The Summer Girlfriend (Heart Beach, #1)(31)

Noelle smiled at the painting. “I love it.”

On the second-floor landing, she paused in front of a large, framed photograph of him and his family from many years ago, standing in front of the Heart Beach house. In the photo, Jeremiah, a toddler, squinted one eye and cheesed at the camera. Beside him, Percy held his hands clasped in front of him and smiled brightly like it was picture day at school. His two front teeth were missing. Behind them, Celeste held baby Amara in her arms, and Pop and Grandma Minnie stood on either side of Celeste. The house looked different back then. There had been no wraparound veranda, white stone walkway, or a third story. Those additions had come later when Jeremiah was in middle school.

“Wow, the house went through some changes,” Noelle said.

“My grandpa had a lot of work done to it over the years. He initially bought the house for my grandma in the seventies. She loved to swim, and he wanted her to have a place to go where she could be closer to the beach.”

“That’s really romantic,” Noelle said.

“Yeah. He never remarried after she died. I don’t even think he dated anyone. If he did, it wasn’t serious enough for him to bring them around the rest of us.”

At a young age, Jeremiah was able to see the kind of love that his grandparents shared, and it had set an example for him to never settle when it came to love. He’d had short-lived flings over the years with women he’d really liked. But he hadn’t felt a deep love connection, not like the one between his grandparents.

He fell quiet, and Noelle glanced over at him. He had a feeling that she was about to ask if he was okay again. He summoned a smile and continued on, past his mom’s bedroom, Percy and Robin’s bedroom, and the bedroom that Ashley and Harper shared, up to the third floor, which housed his bedroom, Amara’s room, a bathroom, and a small sitting room that Amara used when painting.

“Here’s where we’ll be,” he said as he pushed open his bedroom door.

He gazed around the room. His queen-size bed was made, and the large flat-screen television mounted on the wall was spotless. An old LeBron poster from when he’d played with the Cavs was still tacked to the wall, and his old longboard leaned against his closet. He’d originally bought it during one summer in high school when he and Danny had adopted longboarding as their new personalities. This bedroom was a time capsule, a place where Jeremiah preserved the artifacts and phases of his life. Other than the changed bed set and sheets, most of this room had gone untouched since he’d last been here two summers ago.

Noelle gasped and immediately ran over to the bay window and reading nook. She sank down onto the soft cushion.

“Oh my God, I would kill for one of these reading nooks!” she said, bringing her knees up to her chest. “Can you imagine reading here for hours, unbothered?!”

Jeremiah laughed, happy that the nook pleased her. He observed her delighted smile, and also took a moment to take in the rest of her too. She looked beautiful. Her pants hugged her hips, and she wore some kind of lotion or body oil that made her skin shimmer in the sun. He’d checked the charges she’d made on his card, and the amount she’d spent had been less than what he’d expected. Earlier, she’d tried to return his card to him, but he told her to keep it until the weekend was over.

He left their suitcases by the closet and joined Noelle at the window, drawn to her. He leaned past her and inhaled the beachy, almost tropical scent of her perfume. He swallowed thickly as he reminded himself that she was here with him for professional reasons and nothing more. He forced himself to look away from her beautiful face and he peered outside into the backyard. Right away, he spotted Celeste showing the event planning team where she wanted the tables placed. She was wearing a white linen top and pants set and a white wide-brimmed beach hat. His niece Ashley ran up to Celeste and bounced on her toes as she spoke. Then she glanced up and saw Jeremiah and Noelle watching from the window.

“Uncle Miah’s here!” Ashley said, pointing and waving.

Celeste whipped around. Her eyes were concealed behind her large sunglasses, but she smiled so big, there was no way to deny her happiness. Or her relief. She’d probably been worried that Jeremiah wouldn’t show up.

He smiled and waved back. To Noelle, he said, “I guess we’d better get downstairs.”

He held out his hand for her, and she let him pull her up off the reading nook.

“I think we should probably hold hands in front of my family,” he said. “Is that cool?”

“Cool.”

She entwined her fingers through his, and he tried not to pay too much attention to how nice it felt to hold her hand.





Chapter Eight




They hadn’t reached the bottom step before his nieces came barreling into the hallway. They wore matching pink sundresses, and pink beads adorned the ends of their braids. They were identical, but Ashley was taller and had a beauty mark beneath her right eye, and Harper wore glasses. They knocked into Jeremiah and tightly wrapped their arms around him.

“Uncle Miah!”

“You’re finally here!”

“What took you so long?”

“We’re going to the boardwalk! Are you coming?”

“You have to come! Promise that you’ll come with us!”

“Okay, hold on, hold on,” Jeremiah said, laughing. “First, hi. I’m happy to see you too. Second, I want to introduce you to my girlfriend, Noelle.”