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She looked up at the second story. “Will you have another deck up there?”
“That’s the plan.”
“It will be amazing.”
“Would you like a tour?”
“Um, sure?”
I held up both hands. “No pressure.”
“Do I need a hard hat or anything?”
“I wouldn’t let you walk around here if it wasn’t safe, Seraphina.”
“I know.”
I couldn’t figure this woman out. One minute, she was looking me up and down like she wanted me for lunch and crying on my shoulder. The next, I felt like she didn’t want me rifling through her sister’s room—even though I was the person she’d asked to help find her—and she didn’t want to see my house.
I’d concede there wasn’t anything wrong with her not wanting to look around here. There wasn’t much to see. “I guess it’s not that exciting.”
“I’m sorry. I broke my arm when I was a kid, walking through a part of the winery that was under construction. I get nervous.”
“Maybe another time.”
“Noah?”
“Do you want any more of this?” I asked, pointing to the food she’d hardly eaten.
Seraphina walked over and put her hand on my arm when I started putting the lids on containers. “Noah? Would you please look at me?”
I stopped, set down the sandwich I was about to wrap, and stared into her brown eyes. “Yeah?”
“I would love to see your house, and I would like more to eat. We started talking about Luisa, and I lost my appetite for a minute. It’s back now, and if you put the Italian sub I’ve been drooling over away, you’ll definitely see a glint in my eye.”
“Sub or tour first?”
“Oh, that’s tough.” She picked up the sandwich and took a big bite. “Tour,” she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
Most women didn’t rattle me. Too often, they bored me to tears, not that I was an asshole about it. One woman—Alex Avila-Butler—shook me to my core. I never dreamed I’d meet another. In fact, I’d been certain I wouldn’t. Today, I was proven wrong. I would never be bored when I was around Seraphina Reeve, and she sure as hell had me shaking in my boots.
It wasfour in the afternoon by the time we returned to her apartment.
“Do you want to come in?” she asked, staring at something on her phone.
“Looks like you’re busy.”
“My mom.” She shrugged and put the phone down. “She’s acting very strange. I guess that’s to be expected with my sister missing.”
“She probably isn’t getting much sleep.”
“Neither of us are.”
“I’ll go. We can talk tomorrow.”
“I was about to open a bottle of wine if you’d like a glass. I promise you’ll like it. Although my place is pretty small, I do have a patio where we can sit.”
“If you’re sure you don’t want to call it a day.”
