The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)(25)

Change was coming soon.

Hazel breathed in the briny air and felt just the tiniest bit unstuck. Here she was, on the beach in the middle of a Tuesday with a pocket full of treasure. Not a bad HANSOF day.

‘Hey, did you read that book? The one with the beach clue?’ she asked.

Noah grinned up at her from where he was now laid out on the blanket. The giant hat was covering his eyes and he didn’t bother to move it so Hazel was free to watch his mouth as he spoke. It was a good mouth. Soft and sweet. Quick to smile. Hazel had become quite fond of it. In a casual way of course.

‘I sure did.’

‘And?’

‘And it was a good one.’ His smile grew. ‘Very educational, just as I thought it would be.’

It was good the top half of his face was still covered so he couldn’t see Hazel’s face turn pink, as she was sure it was. She shouldn’t have brought up the book but before she could admonish herself for that, Noah tugged her down beside him.

‘Now we nap,’ he murmured, his deep voice doing things to her that were not at all sleep-inducing. ‘Beach naps are the best naps.’

It was impossible to argue with that, so Hazel closed her eyes and let Noah’s breathing and the sound of the waves lull her to sleep.





Chapter Eleven





Hazel was stretched out on the blanket beside him, her head resting on her crossed arms. She had her hood up and she looked like a little sea creature peeking out of its shell. Noah was on his side facing her and he found himself cataloging all the delicate features of her face. She’d taken her glasses off and he could see that the warm brown of her eyes contained a silver ring around the pupil. He didn’t know of any other time he’d noticed a woman’s eyes, beyond light or dark, interested or not.

Her curls spilled from her hood and framed her round face. Her mouth ... well, he couldn’t look at her mouth for too long without wanting to cover it with his, but it was soft and relaxed at the moment, a small tip up at the corners. She looked happy, peaceful.

‘Tell me something no one else knows,’ she said now, the late afternoon sun slanting across her face. They’d dozed for a little while and waking up next to a drowsy and warm Hazel was something Noah liked a little too much.

‘I hate pickles.’

Hazel scrunched up her nose, not satisfied with his answer. ‘No, something real. A secret.’

A secret? I like you way more than I should, Hazel Kelly. How was that for a secret?

‘Only if I get one of your secrets in return.’

‘I don’t have any.’

‘Everyone has secrets.’

She paused, her wide eyes studying him. ‘Okay, deal.’

He could have made something up, told her any number of stories from his life that no one around here knew, but he found himself wanting to tell her a real secret. He didn’t know if it was the grogginess from their nap or the soft lines of Hazel’s face but he wanted to know what she would think of him if he told her something true.

‘I never graduated high school.’ The beach was quiet. The mother and her little boy had gone home, the seagulls were asleep, their heads tucked against their white bodies. Even the tide had gone out far enough that the waves were a faint whisper.

Noah’s words fell quietly between them.

Hazel blinked. Once, twice. ‘Well that makes sense.’

What? That certainly wasn’t the response he was expecting. Maybe a ‘why not?’ or the always dreaded ‘you could go back and finish.’ But not a very matter of fact ‘that makes sense’.

‘It does? Wow, I didn’t think my inability to use the quadratic equation was showing.’ He sounded snarkier than he meant to, old wounds opening up and threatening to ruin their afternoon.

She shook her head a little, pressing her cheek into her arms. ‘No, that’s not what I meant. It makes sense now why you’re always disparaging your own intelligence.’

He wanted to laugh that comment off, but did he do that?

‘I do?’

‘Yep. You make little comments about how not smart you are. Just today you told me you’re not ‘that deep’. Remember?’

Huh. Was he making this thing he’d always kept as his shameful little secret obvious with his own words?

‘I guess I didn’t realize.’

‘So, it bothers you? That you didn’t finish?’

Did it bother him? He’d never been good at school. He hated sitting inside all day. It made him itchy and prickly. He was happiest out on the water, so at the start of senior year he’d decided to stick with what he did best. It had made sense to him at the time even when his parents lost their minds about it. His father had told him in no uncertain terms that he’d ruined his life. Only when he promised to start working full time for the seafood business did his dad calm down. And then Noah had screwed that up, too. But instead of confessing any of that, he said, ‘Not really.’

She raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

Noah sighed. ‘It’s just not something I like to broadcast.’

‘And it’s why you left your sisters to run the family business. Because you don’t think you’re smart enough?’

‘Damn Haze, this line of questioning isn’t exactly fun beach talk.’ Of course he didn‘t think he was smart enough. What the hell did he know about running a multi-million dollar company? He couldn’t even pass pre-calc. And he’d tried. He really had. He’d gone to work with his father every day for a year after he quit school. He’d sat in that office and tried to understand the inventory spreadsheets and the delivery schedules and the restaurant contracts. And he’d never been more miserable in his life.