Chapter Fourteen

GENEVIEVE LICKED A DELICIOUS morsel of chocolate chip cookie from her finger and glanced toward the door. No sign of Willow or the nanny and the toddler returning from the restroom as of yet. “Okay. You ready?”

Helen saluted with her pen. “Ready.”

“The jezebel’s name was Jenna Elizabeth Randall. She wasn’t a native of Nashville. Maggie thinks she was from South Carolina, but it could have been North Carolina.”

“Jezebel.” Helen snorted. “Did you get any numbers? Driver’s license? Social?”

Genevieve scoffed. “No. Maggie doesn’t remember numbers any better than I, and she’s distracted because of Tom. I’m lucky to have gotten what I did out of her.”

“All right. What else do you have?”

“Jenna met Andy at the country club where he golfed. She worked in the pro shop.”

“I’ll just bet she did,” Helen agreed. “You confirmed she died of an aneurysm?”

“That’s what Maggie said. She was listed as the emergency number for Jenna’s work and daycare. The only number.”

“So, she could have family somewhere!” Helen declared.

“Maggie says she doesn’t.”

Helen wagged her finger at her sister. “Well, it’s in Maggie’s best interests to believe that, isn’t it, if she wants to keep little Andy Junior?”

“So, where do we start?” Genevieve tapped her index finger against her lip and thought a moment. “Do we hire a private investigator in Tennessee?”

“I actually have a friend who might be able to help us.”

“I thought you might,” Genevieve said.

“I gave him a call this morning.”

“I thought you might,” Genevieve repeated, a grin fluttering on her lips.

“He said to phone ASAP with any further info we could glean.”

“Phone him right now. It takes a few minutes to change a dirty diaper.”

Helen nodded in agreement and dialed the number. She connected with a man Genevieve surmised was an attorney with whom her sister had previously worked. Helen relayed the little information they knew about AJ Randall and his mother in a short conversation that ended just as Willow arrived with the toddler on her hip. Genevieve wondered aloud. “Where’s the nanny?”

“Willow doesn’t look happy.”

“You think the nanny ditched us already?”

Willow walked up and put the baby in the high chair. “Pour me a double, please.”

Helen filled a glass with milk from the pitcher and handed it to Willow. “The nanny scarpered?”

“She’s outta here.” Willow handed the boy a cookie. He shoved it into his mouth. “He’s not her kid. She’s done her duty.”

All three women stared at AJ. Willow sipped her milk. “Well,” Genevieve said. “What now?”

“Chocolate. Chocolate. And more chocolate. For me, anyway. Probably need to watch the kids’ sugar intake, or I’ll be paying for it later.”

“They can have a couple cookies apiece, can’t they?” Genevieve, in her guise of Nana, asked.

“Of course. Noah will polish off what’s left. He has a sweet tooth.”

“Oh?” Helen said. “And you know this how?”

A hint of color stained Willow’s cheeks.

Well, isn’t that interesting?

“We’re friends.”

“How friendly of friends?” Helen asked, wagging her eyebrows. “How’s his leg injury doing? I haven’t noticed him limping of late. Healing coming along? Doesn’t interfere with, um, activities, I hope?”

“Auntie! I am not discussing my sex life with you and my mother.”

“Spoilsport,” Helen observed. She winked at Genevieve.

Willow rolled her eyes, and then in a defensive move worthy of a Sunday afternoon on the gridiron, she waved and called, “Drew! Emma! Noah! Come get cookies! They’re warm from the oven!”

“Good play, Willow,” Helen said. “Good play.”

“More, peas. More, peas,” AJ said.

“He wants peas?” Helen asked.

“He’s saying please,” Willow clarified as her children came running up the hill, followed by Noah.

Genevieve held her breath as Willow introduced Drew and Emma to AJ. It turned out that the children were more interested in the cookies than in their younger half brother. She was a little shocked when Willow referred to the boy as their “brother,” and Emma and Drew didn’t bat an eyelash. Noah glanced from AJ to Emma, then back to the little boy again, and said, “Hi, AJ. I’m Noah. Can I have a bite of your cookie?”

“Mine!” the toddler said, turning away and protecting his prize.

“Okay. Okay. I’ll get three of my own.” He did precisely that.

Willow explained to Noah that the nanny had unexpectedly returned to the airport. Drew shared news about fish, beetles, and ladybugs, while Emma attempted to interrupt with essential facts about butterflies and her suspicion that AJ had a stinky diaper.

“Already?” Willow groaned. She met her mother’s gaze and said, “I am so not ready for this.”

“I’m ready,” Drew piped up. “Can we go see our new house now, Mama? I want to see my new room. Mr. Tannehill says he might have found something in his attic that I can play with.”

“He did, did he?” Willow met Noah’s gaze, and they shared a smile.

Genevieve met Helen’s gaze, and they shared an entire conversation.

Ten minutes later, the group was on their way to Noah’s Hideaway, Genevieve and Helen having offered to help with the move-in because they were curious more than because they were needed.

Genevieve rode with Helen on the drive out, and the sisters fleshed out their plans for their upcoming trip, which they’d dubbed the Fangirl Follies. So far, they’d gotten tickets to see Rod Stewart in Vegas, Jason Isbell in Nashville, and Jackson McBride playing a special benefit at his dance hall in Texas. “We’re limited by the election timeline,” Helen admitted with a sigh. “I’m bummed we won’t be able to kick off our trip or close it with a Kenny Chesney concert. But you know, if I were to lose the election, we’d have a lot more latitude.”

“You are not going to lose the election. Not with me as your campaign manager.”

“Well, I haven’t exactly seen you working your fingers to the bone.”

Genevieve held up her hand. “I have stitches!”

“Well, it wasn’t campaigning for me that caused that. It was your temper.”

“You’re right. I’m going to dive in tomorrow. You know, I thought about it during my walk this morning. Perhaps I’ll discover that campaigning is a passion of mine.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It could happen. You’ve actually already given me another idea to try.”

“Oh yeah?” Helen glanced away from the road long enough to give her a wide-eyed look. “Spill the beans.”

“Not beans. Fish. Do you remember Jack Harrington? He was the banker I went out with a few times about five years or so after David died.”

“I do remember Jack. He drove that classic Firebird, didn’t he? The yellow one?”

“He did. But he also kept fish. Tropical fish. It was really quite fascinating. He did a lot of research into the kind of fish to group together in his aquariums. Plus, they’re fascinating to watch. Mesmerizing.”

“Yes, they are. If you’re snorkeling in the South Pacific.”

“Maybe I want to bring the South Pacific to my living room in December.”

Helen shook her head. “I don’t see it, but it’s your passion. Speaking of passion, did you see the same sparks flying that I did between Willow and Noah?”

“I did.”

“Very interesting that she’s moving in with him.”

Genevieve pursed her lips. “Well, not in the traditional sense of the term.”

“We’ll see.” Helen drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and let a full minute pass before she spoke again. “I saw Zach Throckmorton in the coffee shop today. He said his dad is ornery as ever after his medical scare.”

“That’s a fair assessment. I went up to the Triple T this morning and fixed breakfast for him. He was in full grumble.”

“Well now.” Helen shot her sister an appraising look. “Wasn’t that neighborly of you? And you with stitches in your hand, too.”

“I’m accustomed to playing injured, and yes, I was being neighborly. Gage is my friend. I was worried about him. When we spoke on the phone last night, he spent half the conversation complaining about the changes his doctor wants him to make in his diet. I thought I’d show him that a heart-healthy meal can be delicious.”

“It’s difficult to make major lifestyle changes after decades of being set in your ways,” Helen observed. “Which brings me back to this search of yours. Maybe you should make taking care of Gage Throckmorton your next passion.”

“Maybe you should pay attention to your driving, Helen. You just missed the turn.” Genevieve allowed the barest hint of a smile to settle on her lips as she added, “I think I’ll see how it goes with the tropical fish first.”

“I’m intrigued,” said Noah, eyeing with interest the grocery sack Willow set upon the kitchen counter. “My mother was a wonderful person, but the only kind of mac and cheese she ever made came out of a box. With orange powder.”

“Well, I warned you not to expect anything fancy, but homemade mac and cheese is Drew’s and Emma’s favorite celebration food.”

“I don’t care about food,” Drew declared. “I want to see my room! Can we go see my room, please?”

Willow reached over and clapped one hand across her son’s mouth and pointed toward the living room with the other. “Lower your voice, Drew. Remember, Nana is rocking AJ to sleep.”

“He’s getting close,” Helen said, glancing away from her perusal of the bookshelves that lined one wall of the great room and toward the rocking chair where Genevieve tended the toddler.

Noah winked at Drew. “I’ll show them their rooms if that’s okay with you, Willow.”

“Sure. Thanks, Noah.” Emma and Drew began rushing toward the staircase. Willow added a warning note to her voice as she called after them. “Quiet feet! Let Mr. Noah go first.”

He’d suggested the change to his name to make it easier for the kids, and the Eldridges had enthusiastically agreed. As he led the children up the stairs, Noah was surprisingly nervous, which was stupid. What did it matter if the kids liked the things he’d put out for them? Drew had his own things. Hell, Noah’s stuff was old. Nothing used a computer chip to run. And Emma, well, she was female. What made him ever think he knew what a female might want?

“Wow!” Drew stepped into a room that still smelled like paint. “Oh, wow. A telescope. There’s a telescope in the window.”

“Don’t touch the walls,” Noah warned. “Paint is still wet.”

He’d painted a fantasy galaxy on one wall—stars, planets, and a nebula. He’d gotten a bit carried away, but circles were quick and easy to paint. Once he’d remembered the telescope and all the books about space, well, he figured Drew was just about the right age.

Emma walked up to Noah and pulled on his pants leg. “Do I have a telescope, Mr. Noah?”

“No, sunshine. I have something else for you.” Noah’s nerves ratcheted up another notch as he led the little girl—Drew wasn’t budging from his space—to the room next door.

Already decorated in pink-and-white ruffles and butterflies for Daniel’s Maddie, the room now also included a child-sized table and two chairs he’d brought down from the attic. Atop the table sat drawing paper, coloring books, markers, and a brand-new sixty-four-count box of crayons.

This room had a bay window with a built-in window seat, making it the bedroom’s centerpiece. He watched Emma’s face as she saw what he’d placed there. “It’s a house. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!”

“Let me show you how it works.” He crossed the room and after a moment’s hesitation, went down on his knees. Only a twinge of pain. Making progress. Pleased, he focused his attention on wide-eyed Emma and smiled as he flipped up the latches that allowed the roof and walls to open, revealing the rooms inside. “It’s a dollhouse. See? Here’s all the furniture. You can move it around any way you like. Here are some dolls. You can make them be Emmas or Drews or mommies.”

“Or daddies?”

Noah cleared his throat. “Daddies, too. Here are some clothes in this wardrobe. I made a couple of dogs, too. See?”

“Puppies! Oh, Mr. Noah! You made this dollhouse? All by yourself ?”

“I did.”

“Do you play with dolls?”

“No.” Noah chuckled. “But I heard you do. So I made it for you.”

Her eyes went round as the Earth on Drew’s bedroom wall. “What? For me? For keeps?”

“For keeps.”

“Oh, Mr. Noah, thank you! But why did you do this for me? It’s not my birthday, and it’s not Christmas, either.”

“Well, when you asked me to dance at your uncle Jake’s wedding, I was grumpy, and I wasn’t very nice to you. I felt bad about that. I wanted to apologize, so I made you a dollhouse.”

“That’s okay, Mr. Noah.” Emma threw her arms around him and hugged him hard. “We all get grumpy sometimes. Mama says I’m her little ray of sunshine. Maybe I’m just your little ray of sunshine, too.”

“I guess you are.”

“If that’s not the sweetest thing I’ve seen in a month of Sundays,” came Helen’s voice from behind them.

Noah glanced over his shoulder. All three women were standing in the hallway watching the little tableau in Emma’s room. Genevieve must have found the nursery because her arms were empty, her hands clasped over her heart.

Willow looked at him all sort of mushy. “This was for Emma all along?”

Noah shrugged and climbed to his feet. “I guess you found AJ’s nursery, Genevieve?”

“I did. Everything is so nice, Noah. This is so generous of you to do.”

“Drew can’t wait for the sun to go down,” Helen added. “You might not get him down for supper, Willow.”

“Speaking of supper…” Genevieve linked her arm with her sister’s. “Helen and I are going to skip out on that tonight if you don’t mind, Willow.”

“We are?” Helen looked at her sister in surprise.

“We have some campaign planning to do.”

“Oh. Yes. That’s right. We do.”

“Emma, come give Nana a kiss good-bye,” Genevieve said.

The little girl scampered to do so, and in another ten minutes, all the good-byes had been said, and Willow’s mother and aunt departed. “They didn’t really want supper,” Willow explained as she waved them off. “They just wanted to see your house.”

“No problem. So, will you spring the four-legged surprise on them tonight?”

“You know, I think I’ll save that for tomorrow. We’ve had plenty of excitement today already.”

After dinner, Noah said his good nights and retreated to his workshop. He played with Marigold and the puppies, grateful that Drew’s window faced opposite his puppy play yard. He went to bed that night and went to sleep more at peace with himself than he’d been since his brother died.

He didn’t see the Eldridges the following morning, as they went their separate ways early. He spent the better part of the day with Gage fishing his favorite stretches of water on the Triple T. Late that afternoon, he sat at his workbench building a couple of dollhouses for a fire station in western Wyoming when he heard Willow’s car drive up.

The knock on his door came less than five minutes later.

“Mr. Noah. Mr. Noah. Are you home? I love my new bedroom. I looked at the moon through the telescope, and it was huge. Mama says you have a surprise for Emma and me. Something we are really going to love! Mr. Noah!”

As expected, the puppies were a hit, although AJ was a bit timid around them. The debate over what to name the dogs dragged on for the better part of a week. Drew finally decided on Thor while Emma went with Anna from The Avengers and Frozen, respectively.

By the end of April, Noah thought he might need to rename his cabin from the Hideaway to the Come-on-Inn. It seemed as if people were coming and going all the time. Willow’s sister visited for a few nights as she returned from a European trip and prepared to leave again to visit Peru. Willow’s newlywed brother and his wife visited, and then the single brother did, too. Noah didn’t know whether they’d come to give him the evil eye or check up on Willow now that she had AJ around or, more likely, both, but it kept things lively. Genevieve stopped by frequently as the opening of The Emily theater approached. Helen dropped by almost as often for a campaign coffee klatch.

And they always brought their new pups to visit. Drew had somehow managed to talk his grandmother and great-aunt into each adopting a puppy. Upon learning that Noah was down to one, Gage had decided his Sadie needed a companion, so he took the remaining pup to the Triple T Ranch.

Most evenings, Willow joined Noah for a nightcap on the porch swing, and they shared the events of their days. They hadn’t slept together since that first night. Still, the twenty minutes or so of porch time together each evening was almost as intimate. Some days Willow’s attitude remained positive. Others, acting as a single mother of three wore her down.

AJ had been with the Eldridges just shy of six weeks the night Willow joined him on the porch carrying not her usual glass of wine but a pitcher of martinis. “That bad?” Noah asked.

“Tom had another stroke. They don’t think he’s going to make it.”

“Well, crap.” The kids’ grandfather had been doing better. The grandmother had been making noise about bringing AJ back to Texas. “I’m sorry, honey.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Noah. It’s hard taking care of three children all by myself. Yes, I have Little Ducklings, and Mom helps despite her big talk about not babysitting, but it’s still all on me. Plus, the kids will bond with him if he stays here much longer. Drew already thinks that sharing a name gives them a special link.”

“And you? Have you fallen for him?”

She sighed and sipped her drink. “That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? He’s a sweet little guy. He truly is. It’s not his fault that his daddy was a jerk. Like the saying goes, it’s complicated.”

He put his arm around her shoulders, pulled her close, and pressed a kiss against her hair. “Anything I can do to help?”

“You’re doing it. You’ve done so much for us, Noah. Every day. I wish there was something we could do to help you in return.”

“You have. You do. You brought sunshine back into my life.”

She took hold of his hand and squeezed it. “That’s Emma. She’s Suzy Sunshine.”

It’s all of you.

“Which reminds me. Have you started that dollhouse for your niece yet?”

“Willow…” She’d been pressing him about this for a couple of weeks now. Willow thought he needed to pay a visit to Daniel’s family. Noah stepped away from her and gave her a gentle, playful swat on the rear. “Don’t push.”

“Not pushing. Just asking.” She returned his swat while giving a cheeky grin.

“I haven’t really had time. Gage has me working as if I have a real job, and your aunt talked me up to the volunteer fire department chief here. They asked me to do a fire flow demonstration this weekend.”

“You spend your time on the porch swing with me.”

“Not complaining about it,” he declared. “At all.”

“Speaking of Aunt Helen, has she pestered you yet to sign up for a Christmas-in-July vendor booth?”

“No. Why would I need a vendor booth at the Lake in the Clouds Christmas market?”

“To take orders for your Victorian dollhouses.”

“What?”

“Beware. Since Auntie is the chairwoman of this year’s event, she wants it to be the best ever. She’s looking at it as a campaign event.”

Noah laughed. “She’s relentless, isn’t she?”

Willow shrugged. “You could make a house for your niece and use it as a sample at the market to take orders. It might be a nice little business for you. You could sell them on eBay, too.”

Helen isn’t the only relentless woman in that family, Noah thought. “Just what I need—another job. It’s not enough that I’m whatever I am for Throckmorton Enterprises. Now I’ll be an eBay entrepreneur and a fire—” He broke off abruptly.

“And a firefighter. Are you going back to work, Noah?” Then, after a pause, she added, “Back to Denver?”

“I can’t fight a fire,” he stated flatly.

“You wouldn’t pass the physical?”

Mentally, he wasn’t fit. He could no sooner go into a burning building than he could fly. He polished off his whiskey, then held his empty glass out to her. “Are you going to share those martinis or what?”

Willow arched a brow in surprise. She knew from past conversations that he ordinarily didn’t drink gin. “Of course.”

Determined to keep the conversation pointed in a new direction, he asked, “So, are you all ready for the theateropening gala?”

“I think so. Mom is so excited. Nervous but excited.” Concern dimmed her glow a bit as she asked, “How about Gage? Is he feeling all right? Is he going to be okay to come to the party?”

“Yes. He’s doing fine. This was a wake-up call for him. He may gripe and grouch, but he’s taking his doctor’s orders seriously. He’s working to unload stress from his life. Apparently, that’s been a real issue with him—he’s still running all the family businesses himself.”

“Yes. Zach told me that’s the main reason why he wanted to start his own business. He wanted to make his own decisions. His father wouldn’t turn loose of anything.”

“Well, he’s turning loose now. Though I don’t know why he’s doing so with me. I’m not family, but he’s asking me to help him make decisions that will affect his family. It’s damned hard. I’m not a lawyer.”

“But you’re honest, and he trusts you. He has lawyers on retainer who can do the legal work. Let me share a little insight there. As someone who watched a family business tear a family apart, I think Gage is being pretty smart. If my grandfather had turned over management of his business concerns to his heirs instead of trying to control them from the grave, my family would have avoided a lot of grief.”

“I hope you’re right.”

They sat without speaking for a few minutes, and Noah thought Willow might have relaxed a bit. Her next words proved him wrong. “I have something I need to talk to you about. I’ve been putting it off.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not bad. At least, I hope it’s not bad. It’s about the house.”

“Oh, Willow. Don’t worry. Whatever the kids broke can be fixed.”

“No. No. It’s not that. Well, it’s sort of that. Drew did make a hole in the drywall in his room, but it was a small baseball-shaped hole, and I patched it. It’s about our finding a permanent place to live.”

Noah’s stomach sank. “Oh.”

“The last thing I want to do is abuse your hospitality and stay too long. The problem I’m having is that nothing suitable has come onto the market. My real estate agent tells me I’m looking for a unicorn.”

Good.

“However, she got a call today about a piece of land. It’s actually a pretty wonderful piece of land. Not far from here. We could build a house that suits us, but that takes time. Probably more time than you figured when you offered us your house.”

“Now, Willow.”

“Wait. I don’t want you to say anything tonight, okay? I want you to take some time and think this over. Please. It’s imperative to me that you are comfortable with this situation. We could always move somewhere else until our house is ready. But it’s not simply the construction time. If you’d feel crowded… if it would be weird… I won’t do it.”

Weird? “What am I missing here?”

“It’s that twenty acres of land across the highway. We wouldn’t share a fence or a road like you do with the Triple T, but it’s still close. Since you and I are… um… um…” She made a circular motion with her hand and sipped her martini.

“Since we’re um, um,” he repeated with a grin. “You want to define that for me, Ms. Eldridge?”

“Well, that’s part of the problem. I’m not exactly sure what we are. We’re friends, but are we more than friends?”

“I think so. Don’t you?”

“I do, but the label is fuzzy. I know the l-word isn’t appropriate.”

“I don’t know about that,” he ventured. “I am your landlord.”

She slapped his arm. “Ha ha.”

“Do we need a label?”

“I think we need something, Noah. Especially if you’re thinking about going back to Denver. It’s a little like the situation with AJ. Those three children and I will become a family if we act like one for too long. If you and I sit on the swing and act like lovers each night… um…”

“I think technically we’re already lovers.”

“But we’re not in love. I think I could fall for you, Noah. I could fall hard, and if a serious relationship is off the table for you, I think I would want to know that. Not tonight, but probably sometime soon. By the end of the summer, maybe. Unless you already know it’s off the table tonight, and if so, go ahead and tell me. It won’t kill me, but I would like your input before I make a decision on the property.”

“Fair enough. I’ll think about the land, and nothing is off the table tonight. Okay?”

“Okay.” She smiled at him. “Good. I’m glad.” She drew a deep breath, then exhaled with a sigh. “In that case, I have one more question.”

Noah couldn’t help but groan. Willow laughed. “No, you’ll like this one. At least I hope you’ll like this one. One of the moms I’ve gotten to know at daycare has invited Drew and Emma to spend the night with her kids the night of The Emily gala. Since my kids will be at the Wheeler’s house, would you like to come back to my place for an after-party?”

The “hell yes” on his tongue froze. “What about AJ?”

“He’s an excellent sleeper. Noise doesn’t bother him. He rarely wakes in the middle of the night, and if he does, he’s in a very sturdy crib. He can’t climb out.”

Noah held up his glass in a toast. “Here’s to excellent carpenters.”

Willow clinked his glass with hers. “Here’s to a man of many skills. I can’t wait to see what surprise you have for me next.”

“I’m a man full of plans, Goldilocks. A man full of plans.”