Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
The pool was frigid when Noah dove in. He turned his head to the side to steal a breath, then caught the water and pushed it behind him. Freestyle. One lap. Two laps. Ten laps. He wouldn’t stop until he hit fifty. His lungs burned with the effort, but still he pushed, punished.
Faster. Stronger. Better.
His watch vibrated on his wrist, shattering his flow somewhere around lap thirty. He pulled to a stop and glanced at it. Oh, shit. The real estate agent. Finally, some good news.
He climbed out of the pool, breathing hard.
Water ran down him in rivulets as he stepped across the cool concrete, his mind already buzzing with logistics for moving his mom.
He glanced at the house next door. A nice little Cape Cod, beautiful garden, fenced-in backyard with a covered porch.
It was perfect. And soon, it would be Gloria’s. She would see reason.
He toweled off a hand and answered the phone. “Hey, Susan. You got good news for me?”
“I’m sorry for calling so early, Noah. But I figured you’d want to know. I just heard from Tina’s agent. She chose another buyer.”
He almost dropped the phone. “What do you mean? Who?”
“She didn’t say, but it was an all-cash offer. That’s probably why she took it. I’m sorry. I know you really wanted that house for your mom.”
The sun chose that moment to pop over the horizon and punch him straight in the face.
Noah muted the phone. “Fuuuuuck,” he called into the woods surrounding his home. He would never convince his mother to move. And now he was going to have a new neighbor. What if it was someone loud? Nosy? And who around here had enough money to put in an all-cash offer?
Maybe it was some nepo baby from Baltimore or DC using their parent’s money to buy up all the real estate and start an Airbnb empire. The very thought of loud bachelorette parties next door made his blood boil. He wouldn’t stand for it.
But what could he do? He didn’t even know who the person was.
He unmuted the phone. “It’s okay. I have to go.”
“We’ll keep trying, Noah. I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”
“Thanks.”
He hung up and let out another frustrated grunt. He tossed his phone onto the towel and dove back into the pool.
Thoughts swirled as he swam. It felt like a betrayal. He had been a great neighbor to Tina while she and Joe had lived next door. Signed for her packages, shoveled her driveway, dragged their trash cans back to the garage. He’d even mowed the grass for them while the house lay vacant.
And how did they repay him? By selling their house out from under him.
It was only a matter of time until his mom seriously injured herself. He needed to come up with a new solution before the worst happened. All while juggling another dozen orders and a multitude of tenants who couldn’t seem to stop clogging their toilets.
But first, he needed to talk to Tina.
He slammed his truck door and stepped onto the long gravel driveway that ran past the stables. The sun was up now, and everything was golden. A golf cart sat in front of the barn, so one of the Maples was definitely inside.
He popped the door open and listened. That was Tina’s voice. He walked down to a large stall and knocked on the gate.
A beautiful brown Thoroughbred and her foal were nuzzling each other. It would’ve been heartwarming had he not been so pissed off. Tina turned around, and her expression instantly changed when she saw Noah.
“I wondered if you’d come to see me.”
“Why’d you do it, Tina? Was it really because of the all-cash offer? I could’ve pulled together the money if it was that important.”
“It wasn’t that.”
“Then what?”
She propped a shovel against the stall wall and turned to him. “Your mom didn’t want that house, Noah,” she said softly. “She never would’ve agreed to move in. Then you would’ve had to deal with finding another tenant, and all that upkeep, and I didn’t want you to have to go through all that.”
“She asked you not to accept my offer?”
Tina nodded.
Typical.
He dragged a hand over his face and looked at the horses. “She can’t be in that house anymore. She’s a danger to herself.”
“I know it.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Talk to her. Keep working on her. Someday she’ll see reason.”
He heaved a sigh and turned around. “I’m sorry for storming up on you like this. I just can’t stop thinking about her in that big old house. The stairs are so narrow, and sometimes her foot drags.”
“Well, when you find a way to get her to compromise, you let me and Joe know. We’ll help however we can.”
They could have helped by convincing her to move. But what’s done was done.
“Who did you sell it to, by the way? The real estate agent didn’t know.”
“Oh, well, that’s some good news, believe it or not. You remember the veterinarian who delivered Cassie here?”
“Cassie?”
“The foal.”
“No, I mean the vet. Cassie the vet delivered Cassie the horse?”
Tina chuckled. “I see how that’s confusing. But yes. I sold it to her. In fact, you should hear from her in no time about the old clinic in town. That’s your building, right?”
Oh, hell.
“I thought she was headed to Baltimore.”
“Something changed. She seems to be real good friends with Lyra.”
His grip on the door tightened. Not only was the bossy, overstepping vet not leaving town, but she was moving in next door. And staying forever. Probably just to critique him for the rest of time.
It fucking figured.
He said goodbye to Tina and hopped back into his truck. The short drive to the shelter did nothing to help his mood.
He jumped down and slammed the door, throwing himself into the monotonous task of mucking the night rooms. The corner of his mother’s house caught his eye.
What would Bobby say? He was always good at solving problems.
“Well, why’s your mom always going up the stairs, Noah?” he muttered to himself.
Her bedroom and shower were upstairs. The laundry room was in the basement. Both were problematic. But things could be changed.
He finished up the mucking and stormed up the porch steps—one of them definitely needed to be replaced—and into her house.
“That you, sweetheart?” her voice called from the kitchen.
“Yep,” he said. He headed straight for the steps.
“You didn’t have to muck today. Jackie’s on the schedule for nine-thirty.”
“Jackie’s called off her volunteer shift more times than not. I thought I’d save myself the trouble and do it now. If she actually shows up, she can work on food prep.”
“I would’ve done it if she called off, you know.”
“I’m not going to let my sixty-year-old mother muck twenty pounds of tiger turds.”
“You say that like I’m a hundred. I’ve mucked just about every day for the past twenty years.”
Noah grunted and opened her bedroom door.
“What are you doing up there?”
“Spring cleaning.” He surveyed the room, then stomped back down the stairs and into the basement. He hesitated when he saw the workbench.
His dad’s tools still sat there, right in the middle. Gloria had tried to give them to him a hundred times, but it didn’t feel right. They belonged here, where they’d always been.
He scooped up the toolbox and carried it back up two flights of steps to the bedroom. He loosened some nuts and dismantled the metal bed frame. She couldn’t stop him if it was already done.
“Noah? I’m hearing a lot of clattering,” she called from downstairs.
Bang. The headboard was off. He leaned it against the wall and shifted the mattress off the base. He opened the door as wide as he could, then slid the king-sized monstrosity onto the landing.
“What the hell are you doing?” His mother stood at the bottom of the stairs, clutching a spatula.
“You refuse to move,” he said.
“Correct.”
“You told Tina not to sell me the house.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Correct,” she said sheepishly.
“I can’t allow you to just put yourself in danger thirty times a day walking up and down these stairs. Can you move, please?”
Her mouth pressed into a firm line, but she moved aside.
He dragged the mattress down the stairs step by step, steering it away from the oval picture frames that still held photos of him as a child.
“You’re going to be late to open the shop,” she said.
“No one comes in on Mondays.”
“You don’t know that. Could be some out-of-towners on the way to the shore.”
“I don’t need more business.”
It was true. He could barely keep up with his life as is. Between the orders, tenants, and the shelter, his sleep was starting to suffer.
He grunted as he rested the mattress beside the railing. “Pick your new bedroom.”
She huffed. “You’re not going to leave this alone, are you?”
“Kitchen it is,” he said, moving the mattress six inches that direction.
She chuckled and swatted him with the spatula. “You’re a pain in my rear, but I do appreciate you wanting to take care of me.”
“Well, if you won’t go to the doctor, the least I can do is make sure you don’t fall down the stairs.”
She paused. “I know I can be stubborn. And you’re just trying to do what you think is right.”
“I learned it from you. So, sitting room or dining room? Sitting room gets better light. You could still do your puzzles.”
“Sitting room it is. Thank you, sweetheart. I’m sorry for being ornery.”
He nodded and pushed the mattress into the sitting room by the front door. “I’m just going to move a couple essentials. Then I’ll come back after the shop closes. And after I check on Skylar’s toilet.”
“Again? At this point, I think she’s chugging Metamucil on purpose to get you to come over there.”
She wasn’t wrong. Skylar was divorced, in her mid-forties, and worked from home.
She had problems with the plumbing or the internet at least once a month, and she always answered the door in a sports bra or revealing silk pajamas.
She was beautiful and funny, a catch by all standards, but he wasn’t doing relationships anymore. He didn’t deserve them.
“I wish you’d give her a chance. She’s a nice girl.”
“I don’t have time for romance, Mother,” he called, a drop of annoyance in his tone. She was always on him about finding a girlfriend and making her some grandbabies.
“You’d make time for the right person.”
“No time,” he repeated. “Did you hear who bought the place, by the way?”
She turned around. “Who?”
“Dr. Cassie.”
Her expression instantly changed to one of delight. “She’s staying? Well, golly. I can’t believe Tina didn’t tell me. An exotic animal vet living next door to my son? Two miles from my sanctuary? Oh, the universe provides.”
She raised her hands like she was in church and limp-danced back into the kitchen.
Noah shook his head. That doctor was going to be more trouble than help. He was sure of it.