Page 25 of Come A Little Closer

“It’s an old house,” he explained lightly, striding past me toward the breaker box. “I rarely have anyone staying here, so we might have some hiccups every now and then as it gets used to the load. It should be safe enough, but maybe I shouldn’t have offered it to you without having someone come out to look it over again.”

“Why did you?” I blurted out, but I’d been hanging onto the question ever since he had. “Offer it to me, I mean.”

He shrugged, those blue eyes finding mine for a moment before he turned to the electrics. “It seemed like a better option for you than staying in an old apartment in a not-so-great part of town when I knew you’d be getting back late often while the events are going on.”

As he said it, he flipped the breakers, and as if a magician had waved a magic wand, the hum of the fridge coming on started almost immediately. I blinked hard.

It would’ve taken me a couple seconds to do that by myself, but I hadn’t.

“Wow, I feel pretty useless right now,” I muttered. “I’m so sorry you came all the way out here just for that.”

A soft smile graced his lips, crinkling the corners of his eyes ever so slightly. He shook his head at me. “It’s no trouble at all. Derrick’s been wary of this place’s electrics since I had it redone and I know his team feels the same way. There’s no reason for you to feel any different, especially not when the maintenance people themselves are just walking around looking at stuff.”

I grimaced. “I wasn’t wary. I’d have done it myself if I’d thought it might work, but I just didn’t even think about it.”

“Never lived in a place with some quirks, huh?”

I shrugged. “No, I have, but I guess there’s just always been someone else around to do this kind of thing. This is the first time it’s just me.”

“Of course,” he said slowly, those eyes locking on my own. “This is your first time living alone, right?”

I nodded, my cheeks growing hot all over again. “This is as alone as I’ve ever been.”

“May I ask why?” He moved his gaze from one of my eyes to the other, taking a step back to lean against the kitchen counter as he waited for me to think it over.

For most people, sharing some background on their lives wasn’t a big deal, but I hardly ever said anything about my past. It wasn’t some big secret. Well, most of it wasn’t, but I just didn’t like talking about it very much.

Something about Niall made me want to tell him, though. Maybe it was the way he asked or the way he looked at me when he did.

“It’s really not that interesting,” I said, needing to temper his expectations if he thought he was about to get some terrible sob story. “Growing up, my parents were really strict. They were pretty controlling too and they don’t much approve of creative types, so when I got accepted to an art history program for college, they weren’t too happy.”

A thin crease appeared between his brows, but he nodded. “I get being different from one’s parents, but that’s a story for another day. Continue, please.”

“They insisted that I live with them even after I graduated high school. I think they were hoping that if I was still under their roof, they might be able to convince me to change my major. Obviously, that didn’t happen. You already know from my resume that I got the art history degree.”

“Yeah, I recall seeing that.”

I sighed. “It was the only thing I was ever really interested in, so it seemed like the right thing to do to pursue it, but my parents never came around. In the end, I moved in with my college boyfriend and I stayed with him until I came out here two years ago.”

“When you moved in with your roommates,” he concluded for me, his head tilting slightly as he looked into my eyes. “That’s why you’ve never lived alone. You went from your parents’ house, to a boyfriend’s place, to moving in with roommates. Did I get that right?”

I nodded. “All the way up until that day in your office when you offered me this house.”

“Well, in that case, I’m glad to have aided in the next step to your freedom, I suppose,” he commented, but something seemed to be bothering him.

There was still a furrow in his brow and some confusion clouding his eyes. I frowned back at him. “What is it?”

He focused on me. “Forgive me if I’m being intrusive, but what happened between you and the boyfriend? If you moved in with him before you graduated college and you lived together until you moved out here two years ago now, that means you were in a relationship with him for several years. In my experience, those usually end in marriage.”

My blood ran cold, and for just a second, I considered telling him the truth, but I knew I had to be careful about what I said. I didn’t even really know why I cared whether or not Niall knew about Carter, but I just wasn’t ready to share that part of myself with him.

I was making a life for myself here and I didn’t want the ghosts of my past joining the much more fun variety of ghosts they had here in New Orleans. I’d take a spirit over the curse that had been Carter any day.

“You are being intrusive,” I said. “I will forgive you for it, though. Do you really want to know what happened?”

He nodded. “I’m curious, but you’re obviously not obligated to satisfy my curiosity.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “It’s really not as fascinating a story as you seem to think. He cheated on me with my friend and my parents loved him so much that instead of being supportive of me, they tried to persuade me to get back together with him.”