The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)(42)

‘That’s probably a good idea.’ He actually had no idea what age was appropriate for sleepovers but he knew his oldest sister was crazy protective of Cece. And now his sister was having another baby. Was he even supposed to know? It stung that no one had told him, not that he would admit it.

Ivy’s eyes widened, her little face craning away from him. ‘Uh-oh. We gotta go...’

The blanket was snatched from their heads and both girls started screaming bloody murder.

‘Give it.’ His sister’s voice brokered no room for argument.

‘Bye, Uncle Noah!’ the girls called as Kristen’s face came into view.

‘Hey, sorry about that.’

‘Hey, Kris.’

Her eyebrows raised as she took in his surroundings but she didn’t ask where he was.

‘Hope the girls didn’t interrupt anything.’

‘No, not really.’

‘You don’t always have to answer for them.’

Noah frowned. ‘I like to.’ His nieces were the one part of his family that didn’t feel complicated. His love for them and theirs for him was simple and unconditional. He’d always answer the phone when they called.

Kristen nodded, studying him like big sisters do. What she was looking for he didn’t ever know, but he always felt like he came up short. Noah, the little brother, the flaky, high-school drop out, the perptetual screw up.

‘Are you coming home for the holidays this year?’

Noah looked up from his phone. Hazel was gone. And this was the last conversation he wanted to have in the middle of her bedroom. He hadn’t been home for the holidays in years and didn’t have any intention of going this year, either.

Hazel had called him a good uncle. She didn’t know that he’d only seen his nieces in person a grand total of three times.

He swallowed hard, the memory of their little bodies crashing into him in delighted hugs the last time he’d been home bringing unwanted emotions to the forefront.

‘Not sure.’

‘Noah...’

‘I can’t right now, Kris.’

‘Yeah, okay. But I just ... everyone wants to see you. That’s all.’

Noah swallowed hard. He knew she meant it, but he also knew it wasn’t that simple. Going home meant facing everyone’s questions, everyone’s expectations. What are you going to do with your life now, Noah? The last time he’d visited he hadn’t even stopped by his parents’ house. He couldn’t have the same conversation with his dad again.

He’d left.

And he couldn’t go back until he had something to show for it. He couldn’t sit across the table from his father until he had more of a plan for his life than fishing tours and bartending, something to prove that leaving school and leaving the business had been the right thing to do.

None of this was shit he could talk to his sister about while he was mostly naked in Hazel’s bed. ‘I gotta go.’

Kristen sighed ‘Okay, love you.’

Noah looked into his sister’s worried face. She always looked at him like that. Like she wondered how he managed to survive in the world without all of them. Like how did he even manage to feed himself without his big sisters or his parents’ business to fall back on?

He was sure she didn’t do it on purpose. But he could feel it, her lack of faith in him. Was it so wrong that when he went home he wanted to be able to say, he did it. That he left and made a life for himself?

Maybe it was.

Maybe he was just a stubborn asshole.

‘Love you too, Kris.’





Chapter Sixteen





Hazel was sitting on her couch with a cup of tea and a blanket pulled over her bare legs, since she hadn’t thought to grab pants, attempting to act like she knew what to do after a night of purely casual sex.

Which of course, she absolutely did not know how to do. She rearranged the blanket and took a sip of her too-hot tea and glanced toward the bedroom again.

She’d probably already messed it up by asking Noah to stay but she’d felt all wobbly and vulnerable and orgasm drunk and the words were out of her mouth before she could consider their implications. And he’d stayed. And it had been really nice. Like really nice. Like sleeping wrapped up in Noah’s arms had been just as perfect as she’d imagined it would be.

And something about waking up with a hot man in your bed, really did wonders for a girl’s self-esteem.

But was this right? Should she feel all soft inside for this man? How could she not after he took a call from his adorable little nieces in front of her and talked to them like they mattered? And that was after the mind boggling, super hot, kitchen oral he’d performed the night before. Any person with a brain would be in her same position right now. Hazel was not at fault here.

‘Hey, sorry about that.’ Noah emerged from her room still dressed in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs, running a hand through his copper hair and looking so adorably sheepish that Hazel had to look away or she might accidentally propose another crazy layer to this arrangement. Like marriage. Or carrying his babies.

Hazel cleared her throat. ‘No problem. Are your nieces okay?’

‘Yep, they’re fine. Uh ... coffee?’

‘In the kitchen.’

Hazel took some deep breaths while Noah prepared his coffee and tried to control her libido that had decided to finally wake up after nearly thirty years of being asleep. It didn’t work. Especially not when Noah shuffled back out into the living room and lowered himself onto the couch next to her, gingerly, so he didn’t slosh his coffee.