AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t have good enough hair to be a televangelist with a wife and three mistresses and an offshore bank account.”
“Hmm. You may be right.” Willow clicked her tongue. “It’s that cowlick that makes you always look just a little bit mussed that scores you down from Mr. Perfect Hair. Bye, Noah.”
“Bye, beautiful.” He shut the door and moved to the front of the car while she backed out of the parking spot. She gave a wave, tapped her horn, and drove away smiling.
Forty minutes later, she crawled into bed, still smiling.
Chapter Thirteen
NOAH WOKE UP EARLYand made a game plan for the day. The first order of business would be to give the whole house a good cleaning.
Noah seldom utilized the rooms upstairs. While the space wasn’t dirty, it needed sprucing up—a good dusting, cobweb patrol, a once-over in the bathrooms just to freshen things. He would run the vacuum and put fresh sheets on all the beds. Even if Willow decided not to take him up on his offer, what would it hurt to wash the sheets?
Absolutely nothing. Back in the day, Noah’s mother always made sure to launder all the linens in the cabin at least twice a year. Daniel’s wife, Cheryl, continued the practice after Mom died. Noah was the one who’d fallen down on the job. “Par for the course.”
He tackled old ghosts right along with the chores, and by the time he had the downstairs ready for guests, he’d done more thinking about his brother than he’d done in many a month. The exercise proved to be cathartic. As he threw the last load of sheets into the dryer, he was feeling surprisinglyupbeat. When Willow called, he answered the phone with a smile on his face. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Did you rest easy last night?”
“I slept like a babe, believe it or not.”
“Nothing like vigorous exercise to aid healthy sleep.”
“Yes, well, it proved to be a miraculous medicine. But on to the reason for my call. I wonder if you regained your senses overnight.”
“Well, I did dream about you, so…”
She laughed. “Enough flirtation, Noah. I’m calling about your offer of a roof for our heads. No harm, no foul if you’ve second-guessed the idea.”
“No second-guessing here. I actually spent some time this morning dusting.” And sweeping and mopping and sanitizing.
“Oh no. Don’t do that. We will be responsible for cleaning.”
Noah’s lips lifted in a smile. “So, you’re moving in?”
“I’m serious about giving you a chance to change your mind.”
“Not gonna happen. I’m happy to have you. Honestly.”
“And you’re truly okay with moving into the loft? I feel terrible about kicking you out of your bed.”
“One of my beds. And actually, I now have a special fondness for the loft bed, and I may have started sleeping there anyway, no matter what was going on in the big house.”
“Well, in that case, as long as our visitors arrive as planned, I guess you can count on us staying there tonight.”
“Great.”
“You and I will need to sit down and establish some guidelines, and yes, I will insist on paying rent. I suspect my mother is going to hover around us today. She’ll probablyhave dinner with us. Would you like to join us, too? It won’t be anything fancy. Maybe takeout. Maybe pizza. It’ll likely be an early meal, too. I’m guessing between five and six. Travel is hard on little ones. I’ll bet AJ and his nanny will go to bed early.”
“I’d love to have dinner with you.”
“Great. I’ll touch base with you when we’re headed your way.”
“Perfect.”
“Noah?”
