“But it was delicious,” I said sadly.
He smiled. “Aw, sorry, Hop. Maybe I can make it again just for you.”
“You think you’re joking, but I’m gonna hold you to that. Consider it my Christmas present before?—”
I bit down on the rest of the words that had nearly flown from my mouth.Before you go.
My stomach clenched uncomfortably as a heavy silence settled between us. I cleared my throat. “So, uh, where are we meeting Kevin?”
“Oh! Let me look.” Noel raised his phone and pulled up a text stream with Kevin. They’d exchanged numbers after Noel agreed to hold the party, but judging by how much he had to scroll, they’d talked about a lot more than arranging this meetup.
“Either Kevin is a total diva, which he is, or you two have gotten friendly.”
Noel sent me a small smile. “I guess we have. He’s genuine and funny. I love how he’s unapologetically himself. I wish I’d met him in high school, you know? I might have felt differently about living around here.”
That stung. Noel knewmein high school, and I’d never been enough to win his friendship, much less inspire him to stay.
Noel glanced up from the phone, smile slipping. “Oh, I didn’t mean?—”
“It’s okay,” I said. “You relate to Kevin. I get it.”
Noel slid a hand onto my thigh. “If I’d known about you…”
I swallowed. “I didn’t even know about me. I was so consumed with my mother’s illness, our worries about the farm, that I didn’t have space for anything else.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Noel said. “I’m sorry that I never really noticed you were having a hard time.”
“Well, we weren’t really friends back then, and you had your own problems.” I grimaced. “I did a lot of pretending everything was okay. Lots of big smiles so no one would ask questions.”
Noel squeezed my thigh. “That must have been awful.”
I slipped my hand over his, breathing through a tight throat. “So, where are we meeting Kevin? Did you find the text?”
Noel let me change the subject. He glanced back at his phone. “Doughnut shop? I haven’t been there.”
I chuckled. “Well, you’re in for a treat.”
Noel lifted his travel cup of coffee and took a gulp.
“Just, uh, save some of that coffee so you can have some with the doughnuts,” I said. “You don’t want to drink theirs.”
He gave me a strange look. “Okay.”
“Trust me,” I said.
He smiled. “I always do.”
That smile was dangerous. We’d only been hooking up a little over a week, and my connection with Noel was already the strongest I’d formed with anyone in years.
It was going to hurt like hell when he went home.
I took us through town, navigating my way from the highway to Main Street, then cruised past the downtown businesses. Noel had been here with me when we delivered trees, and we’d distributed event fliers since then.
It was just chance that he hadn’t noticed the doughnut shop—or the sign above its large, plate-glass window.
He noticed now, breaking into a laugh as I pulled into an angled parking spot out front.
“Glazed Holes? Really?”
