No, his father changed course. “What’s your competition doing?”
“Besides laughing his ass off, you mean? I hear he’s packing them in every night.”
“And did you take the time to verify the rumors for yourself?”
Noah gritted his teeth. “Yes, Dad.” Masochist that he was, Noah had rolled his truck past Dell’s in the dark and slumped when he saw that the place was hopping. “Keating’s almost done with his renovations, which will double his capacity.”
“Just a minute.” His father muffled the microphone for a beat. “Your mother says Charlie mentioned possible building violations at Dell’s?”
Charlie only knew about them because of Hailey, and Noah smiled to himself. It felt good having her on Team Hunnicutt. “He’s passed it on to the building department, but until an inspector investigates, nothing can be confirmed. But I need to operate as if Dell’s gets a green light. I’ve got my own business to run, and I can’t be focused on what he’s doing.”
A light rap on the door had Noah swinging it open, revealing Hailey, smiling and luscious in a cropped fuzzy pink sweater with a deep V-neck, tight indigo jeans, and high-heeled black suede boots. Yowser! If he was a cartoon character, he’d have eyeballs on coils that sprang out of their sockets. Her hair was loose, brushing her shoulders, and she wore big silver hoop earrings. She looked like a woman all dressed up for a … date. That honeysuckle scent he was addicted to wreathed his head, and hefloated to a happy place. While he eyed her from head to toe, some of the bite went missing from his dad’s bark.
She motioned over her shoulder and mouthed, “Pantry.” He nodded dumbly, watching her round ass sway as she spun and headed in that direction. Chance got up and loped after her, and for a beat Noah envied his dog. Christ, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on—
“Noah?”
“Uh, yeah, Dad.”
“Have you considered selling?”
“Funny you mention it. Keating did make me an offer.” He told his dad about the asshole’s lowball offer.
“You’re not thinking of selling to that scumbag, are you?” his dad sputtered.
Wow! For once, they agreed. “No, Dad. He probably just wants to get his hands on the building and tear it down.”
“What else do you have going on, son? Business-wise, I mean.” His father’s curious tone threw Noah, and he almost,almosttold him about the upcoming meeting with Silver Summit. But he didn’t want to be on the hook for explanations if nothing came of it. He would merely arm his dad with more ammo to use against him.
“Listen, your mom wants to talk to you for a few minutes, but you’ll keep us posted, right?”
“Sure.” Noah felt an odd, unfamiliar sense of alignment with his father and was puzzling over the true nature of their conversation when his mom came on the line.
“Hi, honey,” came her cheery voice.Toocheery.
He braced himself for the questions about her investment he was sure she would fire at him. Instead, she started with, “I want to know about your girl.”
Despite himself, he laughed—and didn’t bother denying Hailey was his girl. “Who told you? Charlie or Reece?”
“Neither. I heard it from Neve’s mother, who heard it from …” She ran through a litany of townsfolk names and ended with, “And she heard it from Dixie.”
Even thousands of miles away, his mother was still in the small-town loop, and it was as much of a live wire now as it had always been. That it existed both comforted and annoyed him.
“There’s not much to tell, Mom.”
“No? Dixie reported some canoodling. Do you like her, Noah?”
“Dixie? Of course I like her. She’s my manager,” he quipped.
“Oh, Noah, not Dixie! I want to know about Hailey. Is she special?”
Whoa, she even knew Hailey’s name! A streak of pink and indigo flew past, honey-blond hair streaming after. Where the hell was the subject of this conversation going in such a hurry? “Yes, Mom. She’s very special. I like her a lot.” How wasthatfor honesty?
He’d never met anyone who made him seriously think about forever before, but Hailey had him contemplating it a lot. When he looked into his future,shewas in it, and he wasn’t even weirded out over having these thoughts about someone he’d known less than a month.
His mother stole the words from his head when she crooned, “When you find that right one, you just know. I can’t wait to meet her!”
They moved from that topic to Chance, and to Noah’s great relief, they hung up without touching the subject of his failed enterprise.
