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I glance over my shoulder. “Oh, hey, Noah.”
She lowers herself onto the bottom porch step and drops her backpack onto the ground. “Whatcha doing?”
“I’m installing a doorbell camera, like you and your dad have.” I grunt as I twist the screw into its designated hole. “Or at least I’m trying to.”
“Can I help?”
I glance at her house, noting the missing truck in her driveway. “Will your father be okay with this?”
Sure, we’ve exchanged apologies and called a truce—and he made me a killer steak—but I don’t know that Grant wants his daughter to hang out with me, especially if he’s not home. We’re still strangers.
“As long as I take Romeo on a walk, he’ll be okay.” She hikes a shoulder. “We’re right across the street.”
“Take Romeo on that walk first and I’ll be here waiting for you.”
“Really? You’ll let me help?”
“Of course. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I’ve had.” I toss the instruction manual onto the rocking chair. “I’ve been stuck on this one step for the last twenty minutes.”
A wide smile breaks onto her face. “Okay, I’ll be back in ten.”
I chuckle as she bolts across the street. I’ve never seen someone so excited to help install a doorbell camera.
Where’s her mother?
I’ve lived across the street from them for the last several years, but I’ve never noticed whether or not Noah has been here on specific days. I’ve also never seen women going in or out of the house.
Is Grant with anyone?
I shake my head and pick up the manual, forcing myself to focus on the task at hand and not on my hot neighbor’s love life—which doesn’t concern me in the slightest. Not even after I caught him checking me out in my workout outfit last night.Goddamn,that steak was delicious. The man looks like that and he can cook? It doesn’t seem fair.
Five minutes later, I realize the manual I’m staring at is upside-down.
“Stop thinking about him, you idiot.”
When Noah returns from her walk, she ties Romeo’s leash around the railing on my porch. His tail thumps against the grass until I walk over to pet him.
I kneel down and scratch behind his ears. “You’re only excited to see me because you think I have steak.”
Noah smiles. “My dad’s steak was good, wasn’t it?”
“It was.”
“I know he seems like a big mean ogre, but he’s not so bad.” Noah shrugs. “He means well. He’s just…super serious about everything I do.”
“He cares about you a lot.” I press a kiss to Romeo’s head before standing. “You’re lucky.”
She nods but says nothing as she picks up the screwdriver and goes to work on the doorbell camera.
I lower myself onto the rocking chair. “My dad was a jerk, and then he died. It just wasn’t in him to be the caring, loving father I wanted.”
“What about your mom?”
“She’s great. She has early-onset Alzheimer’s. I visit her at the nursing home every week. In a way, it’s like she died too, even though she’s still here. It’s just not the same.”
The screwdriver slips from Noah’s hand, and she bends down to snatch it. “I’m sorry. That’s…that’s really sad.”
“It took me some time but I’ve accepted it.” I rest my head against the chair as I rock. “You’re not always going to see eye-to-eye with your parents. You’ll fight and you’ll feel like they don’t understand you. But they understand you better than you think. You appreciate them more when you’re older, which kind of sucks because in many cases, by then, it’s too late.”
