think now, I love her.
Grant instantly repents. “Sorry, you’re right.” He flashes them a heart-stopping grin. “Hey Ma, Da. Glad to see you both. What are you doing here, hassling my new tenant?”
He smiled.
Does not compute.
I tuck my own smile between my teeth, thoroughly enjoying the show despite the utterly baffled current flowing through me. My gaze catches Grant’s and he—
Now I must be hallucinating, because did he just wink at me?
No. Impossible.
He must’ve gotten dust in his eye.
“Well, son, we’re here inviting the lovely Sam to dinner this weekend.
You’ll drive her, won’t you? You and the girls will be coming anyway, and there’s no sense in taking two cars what with gas prices, not to mention the ozone deterioration and pollution and whatnot.
” Connor waves his hand around like any of this means anything right now.
“Uh, sure—”
“No, he doesn’t—”
Mary hauls me and the giant basket in for a quick hug, then turns and does the same to her son, all in a whirl of cutting us off and having her way. “We’ll see you both on Friday. Welcome, welcome, Sam dear!”
Connor twiddles his fingers at me like… like I don’t even know, and then they practically screech away in their car I hardly noticed until they made their getaway.
Grant and I are left in their literal dust. I look around, wondering what just happened.
It’s his huffed laugh that brings me back to the moment and the man standing in front of me.
The extremely good-looking uniformed officer standing there shaking his head with the flicker of a smile on his face accentuating the stunning genes he possesses. It’s the closest to a smile I’ve seen from him directed in my vicinity yet and, yeah, it packs a punch.
And by a punch, I mean an alarming crush of heat bursting in my belly and sending awareness to every nerve ending.
Which is not great.
“Wow. They’re intense.” I have to break the silence between us before I do something weird like reach out and run a hand along the curve of his jaw.
Completely inappropriate and not a thing I’d ever do, but the little vision that just flashed through my brain made it seem real nice.
Must be that full-out grin; it short-circuited something in my very rational brain.
“Yep. Wild ride with those two.” His face is soft with what I read as affection until something switches in an instant when his gaze returns to me. “Did you need something?”
I look to one side, then the other, trying to follow. “Need something?”
“Yeah.”
“Uh, no. I answered the door for your parents.” Irritation swells in me that he’s turning this into something I’ve done wrong.
Seriously? Didn’t I live enough of my life dealing with emotional men who can’t get a handle on their moods?
Why did I have to move in next door to one, too? “I’ll get out of your hair.”
I turn and march back inside, hauling Mary’s gigantic basket o’ goodies along with me.
For a second there, I fell into the trap of him.
Shiny blue eyes and chiseled jaw and crisp uniform looking all sexy and capable.
That hint of a smile, the clear affection for his parents…
Fortunately, he reminds me exactly who he is, or at least who he’s not, when he opens his mouth for more than a few seconds.
We aren’t about to be friends, or even neighborly. He’ll tolerate me, and I’ll stay the heck out of his way.
Could get a little tricky with the whole family dinner invitation, but I’ll figure that out in the next five days.