I walk over to where he’s sitting and he immediately wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close. I run my hands through his hair and his eyes flit closed, a soft sigh escaping him. When I scratch my nails lightly against the back of his head, he groans.
“Keep that up and I’m going to fall asleep out here.”
“What are you doing out here, anyway?”
Declan pulls back slightly to get a better look at me. He studies my face for a moment, considering.
“I got an interesting phone call,” he finally says.
“Interesting how?”
His jaw works back and forth a few times, like it requires physical effort to say whatever he’s about to say. I’ve gathered that he doesn't open up easily, and he doesn’t do it often.
“An old buddy of mine from New York called to tell me about the shop he’s at now. One of our old bosses opened up her own place. I guess they’re looking for someone to fill their fourth chair.”
My pulse ticks up as I register the meaning of his words. “He wants you to work there.”
Declan nods but doesn’t say anything further. I wait, giving him time to elaborate, but he doesn’t.
“What did you tell him?”
Declan shrugs, his gaze fixed somewhere over my shoulder. “I told him I’d think about it. I tried telling him I’m pretty settled here, but he wasn’t having it.”
“So you’re considering it?” I hate how needy I sound. How nervous.
“Not really, no.” Declan pulls me down onto his lap and buries his face in my neck. “I’m happy here,” he mumbles against my skin. “I’m happy withyou.”
I want to ask more questions, to find out if there’s any real chance he could end up leaving Port Myles, but we’re interrupted by Noah’s sudden appearance in the backyard.
“There you are,” he says, completely unfazed by the fact that I’m seated in Declan’s lap. My heart immediately begins to race over having a spectator to our relationship, but I remind myself it’s just Noah. I don’t need to hide anything from him. “You want these stools in the greenhouse?”
“Yes, sorry.” I extricate myself from Declan’s hold and stand. “I was about to carry them outside and got distracted.”
“I see that,” Noah says, smirking.
“Hey, Noah,” Declan says, nodding at my best employee.
“Hi, Declan. Did Elsie tell you she absolutely crushed our first class?”
“Oh shit, that was tonight,” Declan says, grabbing my hand and tugging me back toward him. “Tell me about it. How much fun did you have?”
“So much fun,” I admit, smiling. “We had a great turnout. Your mom even came.”
Declan nods like this isn’t a surprise to him. “She mentioned she was thinking about it a while back, when you first posted about it. Who else came?”
“You have a client waiting on you?” Noah asks.
Declan grabs his phone from the bench to check the time. “Nope. I’ve got another ten minutes.”
“Perfect,” Noah says, clapping his hands together. “Put those muscles to use helping us with these stools and we’ll tell you all about it.”
As we set to work carrying the stools out to the greenhouse and folding up the tables that need to be returned to the church weborrowed them from, I make a mental note to ask Declan more about New York the next time I see him.
If there’s any chance at all that he’s going to leave, I want to find out now before I hand over my heart to someone who might leave it behind when he goes.
CHAPTER 37
Elsie
