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“You can set that suitcase back in the car. I’ll go see what your mom says.” Eva crossed her arms over her chest after she opened the trunk for him.
He lifted it back up and set it back in. “If Mom has suddenly gotten booked overnight, I’ll help you find somewhere else.” That was the best he could do.
Suddenly he realized Jubilee was staying with his mom, and if Eva found a room there, they’d be staying together. His ex and...Jubilee. He didn’t even know what to call Jubilee. She certainly wasn’t a girlfriend, not even close. He didn’t know if he wanted her to be. He just knew there was something about her that made his heart feel a little lighter. A little happier. There was a pull there that made him want to be with her. Some kind of obsession, maybe that was too strong of a word, but something that made her image flow through his brain at the oddest times, that made him want to think about her when he should most definitely be thinking about something else. Like getting rid of Eva and making sure she wasn’t staying at his mom’s house. And thinking about how he shouldn’t offer that to her.
But it was too late.
“All right. I’ll be in touch with Nora. I’ll let her know where I’m staying, and I’m sure she’d like it if we can do a few things together.” Eva’s voice held less warmth than it had when she had arrived, almost like she had been expecting to talk to him and take up with him now that she wasn’t with her husband anymore. Maybe that wasn’t what she was thinking, but maybe she was going to butter him up so he would let her stay at his house.
He wasn’t sure. He’d never been very good at figuring women out. The only thing he could say for almost certain was that Eva had been expecting something from him, and now she was pretty sure she wasn’t getting it.
At least they’d gotten that much settled.
Chapter 6
“Ipromise you whenit comes out of the oven, you will never even be able to taste the zucchini in it.” Lana winked at Jubilee as she put the pans of chocolate zucchini bread in the oven.
Her girls had helped and were now standing at the sink working on scrubbing the dishes.
Lana had said after a full morning of work, they should go down to the lake and at least play in the waves a bit and cool off before they came back up and worked in the garden in the evening.
Her girls were all for that. And Jubilee had agreed that once this chocolate zucchini bread was out of the oven, she would deliver two loaves to Kim and Davis Thatcher who had just gotten out of the NICU with their brand-new daughter.
Jubilee hadn’t met them yet, but delivering chocolate zucchini bread seemed like a good way to meet the neighbors. Then she and her girls would go down to the lake for a bit before they came back up to work a little more. She liked the easy, relaxed way that Lana did things. There was no stress or striving, just consistent work, with a lot of emphasis on laughing and having fun while things got done.
It was an inspiration to Jubilee and a way of living that she hoped to pick up.
A knock at the door interrupted their conversation.
It opened before either of them could leave the kitchen, and they heard footsteps in the hall.
“We’re back here,” Lana called, drying her hands on a dish towel while Jubilee set the timer on the oven.
She had a hard time believing that the chocolate zucchini bread would taste just like chocolate cake, but Lana hadn’t lied to her yet. In fact, Lana had been far better to her than she deserved. A single mom with absolutely no money. Lana had taken her under her wing and treated her like she was doing Lana a favor by agreeing to work for her.
“Eva,” Lana said, sounding surprised.
