“I got to know most of those guys pretty well,” Alec says. “I’d remember him if that was it.”
“Want me to ask Summer what he does for a living?” Evie asks. “I can text her.”
“Or can’t you just ask him?” Alec asks. “It’s not weird that I don’t remember someone I met who-knows-where with the team. Why are we acting like this is a big mystery we need to solve?”
“I’m not,” I say. “I just asked because I was curious, but I’ve barely talked to the guy. It’s not a big deal.”
“Is he nice?” Alec asks, a twinge of something menacing laced through his tone.
“He’s very nice,” I say. Or, at least nice-ish. “He’s mostly keeping to himself.”
“Okay, time for you to go now,” Evie says.
“What? Why?” Alec says.
“Because Megan doesn’t want to talk about this guy with her brother,” Evie says. “She wants to talk about him with her best friend.”
“But we justweretalking about him,” Alec says.
“That was brother talk,” Evie says. “Trust me. There’s more.”
“Is that true?” Alec asks me.
I hesitate to answer, but who am I kidding? I’ve been hoping I’d run into Noah all day. And it would be nice to process that with Evie. “It’s…a little bit true.”
Alec sighs. “Sometimes I hate that you two are best friends.”
Based on the sounds that filter through the phone, Evie must lean up and kiss him. “No you don’t,” she says. “Will you go check on Juno? Her show is probably over, and she needs a bath.”
“On it,” Alec says. His voice fades as he moves away, but I still hear him yell, “Where’s my little girl?”
“Okay, spill it,” Evie says. “Was this whole thing really a setup? Summer says she’s hearing through the family grapevine that it totally was.”
“I have no idea,” I say. “Noah thinks it is, but I’m not convinced.”
“Are you doing any actual work?”
“I mean, it’s only been a day. But yeah. Olivia left stuff for me to do. I’m decorating the farmhouse tomorrow, and I’m answering the phone, and a few different orchard employees came in today to pick up their holiday bonuses, so I’m handing those out.”
“Well, that all sounds legit.”
“Yeah. But Noah made it seem like there were definitely other employees who could have handled stuff.”
“Meh. Whatever. You’re there now, and you’re going to do a great job. So what’s Noah like?”
I tug my covers up a little tighter and breathe out a sigh. “Ridiculously handsome,” I say. “And broody and secretive. That’s all I’ve figured out so far.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’ve barely seen him. But…”
“But what?” Evie asks, her tone indicating just how much she’s reading into my hesitation.
“But—I don’t know. We had this moment when we were eating breakfast this morning and it just—it felt like something sparked or whatever.”
“Give me more details,” Evie says.
“We were just looking at each other. Nobody was saying anything. But he didn’t look away, and I didn’t look away, and then my stomach got all twisted and I have no idea. Does that sound stupid?”
