Chapter Eighteen #2
He started for the stairs, and Noelle was hit with the startling realization that she would have to spend another night with him in the same bed.
But this time she’d spilled her guts to him and she’d inadvertently removed the layer of emotional aloofness that she usually kept in place with her clients.
Next to him in bed, she’d be left with nothing but her confusing feelings as he lay inches away from her.
This was a disaster.
“Wait!” she hissed. Startled, Jeremiah quickly spun back around. “Um, I want a snack.”
“Actually, you know what?” he said. “Me too.”
“Okay!” she squeaked.
No, no, no. She was supposed to go to the kitchen and freak out about her feelings for him, alone. He wasn’t supposed to come with her! But what could she say now? No, don’t go to your own kitchen in your family’s house?
In the kitchen, Jeremiah made a beeline for the cabinet above the sink. Noelle joined him at the counter, and her frazzled thoughts were momentarily forgotten when he produced a box of Smith’s Sweets sugar cookies.
Her eyes widened as he lowered the box into her hands. She thanked him, immediately opened the box, and pulled out a handful of cookies.
Jeremiah laughed as he dug into the box for a cookie too. “You’re like Sméagol when he sees the ring. But you’re much prettier, obviously.”
Noelle snort laughed. “You’ve read Lord of the Rings?”
“No, just watched the movies.”
“I love that you remembered Gollum’s real name, but you confused Mamma Mia! with Grease.”
He smirked. “What can I say? I’m one of a kind.”
“That you are.” She tilted her head. Her treasonous butterflies made her ask, “So, you think I’m pretty?”
Jeremiah leaned his elbow against the counter and brought his face an inch closer to hers. She stared into his warm brown eyes as her pulse thundered in her ears.
“ ‘Pretty’ isn’t a strong-enough word,” he said. “ ‘Stunning’ feels more accurate.”
Her breath caught, and she blinked, deliciously overwhelmed by his nearness and his compliment. “Stunning recognizes stunning, I guess,” she murmured, and the corners of his mouth lifted in a smile as his eyes sparkled.
Flirting? Unprovoked? When no one was watching?
This was not part of their agreement. Still, they smiled goofily at each other in the silent kitchen.
Noelle briefly tore her eyes away from Jeremiah’s face to grab another handful of cookies.
At the same time, she heard footsteps in the hall, coming their way.
She couldn’t get caught eating sweets! Not when she’d lied last weekend about not liking them!
In a panic, she shoved the handful of cookies in her mouth and pushed the cookie box into Jeremiah’s hands.
“What the—” he said, fumbling not to drop the box. He whipped it behind his back just as Celeste walked into the kitchen.
“Oh, you’re both home now,” she said. She was dressed in a black satin pajama set.
Noelle smiled with her full chipmunk cheeks and waved.
“Hey, Ma,” Jeremiah said smoothly. “Getting a late-night snack?”
“Yeah, just warming up some funnel cake,” Celeste said, going to the fridge.
With her back to them, Jeremiah quickly returned the box to the cabinet, and Noelle chewed like her life depended on it. Why couldn’t her jaws work faster?!
Celeste popped her funnel cake into the air fryer and turned to face them again.
Noelle swallowed the cookies, throat dry as hell, as Jeremiah crossed his arms over his chest. They sported matching nothing to see here smiles.
“Don’t judge,” Celeste said, misreading their expressions.
The air fryer beeped and she took the funnel cake to the island.
“I know it’s terrible to eat this much sugar before bed, but Marty’s is the best. I couldn’t resist.” She paused and observed Noelle.
“Do you eat funnel cake? I know you said that you don’t like sweets. ”
Noelle’s stomach grumbled. She decided to make an amendment to her lie. “I do like funnel cake sometimes.”
“Here, have some if you want,” Celeste said, pushing the plate toward her. “Funnel cake is meant to be shared.”
Noelle thanked Celeste as she sat across from her and tore off a piece of funnel cake. It melted on her tongue. Jeremiah started to join them, but he paused as his phone vibrated in his pocket. He squinted, reading the message he’d received.
“It’s Aaron,” he said. “Gotta handle this.”
He hugged Celeste good night and told Noelle he’d see her upstairs. Noelle watched as he left the kitchen with his phone pressed to his ear.
“How was your date?” Celeste asked.
“Oh, it was nice,” Noelle said, turning to Celeste again. “We looked at dresses for the gala.”
“Did he take you to Daniela’s?” she asked, and Noelle nodded. “Good. I’m glad you’re coming with him. This will be our first year hosting the gala without my dad. We didn’t have it last year. It felt too soon.”
Celeste looked away with a twist to her mouth. Noelle wished she could have met the man who’d clearly meant so much to his family.
“How was the movie?” she asked Celeste when the silence began to stretch.
“We couldn’t decide on the same film, so we split up,” Celeste said, looking at her again. “Percy and Robin took the girls to see an animated movie, and Amara dragged me to see some ghastly horror film about a demon on the loose.” She shuddered. “The things I do for my children.”
Noelle laughed. With just the two of them here in the quiet late-night hour, Celeste seemed less intimidating as she enjoyed a snack in her kitchen. Together, they finished the last of the funnel cake.
“I’m sorry that you had to witness that spat between Jeremiah and Percy on the boardwalk earlier,” Celeste said quietly. “I’m sure Jeremiah has talked to you about his issues with his brother.”
In the simplest terms, he’d explained their issue.
He hadn’t gone in depth. But Noelle nodded, because as far as Celeste was concerned, Jeremiah liked Noelle so much, he’d been willing to forfeit multiple weekends with his family in order to spend time with her.
Of course he would have told her every detail about what was going on with him and Percy.
Celeste sighed. “I’m an only child, so I don’t know what it’s like to be competitive with a sibling. Percy and Miah have been competing with each other since they were kids. It used to be good fun, but lately…” Celeste trailed off, gazing out the window again.
“I understand them both,” she continued.
“Percy is upset because Jeremiah left the company when that wasn’t originally the plan.
And Jeremiah is trying to strike out on his own.
I’ve talked to them about seeing things from the other’s point of view, but I’ve learned that sometimes I have to let my children work things out among themselves.
When all is said and done, they really do love each other.
” She looked at Noelle. “Do you have siblings?”
“I do,” Noelle said. “Stepsiblings. But I don’t see them that often. They live in Texas near my dad. They’re a lot older than me.”
“So most of the time, you must feel like an only child,” Celeste said. “Like me.”
“Yeah,” Noelle said, thinking of how she’d wished for a bigger family growing up as a latchkey kid, during those nights when her mom had worked late. She’d wanted to be part of a close-knit family, not unlike the Smiths.
Celeste smiled softly. “Well, I hope we aren’t driving you too crazy.”
“Not at all.” Noelle smiled too. “I like being here.”
“Good.” Celeste patted Noelle’s hand. She stood and poured a glass of water. “I’m taking my butt to bed. Sleep well.”
“You too.”
Noelle remained where she sat. She still needed more time before she went upstairs and faced Jeremiah and her complicated feelings.
Eventually, she left the kitchen and cut off the light.
As she reached the second floor, something soft and warm slipped past her ankle, and she heard a distinctive hiss.
She held back a yelp as she realized that she’d just made contact with Celeste’s elusive cat, Caesar.
She couldn’t see the cat in the dark, but she heard his claws scraping against the wood floor as he scampered down the hall.
Heart pounding, Noelle ran upstairs and darted inside Jeremiah’s bedroom. She was about to tell him how she’d just run into the cat, but Jeremiah was knocked out, still fully clothed on his side of the bed atop the covers.
Noelle gingerly sat on the edge of the bed. She reached up and smoothed the wrinkle between his eyebrows. He breathed a contented sigh, and she felt herself smile.
Clearly, her crush was not going to die as quickly as she’d hoped.