Chapter 21
Beth woke up with a crick in her neck from sleeping on the sofa and a bad mood that continued long past breakfast. Even the fact that the power had come back on and the roads were now cleared didn’t cheer her up.
She hadn’t seen Noah when she had woken up as he had already left the bedroom without her hearing him rise, but that was good because she was still cross with him letting down the family and didn’t want to see him.
Hopefully he would have left by the time she finished her shift waitressing in the Boathouse Café.
Thankfully it was busy in the café that morning and it wasn’t until almost lunchtime that Hannah made her take a break.
Beth hunkered down with her pumpkin latte and cake in the corner, ignoring her phone and staring out of the large windows at the lake beyond.
‘Is the cake that bad?’ asked Hannah, appearing by the table. ‘I could see you scowling all the way from the kitchen. It’s a new recipe that I’m trying out. Apple harvest slice, I’ve called it.’
‘Of course not,’ replied Beth, looking down at the uneaten slice of cake on the plate. ‘I’m sure it’s delicious but I just can’t seem to find my appetite today.’
‘Is it love?’ teased Hannah gently. ‘Because I’ve never seen you this grumpy.’
‘No,’ said Beth. ‘I thought fake dating was supposed to be fun. Like a rom-com or something. Not annoying and rage inducing.’
‘Well, perhaps it’s a good job I only put one shot of coffee in your latte then,’ said Hannah, glancing towards the door to the café which had just opened.
Beth followed her friend’s look and saw Noah walking towards her across the wooden floor. She was still irritated with him and it didn’t matter how handsome he looked in his jacket and jeans that day.
‘Try not to make a scene,’ murmured Hannah, with a wink. ‘We need all the customers we can get.’
She went across to ask Noah for his order and then wandered away before he reached the table.
‘There are plenty of other tables free,’ said Beth, deliberately turning away to look outside through the glass door and not at him.
‘You mean the ones outside in the freezing cold?’ she heard Noah reply before there was the sound of a chair scraping and he sat down opposite her.
She took a deep breath and glared at him in silent scorn.
‘Mind you, it’s not that much warmer in here,’ he said, with a fake shudder before laughing.
‘What’s so funny?’ she snapped, even more irritated by his good humour.
‘You’re cute when you’re angry.’
‘No, I’m not,’ she told him, scowling.
‘You’re not cute or you’re not angry?’ he asked, still grinning at her.
Beth concluded that he was utterly irritating and was about to give him a piece of her mind when they were interrupted.
‘Here you go,’ said Hannah, placing a coffee in front of Noah. ‘Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat? I think the very least we could do is give you some cake for what you’re doing for us.’
‘I’m sure, thanks,’ replied Noah. ‘Besides, I can always finish Beth’s as she appears to be off her food.’
Hannah grinned at him before she went away.
Beth was puzzled by her friend’s words. ‘What’s Hannah talking about?’ she couldn’t stop herself from asking. ‘What are you doing for the family other than leaving in their time of need?’
Noah took a sip of his coffee before leaning back in his chair. ‘Who says I’m leaving?’ he eventually replied.
Beth gave a start. ‘Everyone,’ she spluttered. ‘Last night.’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Things have changed.’
‘What things?’ she asked, perplexed.
‘Are you eating that?’ he said, nodding at the slice of cake.
‘Depends on your answer,’ she replied, reaching out to hold on tightly to the plate.
He smiled at her once more and she couldn’t stop herself from thinking how much lighter and more handsome he was when he was more cheerful. Perhaps because it had been such a rare occurrence up until that time.
‘Well, the breaking news is that I’m staying on over the winter to help Ben with building the lodges,’ he told her. ‘With Walter being injured, they need a carpenter so I’ve made myself available to give them a hand.’
Beth’s mouth dropped open. She couldn’t believe it. ‘Oh!’
‘Oh?’ Noah laughed. ‘That’s all the most talkative woman I’ve ever met has to say about my complete change of plans?’
Beth sagged back against her chair, her anger completely evaporating. ‘Well, now I feel bad because I gave you such a hard time last night,’ she told him.
He fixed her with a look. ‘Perhaps I deserved it,’ he said.
But she didn’t agree. She knew what a huge relief to the family it would be knowing that the lodges would still be able to be built and that their future plans for the security of Maple Tree Lodge would still be in place despite Walter’s accident.
‘Here,’ said Beth, sliding the plate across the table towards him. ‘Take it. Take all the cake you can find.’
‘A peace offering?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows. ‘From my beloved girlfriend? It must be love.’
She quickly checked around them but thankfully her ex-boyfriend was nowhere to be seen. ‘I don’t know why I’m looking,’ she said. ‘Jeremy finally left this morning and good riddance.’
Noah took a bite out of the cake and nodded his approval. ‘That’s delicious,’ he said. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to share it with me?’
She shook her head, still feeling awful about the hard time she had given him when he had actually given up his whole winter to help out the family.
He licked his fingers before fixing her with an intense look. ‘I honestly don’t understand what you were doing with an idiot like Jeremy in the first place,’ he said.
‘We met at work,’ she told him. ‘And he discovered a black hole, you know. That’s a big deal.’
‘So? That still doesn’t excuse how he treated you,’ he carried on. ‘And how much you changed whenever you were around him.’
‘No, I didn’t,’ she told him, shaking her head. ‘He didn’t like the way I dressed, that’s true enough, but I still carried on wearing whatever I like.’
Although as she said it, she knew that it was a lie. She had altered her clothes whenever they went out anywhere to stop him commenting about it.
‘I’m not talking about fashion,’ he replied. ‘I’m talking about the way you acted in front of him. At dinner, he constantly interrupted you. He looked down at you, belittled you and you appeared to put up with it right until the time you realised he was sleeping with someone else.’
‘Gee, thanks for the reminder,’ she muttered.
But was it true? What Noah was telling her? She knew deep down that it was.
‘Well, I was probably droning on,’ she told him, thinking back to Jeremy’s criticism of her. ‘Not everyone wants to hear whatever boring thing I have to say.’
‘You’re the least boring person I’ve ever met,’ he replied.
She blushed a little at his words and then wondered whether he meant it as a compliment.
‘I know how it looks,’ she told him with a sigh. ‘But Jeremy’s an emeritus professor. And I’ve only got a PhD.’
‘Only a PhD?’ Noah’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Wow, he did a job on you, that’s for sure. Only a complete lowlife would make someone as intelligent as you feel like a dunce.’
She hesitated to reply but for once, Noah was in a chatty mood.
‘You’re not the same person when you’re with him,’ he carried on.
‘It’s like you get a personality transplant and suddenly the chatty person full of life and facts surrenders all her decisions and lets him decide everything, even what she should say.
It’s like you’re reining yourself in the whole time. ’
Beth played with her coffee mug, avoiding Noah’s stare. He was right, of course. Deep down perhaps she had always known it.
‘Men are normally intimidated by my intelligence so I’ve always dumbed it down a bit whenever I’ve gone out on dates,’ she told him.
‘Why change yourself?’ he asked.
‘Because it makes them feel better, but yeah,’ she said, blowing out a sigh.
‘I hear you that it’s not a good thing. I suppose I just thought that I was lucky to have someone like Jeremy interested in, well, someone like me.
’ She glanced down at the dress she was wearing, a 1960s mini in black and white checks.
‘I like pretty clothes. Always have done. But they’re not the expected look for a person like me. ’
‘What is the expected look?’ he asked.
‘Probably more professional, given my field of study. But I’ve worn vintage clothes for as long as I can remember.
Couldn’t afford anything other than charity shops growing up and I was always attracted to the sparkly, pretty stuff.
’ Her smile faded. ‘Maybe that’s what I thought Jeremy was.
The ultimate designer label for me to wear.
Expect he wasn’t really my style. We had a shared interest in astronomy but that was it.
I was flattered that he even noticed me. ’
‘You’re beautiful and bright,’ said Noah. ‘He’d have been even more of an idiot if he hadn’t noticed you.’
She looked up at him with raised eyebrows.
‘Black sheep of the family still have eyes and ears,’ he told her.
She blushed. ‘I don’t think the family think of you that way any more.’
‘I don’t care what they or anyone else think of me,’ he replied quickly.
Too quickly, she thought. It was a lie, she realised. But perhaps, like her vintage clothing was her own armour, maybe that was Noah’s armour as well. To keep people at arms’ length.
But to her surprise, it made her want to be the exact opposite and to find out what lay beneath the rough exterior.