20. Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty
Juliet
M uch-needed sunshine washes over Evergreen Heights as me and a dozen others clean up the downtown area.
Debris is scattered across the road and sidewalks, and we’re finding more and more to clean up as the snow continues to melt. It’s a beautiful day to be out and about, and any day is a good day to help other people.
I volunteer whenever I can, and I make it a point to bring Piper with me so that she can learn how important it is to help other people. Unfortunately, she’s still sick, so she couldn’t come out with me today, but I have a trusted babysitter at the house right now while she sleeps.
Maybe she’ll finally break her fever through her nap .
I toss some broken wood into the trash bag that I’m carrying, clearing the large stretch of sidewalk that I’ve been assigned to clean up. I’ve got quite a long way to go, but it’s good for me to be out of the house for just a little while.
I’ve been cooped up for far too long.
“Well, of course, I’d find you out here.”
I lift my eyes to see a familiar man striding toward me in a pair of jeans and a black insulated jacket. “I didn’t think the same for you.”
Devon grins and stops in front of me. It’s weird seeing him in casual clothes. He’s usually wearing nice suits. “I wanted to help out around town. All this damage is terrible.”
“You came all the way over here just to help out?” I question him, disbelief creeping into my voice.
He’s a businessman. There’s always some sort of ulterior motive.
He puts his hand on his chest. “You wound me, angel. Do you think I don’t care about this town?”
I wrinkle my nose. “Angel? ”
“Well, that’s what you are, right? You’re always helping people,” he points out as he steps closer. “I mean, you’re gorgeous too.”
My stomach sours. He may be handsome and charming on the outside, but he rubs me the wrong way. I can’t trust a word that comes out of his mouth.
“I’m just doing my job,” I say.
“This isn’t your job,” he replies, gesturing to the trash bag.
I eye him, wishing he would stop with the blatant flirting. I don’t even know if he’s flirting with me to sleep with me or to get some sort of weird advantage over Frank.
“I should get back to it. There’s a lot to clean up,” I tell him.
“You still have my business card, right?”
I threw it in the trash can in the bathroom as soon as he left the store.
“I think it’s in my purse somewhere.”
“Use it,” he replies, flashing me a confident smile before walking past me .
His arm brushes mine, goosebumps tracing the back of my neck. I should be more direct about my disinterest in being with him, but I try not to be rude to anyone. It’s the nurse in me.
I’m still nice to the patients who hate my guts and aren’t afraid to show it.
A heavy sigh leaves me as I get back to work, thankful for my coat as the cold breeze blows down the street. At least it stopped snowing.
I get halfway done when I see something out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head, and my eyes immediately grow wide.
“Leo?” I call out, waving my hand to catch his attention.
Leo stops walking down the sidewalk across the street. He spots me and cracks a small, surprised smile. After checking both ways for cars, he jogs over to me. “I didn’t expect to see you out here.”
“I volunteer a lot,” I reply.
Leo nods. “Right. You did a lot in high school. How’s Piper? Is she doing better? ”
“Still running a fever and still congested,” I tell him, my stomach twisting at the thought of her possibly getting worse. I don’t like being away from her but watching her like a hawk while she sleeps will only drive me even crazier.
“Are you going to take her to the doctor?”
“If she doesn’t break the fever tonight, I will,” I reply before letting out a dry laugh. “You’d think I wouldn’t be nervous going to the doctor.”
“I’m sure it’s different when you’re a parent. You just want her to be okay,” he says, reaching out to brush his hand along my arm.
Goosebumps flutter up the back of my arm, but they’re not the same goosebumps that Devon gave me. These make me feel warm and sensitive to the touch.
These make me want to lean closer instead of pulling away.
“She’s napping right now, so I’m just helping out around here,” I tell him, pushing the conversation along before I start worrying even more.
Leo nods and looks around. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. ”
I raise an eyebrow as I peer at him, noting how deflated he looks. “What are you doing here?”
“I just couldn’t sit at home any longer,” he says. “I came out here yesterday and helped this old woman get into her shop. Then, Devon showed up and offered to pay for all the repair work.”
I can’t help the scoff that breaks from me. “He was here yesterday too?”
He cocks his head. “Did you see him today?”
“Like thirty minutes ago,” I reply, trying not to seem as bothered as I truly feel. “He said he was here to help out.”
Leo sighs and crosses his arms. “Yeah, he’s actually doing that. People are going to love him.”
He doesn’t sound annoyed. He sounds…jealous.
“It was nice of you to help her out,” I tell him.
“I should’ve stuck around and did more. He showed up and offered her all that money, and I just felt…”
When he trails off, I frown. He actually sounds pretty bothered by all this .
“You know, this town has always needed the Galloways,” I remind him. “Your family’s lumber has been used for the majority of the buildings and homes built here. Can you imagine the outrageous prices everyone would’ve had to pay for wood to be shipped here?”
“I didn’t do any of that. My dad and my grandfather did,” he tells me. “I haven’t done anything for this town.”
Does he sound guilty? I wouldn’t have expected him to care, but there must be something deep inside of him that’s tugging on his heart.
“Do you want to?”
Leo gives me a confused look.
I hold the trash bag out to him. “Help me clean up this sidewalk. We can use all the help we can get.”
Leo stares down at the bag for a moment.
Is he really going to turn his back on this chance to give back?
“Okay,” he finally says before taking the bag. “I have a business call in thirty minutes, but I’ll just push it. ”
Putting Evergreen Heights before New York City? Another shocking surprise.
“How’s your other company doing?” I ask him as I walk ahead of him to pick a broken store sign off the ground.
“It’s doing fine. I’ve got people back in the city I can trust to run it while I’m gone,” he replies, opening the trash bag so that I can toss the sign inside. “Take the trash bag. I’ll pick stuff up. There’s a lot of broken glass.”
I take the bag, our fingers brushing. “Are you dying to go back?”
He gives me a pointed look. “I don’t hate this town, Juliet. I just needed to get out of it.”
I don’t want to fight. It was exhausting trying to ignore him the morning after we slept together. I can’t handle us fighting again.
“It’s hard being back here, though.”
I cast him a curious look. “Because of your dad?”
A dry laugh leaves him. “Come on, Juju. You know it’s more than that. Because of you. Because people keep staring at me and whispering things. Because of all the memories I see everywhere I go. ”
I frown. “People are staring at you?”
He shrugs and drops some more debris into the trash bag. “They know why I’m back. Everyone knows my father is dying, and I’m this outsider passing through.”
“You’re not an outsider,” I assure him. “You were born here. You grew up here.”
“And I left,” he says as our eyes meet. “I get why people are talking behind my back and not rushing to welcome me home. It just makes this all harder.”
A flicker of guilt burns within me. Maybe he doesn’t deserve my sympathy or maybe he does. Regardless, he has it.
“Well, I won’t talk behind your back. I’ll say it to your face.”
He chuckles, his face brightening a little. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“I did say some pretty mean things about you to my friends when you left, though. Sorry.”
“I probably deserved every word,” he replies before bending over to pick a piece of trash off the sidewalk .
I still feel kind of bad for saying them. In my defense, I was really heartbroken.
“And no one in the city knows about me?”
The side of his mouth turns up. “About my first love? No, you’re my favorite little secret to keep.”
His teasing tone makes my stomach knot up. He has to stop talking like that.
“I’m flattered.”
He turns to me, and I almost run straight into him. His hand catches my arm.
“If I told everyone about you, I’d also have to include the part about how things ended, and that’s not a great look for me.”
I purse my lips at him. “Got to keep your reputation up, right?”
His hand slides up toward my elbow. “Would you want to look like an asshole in front of people?”
He’s too close. So close that I can smell his aftershave.
“I don’t do asshole things, so…”
Leo laughs and rubs the back of my upper arm. I’m so glad my jacket is separating my skin from his because it would drive me even crazier if I could actually feel his touch.
“Yeah, I know. You’re perfect, Juju.”
I give him a pointed look. “I’m not.”
“Close enough.”
A strong fluttering sensation erupts in my chest, making me lose my breath. We shouldn’t be talking like this, but it feels so natural. We used to speak like this to each other all the time.
Constant flirting. Constant compliments. Constant teasing.
It’s the language we speak with each other.
I just don’t want things to get even more confusing than they already are.
“We should speed up if we want to get finished before dark.”
Leo lets his hand fall from my arm, the moment ending. He nods and steps away from me, allowing me to finally take a proper breath.
I should really stop finding reasons to keep him in close proximity.