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I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, okay.”
He looked down at his kid, who was squishing the air out of me and shook his head. “No, I mean it.”
Before I had a chance to process that, he turned and headed for the front of the store. “Come on, Tobes, let’s buy a stove.”
Toby grabbed my hand and tugged me along while he skipped to the register. My heart skipped right along with him.
CHAPTER15
CLARK
Joe livedin a multiplex of four apartments, each with two bedrooms, just off Main Street. The building looked more like a business office than an apartment building, with a stucco exterior and a flat, tarred roof.
I arrived ten minutes after checking out of the hardware store with Hunter. He’d opted to have the stove delivered the following day, so it didn’t take long to wrap up. When I’d left them, Toby had been asking to go to his grandma’s house for Canasta Club, and Hunter had looked a little like a man about to face the gallows. I didn’t blame him. Nana was a regular at Canasta Club, and as I understood it, “canasta” was really code for “let’s gossip.”
They were likely to be nosy, pushy, and meddlesome.
Hunter was a good dad, though, so he agreed.
I parked in front of Joe’s building, dreading the talk we had ahead. But at least it wasn’t a firing squad of four gossipy women, just one friend who would never believe in our fake relationship.
Joe opened the door when I knocked, the scent of paint wafting from inside. “Hey, come on in. We can talk while I work.”
I wrinkled my nose at the smell but followed him through a beige living room with a cushy recliner and matching brown couch and into the hall. “You didn’t waste much time. Why are you painting?”
He half turned, grinning over his shoulder. “Can you keep a secret?”
I laughed softly. It felt like all I did lately was keep secrets. What was one more?
“Sure, as long as that goes both ways.”
His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t argue. We stepped into a small empty bedroom. Joe had tarps thrown over the carpet and tape along the baseboards. Pale yellow streaked a small section of wall where he had begun to paint with a roller.
“This is Augustus’s favorite color,” he told me. “I’m painting this room in the hopes he might use it as an office. He’s planning to eventually leave the auto shop and do books on his own, so I want him to have a workspace he can call his own.”
“You want Augustus’s space…to be in your home.”
“I do.” Joe cleared his throat and shuffled. “I’m going to ask him to move in.”
“Wow, that’s a big step.”
“I know.”
“You two haven’t been dating long…”
Joe nodded as if he expected this reaction. “Sometimes you just know.” He shrugged. “I thought about house shopping, but that feels too soon. This gives us some time to try it out, but I already know he’s the one for me.”
“Well, then I’m happy for you.” I went in for a hug.
He squeezed me tight. “Thanks. I wasn’t sure for a while, but it all worked out.”
I smiled up at him. “It did. You’re making a great life here.”
Joe had been lonely when he followed me to Granville. He’d left a whole circle of family and friends behind in the hopes of a fresh start, but being the new guy in a tight-knit community could be hard. And I was so busy throwing myself into every school event possible to distract myself from thinking about Alexa and the mess I’d left behind that I wasn’t as available as I should have been.
I’d invited Joe to a few dinners with Nana, and I’d had a couple of coffee dates with him, but in retrospect, he probably needed more than one distracted friend, so I was really happy he’d found someone special.
Joe pulled away and grabbed a roller, resuming the paint job. “We’re not here to talk about me though,” he said. “So, spill it, Clark. What’s really going on with Hunter? After what happened with Alexa, you were adamant you’d never date a student’s parent.”
