Chapter Four
When Noah arrived at the Grind, Meredith was already seated at one of the small tables. She had a cup of what looked like hot chocolate and was studying the want ads in the Nashville News.
Noah got a cup of dark roast and joined her. “That better not be the real estate section,” he joked.
“It’s not.”
She grinned at him, and he once again felt that tug toward her. She looked more put together than she had last night, like she’d slept well after her exhausting days of driving. She wore a cranberry turtleneck sweater, a tweed jacket, and jeans. Her lips were the same color as the sweater. He wanted to kiss her but managed to quell such an inappropriate impulse. First, he’d sell her the house. Then he’d kiss her.
He leaned over and tried to read the newspaper upside down. “Job hunting?”
“I’ll need to find something if I’m going to buy the house.”
Noah was afraid to ask, but he had to. “And are you?”
“I am.”
He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t a done deal yet. “What about the price?”
Meredith studied him for a moment. “It seems reasonable. Much less than anything in Vegas, certainly.”
“You’ll want to have it appraised. You’ll have to anyway, to get financing.”
“I don’t need financing,” Meredith informed him.
That surprised him. Meredith Clark, he decided, was just full of surprises. “Great. Should I have my attorney draw up the papers?”
“It will take me a few days. I’ll have to transfer some funds.”
“So, full asking price?” Noah held his breath.
Meredith’s eyes twinkled. “Unless you want to give me a welcome-to-the-neighborhood discount.”
“How about if I help you find a job instead? There’s an opening for an aide at the high school.”
“I know. I saw that.”
“I could put in a good word for you.”
She sat back and studied him. “You hardly know me.”
But I’m already half in love with you. Now where had that thought come from? Noah mentally shook himself. “Look before you leap,” his grandmother had been fond of saying. It was about time he took her advice. “I work there. I’m on good terms with the principal. He’d be the one interviewing you.”
* * *
The rest of the week passed quickly, in a whirlwind of activity. Noah gave her a set of house keys as a good-faith gesture. Meredith drove to Greenburg, the nearest large town, to make arrangements for her funds to be transferred to a local bank. Then she stopped at the mall and bought a sleeping bag. There was no reason she couldn’t camp out on the floor until she closed on the house and bought some furniture. She certainly wasn’t going to buy a sofa and a bed until the house was hers. Look before you leap. She was learning.
While at the mall, she decided to get a haircut. Something shorter and sassier to go with all the other changes in her life.
Nick Collins, the high-school principal, contacted her the day after she submitted her application. That made her wonder if Noah had indeed put in a good word for her. Although there was no reason why he should; he really didn’t know her or anything about her. But maybe that’s the way it was in a small town. One neighbor doing a good turn for another for no reason. She’d have to get used to that after the survival-of-the-fittest attitude she was used to in Vegas.
She shouldn’t have been surprised to see Noah in the school office when she arrived for her interview. He had told her he worked there, after all, although she didn’t know in what capacity.
Nick didn’t look much older than Noah, and that surprised her. She’d expected someone more . . . mature. But he appeared to be completely competent as he reviewed her application and asked her a series of questions designed to draw her out.
She felt comfortable in this environment, she realized as she sat across from him and told him about getting her English degree over a period of years, taking classes when she could, working around performance schedules. He told her she was overqualified for the position, but it was temporary anyway, just until the end of the school year. That was perfect as far as Meredith was concerned. She’d have the summer to look for something else, possibly a teaching position. Even though she had a degree, Nick explained she’d have to get a teaching certificate as well.
Nick walked her to the outer office, where he introduced her to the two secretaries. Everyone seemed so friendly. Noah was at the copy machine. He nudged Nick. “I was right, wasn’t I?”
Nick tried to ignore him.
“Right about what?” Meredith asked, her gaze moving between the two men.
“I told him you’d be perfect for the job.”
Was Noah psychic? Or had he done his own background check on her? She didn’t want to owe him anything, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about his “help” with getting this job. If she got it.
“He’s right,” Nick said, surprising her yet again. “Even though I very much hate to give him the satisfaction of admitting it. You’ll have to pass the background check, of course. That usually takes a week or so. But there’s no reason for me not to tell you now that the job is yours if you want it.”
“She wants it.”
Meredith frowned at Noah.
“Well, you do, don’t you?”
She decided to ignore Noah and give her attention to Nick. “Thank you. You’ll let me know once the background check is complete?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Noah said.
She didn’t want to be rude to him in front of the others, so she allowed it.
“We could celebrate,” he said. “School’s out at three-thirty. I’ll buy you coffee.”
She turned to him. “Don’t you think you’re being just a tad overbearing?”
He seemed genuinely confused. “In what way?”
“First you sell me a house. Then you find me a job. What’s next? A marriage proposal?”
“Who told you?”
His delighted grin defused her annoyance. She couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Why did he have to be so cute? And helpful? “I’ll take a rain check on the coffee. See you around.” She pulled the door open and walked away.
“I like the haircut, by the way,” he called after her.
She stopped and turned around. “Thanks.” She was virtually certain that he stayed there and watched her walk all the way to her car. With that same grin on his face.