Piper squirmed, indicating the hug was over. “Bye, Audrey.” And then she turned and marched up the bus steps.
“Hey,” Audrey called out before the driver could close the doors. “I’ll be waiting right here for you after school.” Piper gave one last nod before disappearing.
The lump that had filled her throat finally burst, and the first tears leaked out. Audrey swiped them away as the bus rumbled down the street and made a left turn to fade from view.
She should be happy for Piper, and she was, actually, but Audrey couldn’t help but fight back the emptiness that took place of the little girl that had come to mean so much to her. And the urge to run after that bus wasn’t a good sign. If Audrey was this much of a mess just seeing Piper off to school, what would it be like when she had to say goodbye for good?
Just thinking about never waking up to Piper’s soft voice in the morning or seeing that ratty stuffed cat she dragged around was even more depressing than seeing the girl off to school.
Maybe she should…
No. Relocating was not an option. Her life was in Boulder. Her business she’d spent so many years building. All her friends. Her town house. Her empty town house.
Still, she couldn’t uproot her life and move to the other side of the state for a little girl and her drop-dead sexy uncle.
Piper would be okay with Cameron. She still wasn’t sure Cameron would be okay with Piper. Audrey could still see a thread of uncertainty in his eyes whenever he looked at Piper, as though he thought Piper would shatter.
Audrey turned from the street and headed back to the guesthouse. On her way, she passed her car and noticed the yellow Post-it on her windshield.
Knowing who it was from, Audrey was already grinning. She was like some needy teenager who’d been passed a note in science class by her crush.
Seriously pathetic.
She snatched the note off the car anyway.
I noticed the air in your front tire was low. So I filled it.
C
Just a capital C. Not even his full name, because they had grown that comfortable with each other. Audrey didn’t even flinch, because she liked that he was comfortable with her. It meant she was on her way to cracking that badass exterior he wanted her to think he had.
She was already convinced he wasn’t the hard-ass he wanted people to think. Not when he went around doing things like cooking breakfast with little girls, not calling the police on nosy old ladies, and filling Audrey’s tires for her.
Not only had no man ever done anything like that for her, but she also liked that he noticed, then took it upon himself to fix it.
He was a fixer. A doer. Which meant he cared more than he wanted her to think.
Audrey’s smile widened as she tucked the note to her chest, like it was some kind of declaration of love.
Yeah, right. She’d guess Cameron Shaw had never made such a declaration to a woman before. He wasn’t the type. No, he was the type who showed how he felt rather than wasting his time with words.
She entered the guesthouse and tucked the Post-it note away with the other two he’d left after fixing the porch step and the water line to the house.
Okay, so it was silly, keeping his little notes. But one day, when she was gone and had moved on with her life, she’d be able to look back and remember that Cameron Shaw had a heart, and he hadn’t been too proud to show her.
Did that make her special? Audrey wasn’t sure yet, but she knew there was something there. Something…different between her and Cameron that she hadn’t felt before.
Audrey poured herself another cup of coffee and left the guesthouse for the back door to Cameron’s house. He told her, shortly after they’d moved in, that he’d leave his sliding glass door unlocked should she need anything.
She let herself inside his quiet, cool house, inhaling the scent that she’d come to associate with Cameron. The whole place smelled like him. Warm. Manly. A lot like the man himself.
She knew where he kept his Post-its because they’d gone back and forth enough times. She opened the kitchen drawer and snagged a pen and the last little yellow square, making a mental note to grab more.
Thanks for fixing my tire. BTW, you’re out of Post-its.
A
She slapped the note on the television screen, where she knew he’d see it because he always watched a quick recap on ESPN in the living room every night before bed.
Not that she’d been learning his habits or anything.
Still, Audrey couldn’t help the grin that sneaked along her mouth as she let herself out the back door.
Eleven
Audrey returned home fifteen minutes before Piper’s bus was supposed to drop her off from school. After an exhausting day of Skyping with her business partner, grocery shopping, then meeting at Annabelle’s to discuss her nursery, Audrey was ready to drop with a glass of wine. Or maybe the whole bottle.
Except the last time she’d done that, she’d ended up lip-locked with a man who sent her hormones into hyperdrive. So maybe wine was a bad idea.
She had just enough time to unload all the groceries, which may or may not have included extra cookie dough ice cream and a jar of marshmallow cream. Just for those nights when the urge to slip in Cameron’s back door was so strong that her fingers actually itched. Yeah, ice cream was a totally suitable substitute.
But the ice cream would have to do, because it was becoming increasingly hard to keep her cool around him. To keep her sly glances to herself. To control the trembling of her fingers whenever he was
