Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Hazel stepped up to the door of Jacob’s office energetically, feeling excited to see him.
She often dropped by his combination office space and supply closet, either to give him a gift of food or just to swing by to say hello.
She’d helped him organize his tool closet once or twice, and earlier that year they’d given the place a good spring cleaning together.
She knew it was always going to be a bit dirty and a little messy, since that was the nature of Jacob’s job and the nature of Jacob, but she helped him keep it as neat and as tidy as possible.
He was always grateful for her help, since it allowed him to find things more easily.
She stepped inside his tiny office space, which adjoined the larger storage closet, and was surprised to see he wasn’t there.
There was a half-finished mug of coffee resting on the corner of his desk, which was somewhat cluttered with papers and a couple of tools.
She blinked at his empty desk, wondering what she should do with the bag of lunch that she was holding in her hand.
Should I just leave this here? she wondered. Or is he off somewhere repairing something that will take hours? I don’t want his sandwich to spoil.
She’d prepared Jacob a chicken and bacon ranch sandwich along with homemade sweet potato fries and roasted carrots.
She had taken special care with it, and she didn’t want it to spoil sitting on his desk.
She hesitated for a moment, biting her lip, and then she remembered the mini fridge that Jacob had bought for himself the month before.
She turned around and spotted it in a corner of the room.
“Gotcha,” she murmured, and was just crouching down to put the lunch inside it when the door of Jacob’s office opened.
“Hey!” she said eagerly when she saw her boyfriend step inside the room.
“Hazel!” He froze when he saw her, looking almost startled. “Um, hey.” He retuned the hug she gave him, but as they pulled away from it, she could see that he looked a bit flustered. He glanced at his desk, where his laptop was sitting open next to the mug of coffee. “What’s the occasion?”
“I came to bring you some lunch,” she said, frowning a little as she watched him walk around his desk and close his laptop. She hadn’t been able to see the screen from that side of the office, and she wondered what could be on it that he didn’t want her to see.
He could have just left it, she thought. I wasn’t going to go over there anyway.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” he said, turning back to her.
He was smiling, but he wasn’t quite making eye contact, which showed her that he was distracted by something.
Why was he acting so flustered by her surprise appearance?
She showed up unexpectedly to see him at his office all the time. “That’s really sweet of you.”
“You’re welcome. It’s a bacon and chicken sandwich, with ranch, and then those roasted carrots and sweet potatoes you like so much.”
“Oh, amazing.” He came back to her and gave her another hug. “You know I love those orange side dishes.”
She didn’t laugh at his quip. “Where were you just now? Coming back from a job?”
He cleared his throat. “I was on the north side of town. I’m glad I got back in time to see you.”
Her brows furrowed as she considered his statement. “I thought you’d said that all of your jobs for the rest of the week were generally close by. What were you doing all the way on the north side of town?”
The north side of Rosewood Beach was mainly a residential area, with many large houses, some of them old mansions dating back to the founding of the little coastal town.
It was a beautiful neighborhood, and Jacob usually let her know when he had a job there, since both of them got excited about the neat old houses he got to work on when he was out there.
“I just had a quick addition to my schedule, that’s all.” He smiled and chuckled before kissing her cheek, but she got the impression that his laugh was a little forced. “Thank you again for making me lunch. It’s so sweet of you.”
“Of course.” She smiled, pleased that he was so grateful for the lunch even though the wheels of her mind were still turning, wondering why he was behaving so oddly.
“Here you go. It’s still warm.” She watched as he rummaged through the bag eagerly.
“You’re lucky you got back before I put it in the refrigerator. ”
“I’m lucky in a lot of ways.” He grinned at her. “I’ve got a beautiful girlfriend who made me all of this delicious food. This is quite a feast here. Do you have time to stay here for a while and split it with me?”
“You sure you don’t want to save some of it for later?”
“No, I want to eat it with you.” He smiled at her in the sweet, boyish way that had always made her heart do a somersault, even back in high school when she’d had a raging crush on him.
“Okay.” She smiled back at him and sat down on the edge of his desk while he started to dish the food out evenly onto two paper plates.
Why had he closed his laptop like that? Why hadn’t he told her he had a job in the northern part of town?
“Here you go, beautiful lady,” he said, handing her one of the paper plates. “Thanks for eating with me.”
“Thanks for inviting me.”
They shared a quick kiss before beginning to chow down on the food. Hazel enjoyed herself as they ate, since she was an excellent cook and Jacob entertained her by telling stories about his more eccentric clients, but she couldn’t stop wondering about his curious behavior.