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He smiled at her as he stood. “Come on. It’s late, and I’m sure Justin is waiting for you.” They walked out of the office and back to the elevator. “But I’ll reach out to Lily and see where she’s at. I don’t want you to get all stressed out about it.”
“Thanks, Noah. You’re a real lifesaver.”
He wasn’t so sure about that, but there were worse ways for people to see him.
After saying goodbye to Sara in the parking garage, Noah got in his car and considered his options. He didn’t have Lily’s phone number, so if he wanted to talk to her, he was going to have to go to the guesthouse. And considering that William wasn’t home, he felt relatively safe heading over there.
Pulling out of the parking lot, his stomach growled and he made the snap decision to grab a couple of burgers and some fries to bring with him to share with her in case she hadn’t had dinner yet. And if she had, well…more for him. It was thirty minutes later when he pulled up to the guesthouse and breathed a sigh of relief that her car was there. It hadn’t hit him until he was almost here that she could be out with her friends again.
Lily was standing in the doorway as he got closer. “Noah? What are you doing here?”
He held up the bag of food. “Have you eaten yet?”
“Um…no, but…”
He walked up to the door and gave her a lopsided grin. “Sometimes I hate eating alone. But I also wanted to see how things went earlier with your grandfather. Then I realized I didn’t have your number, so I figured I’d just drive over.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Oh. Come on in. It’s kind of a short story.”
“Really?” Following her inside, they set up the food at her small kitchen table and sat down. “What happened?”
“First, give me your phone,” she said, holding her hand out. When he gave it to her, she programmed her number in and then sent herself a text so she had his number. “There. One problem solved.”
“Great. Now, what happened?”
“As you know, he was out of the office for the day. But Sara was acting all weird and nervous and I asked her outright if she knew if my grandfather was sick and she gave me this totally lame answer about being new there and…I don’t know. I feel like she was totally not telling me something.”
Okay, so Sara was spot-on in her worrying.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked to eat, but I figured everyone likes burgers,” he said instead of addressing her comment. “And the fries from this place are to die for and they were made fresh while I waited, so…”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. “You totally know something, don’t you?” she accused.
Crap.
Apparently Sara wasn’t the only one Lily could see right through.
“Noah, come on, seriously? You’re not going to tell me what you know?”
“Can we just eat first and then talk?”
“No,” she snapped. “We absolutely can’t. If there’s something wrong with my grandfather…”
“Did you talk to him this afternoon?”
“What?”
He nodded. “You heard me. Did you talk to him after you left the office?”
With a huff of annoyance, she leaned back in her chair. “Yes. He called me because he told me earlier to call him and I didn’t. Then I had things to do and I talked to him again just a little while ago.”
“Okay…and what did he say to you?”
“That he and Uncle Robert were staying in Raleigh because their client was difficult, but he sounded weird. Like I could totally tell something was off and anytime I tried to address it, he completely deflected and made me talk about what the doctor said today. It was beyond frustrating and…”
“Wait,” he interrupted. “You went to the doctor today?”
Now she groaned and muttered a curse under her breath. “He actually made some calls for me yesterday and managed to get me in to see an orthopedic specialist today. I wasn’t particularly ready for it, but the two of them made all the arrangements without consulting me first. And I have another one tomorrow.”
