Chapter 31 Nora
NORA
TWO MONTHS LATER
Maddy and Mila were staring at me through dark sunglasses. Seraphina had hers pushed up into her dark hair, while she devoured her ice cream cone.
“Nice shades, ladies.” I mused, adjusting my own shades on my face.
The sun was warm against our skin as bits and pieces of winter melted away. We all knew this was false spring, every year around this time we were treated to sunshine, warm weather, and the temptation to take off our winter tires. Newbies always fell for it, but we knew better.
“Haley bought us these, aren’t they glamorous?” Maddy asked with a dazzling smile.
I raised my eyebrows, feigning shock. “The most glamorous that I’ve ever seen.”
“She’s from Cawifornia. She knows dees things.” Mila said in her cute little five-year-old way.
Haley was off near the cotton candy booth, talking to Jeffery Ackers. Colson and I hadn’t failed to notice how often he hung around her, or how now that Haley rented my house from me, he was over all the time with flowers and coffee.
We asked if she liked him, but she’d always shrug as if she didn’t know.
Colson disagreed with my other theory, which was fine, but because I was curious and nosy as fuck, my gaze slowly moved to the left of the massive barbeque, which was where Liam stood…
and sure enough his eyes were on Haley and Jeffery.
I counted down in my head. By the time I got to one, his jaw ticked.
“Every time.” I mused to myself.
No one seemed to notice that Liam had a hard time keeping his eyes off of his new nanny, and while Colson brushed it off saying he was just watching the girls, I specifically watched for the times when she wasn’t near them. Like now.
“Well, what do you girls think of the new community center?” I asked, taking in the big celebration around us. Rae had planned all of it of course and even with snow on the ground, the people of Macon wouldn’t be stopped from gathering and having a great time.
Seraphina wrinkled her forehead. “Isn’t it for old people?”
Rae, who was on the other end of the bench, choked on her coffee.
Mila added, “Yeah, Daddy said it’s for old people.”
I watched my best friend as she slapped at her chest.
“I heard there was an entire room dedicated to kids, with painting, floor mats for exercise, and foam pits for playing.”
The girls perked up.
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” Rae finally recovered enough to add.
Her eyes met mine in a panic. “Do you think everyone assumes it’s a senior citizen home?”
“Of course not.”
They totally did but with enough time, they would know all the things it offered. I could tell my friend was already trying to find different ways to market it to the public, so they knew it wasn’t just for senior citizens.
The building had been completed in record time.
With Haley as the new owner, and Colson taking it over as the new boss, it was like everyone blinked and the entire thing was done.
They were here five days a week, Colson tackled what he could on the weekends, and I would stay to help him as we caught each other up on how our week had gone.
I had moved in with him, but we didn’t spend our time together talking about work.
When we were together, we didn’t do much talking at all.
We were very much in the honeymoon phase of our relationship, which to Haley’s dismay meant she’d walked in on a few traumatizing moments where Colson was doing unholy and unmentionable things to me.
One time in particular I think I was on all fours, on the counter and we both screamed so loud that Colson tripped and fell backward, completely naked.
He complained that he might have broken his dick. I laughed for two days straight.
After that, Haley made a big show of knocking and ringing the doorbell a million times before entering.
She seemed to enjoy nannying, although she seemed completely oblivious that her boss was the hottest man alive, excluding Colson of course.
Liam was all toned muscle, hard jawline, and dark hair shaved closely on the sides of his head, but left longer on top in that way that made girls go stupid.
He honestly could pass for a rock star when he wasn’t wearing gym gear.
But he was also twelve years older than Haley, so maybe she didn’t see him like that.
Although Jeffery Ackers wasn’t that much younger than Liam and she didn’t seem to have any issues accepting his flirtations.
“You are way too invested in her love life,” Rae whispered next to me, pulling my gaze away from Haley and how she patted Jeffery on the shoulder then walked away.
Poor guy.
“She’s just so clueless, it’s cute.”
“You are honestly going to have to reel it in because if you say anything at all to her, you will ruin it,” Rae warned, and I knew she was right.
“Fine.”
Turning toward my best friend, I smiled and shoved her shoulder.
“You ready to get married?”
Her face took on that same dreamy state that it always did when we talked about her wedding.
“I can’t believe it’s a week away.”
“I can’t believe you are literally engaged, moving in, and getting married to Davis all in less than six months.”
“The heart wants what it wants.” She shrugged.
“Can we be flower girls?” Mila asked brazenly.
Rae looked at me with a twinkle in her eye.
“I think that would be fun…and I think you girls might be doing a lot of that here pretty soon.”
My eyes widened as I shot a look to Colson. He was laughing at something Davis said across the yard.
“Do you know something?” I gripped her arm.
She pulled it away. “Owww, Nora. OMG.”
“Spill.” I reached for her again, but she got up and laughed at me.
“Nope, not now. You need to learn to control yourself.”
“I will tackle you, Raelyn Jackson.”
“It’s almost Raelyn Brenton to you, ma’am, and how soon will it be Nora Hanes?”
She stopped all of a sudden, and her mouth gaped as she stared at me.
“Oh my gosh, Nora, your dad is going to lose his shit when he realizes his baby girl will have the last name Hanes.”
I snorted, she cackled, and soon we were being shushed by two elderly women.
Colson hadn’t even proposed yet, but we always made jokes about my impending marriage.
My dad had finally received my letter, and when he asked if he could come to Macon to talk, I told him yes.
I didn’t, however, warn him that my house was now shared with Colson.
That was a fun little perk and I relished how uncomfortable it made him to sit on Colson’s couch, and be offered a drink from Colson’s fridge, and the cherry on top was when Colson sat close enough to put his hand on my thigh.
No, he didn’t have a private audience with me, everything he said, he said in front of Colson.
Down the road I knew we’d get there, but I was still so hurt over his control, that it was something we had to build up to.
My mother wasn’t happy and had been staying with her sister for a while until they figured out where this need to control me stemmed from.
She had reached out, offering to host both Colson and I for a weekend at their house in Arizona.
We hadn’t decided yet what weekend to go, but we both agreed that we would.
She had also withdrawn the offer on me taking her house here in Macon.
She wanted a place to stay when she came to visit, and was even considering making it her second home so that she was only gone during the winter.
“You know my dad will likely not even attend when he realizes it.” I joked to Rae as we both got up and held our hands out to the girls to follow us.
Maddy held her sister’s hand as Mila latched on to mine, and Seraph hung on to Rae.
“Come on girls, I want to show you the kids’ room and how very un-old-person-like this place can be,” Rae said, heading toward the center.
We all fell in line as I glanced behind me, seeing Davis and Colson track our movements. I smiled at Colson, feeling my heart warm in my chest, and the way he smiled back and left his conversation to head over made my belly swoop.
I didn’t know when he wanted to make me his wife, but I wasn’t in a hurry. We were exactly where we needed to be.
Together and surrounded by our friends.
The End