Alexis adopted him just six weeks after her mom died. She hadn’t been looking for a new cat. She could barely function, and the last thing she’d needed was the responsibility of a new pet. But the shelter had called and said he’d been there for more than three months. Could she at least foster him for a little while? Alexis had taken one look at his angry face and knew he’d be hers forever. She’d never been able to turn her back on a lonely creature.
Lonely creatures were almost always fighting a battle no one knew about.
The morning alarm on her cell phone chimed on the bedside table. Time to get up. She couldn’t afford to lounge in bed, no matter what had happened yesterday. The café didn’t care that a wrecking ball had crashed through her life.
With an apology to Beefcake, Alexis sat up and lifted the afghan from her legs.
And that’s when she smelled it.
Coffee.
It had to be her imagination. But when she slid from bed and stood, the smell hit her again. Stronger now. Like a gift from Heaven. Had Noah programmed her coffeepot before leaving last night? It was exactly the kind of thing he’d do. Something warm and gooey spread in her chest as she walked across her bedroom, but she stopped short when she heard a noise downstairs.
A clink, like coffeepot against mug.
The warm, gooey feeling evaporated as her heart somersaulted. Noah was still there. Alexis turned and stared at her bed as all the air seeped from her lungs.
Ducking into the bathroom, Alexis took stock of her morning face. Eyes puffy from sleep. Cheeks chapped from crying. Hair like a cartoon character. So, yeah, she was super attractive. She quickly tamed her hair into a twist on top of her head and splashed some water on her face.
Her bare feet padded softly on the carpet as she walked downstairs and up the hallway toward the kitchen. She stopped short at the sight that greeted her. Noah stood at the counter with his back to her. He wore the same clothes as last night, but they were more rumpled now. His hair hung loose around his shoulders—full and curly and the kind of hair supermodels paid millions to achieve and maintain. He held a mug in one hand and his phone in the other, his thumb scrolling rhythmically through his Twitter feed.
Alexis stepped into the kitchen and tried to keep her voice normal. “Hey.”
Noah turned around and gave her a tired smile. “Hey,” he answered through a voice still thick with morning. “You sleep okay?”
She nodded and hugged her torso. “I thought you’d left.”
He peeled away from the counter, eyebrow raised behind his glasses. “Like I was going to leave you alone.” He nodded toward the table. “Sit. I’ll make you some breakfast.”
“Thanks, but maybe just some coffee? I’m not sure I can handle food right now.”
She sat in a chair and drew one knee up to her chest, propping her foot on the edge of her seat. Her eyes followed his movements—reaching for a mug from her cupboard, filling it with coffee, dumping the right amount of creamer and sugar in it to make it palatable. Then he joined her at the table, claiming the seat next to hers.
He handed her the mug. “You sure you’re all right?”
“Mostly I’m just numb. Yesterday doesn’t even seem real.” Alexis curled her hands around the hot cup and let the heat seep into her skin. “Thank you for staying.”
He softly clinked his mug against hers. “What’re friends for?”
They sipped their coffee quietly. Alexis smothered a yawn behind her hand.
“Maybe you should take today off,” Noah said.
“I can’t. I need to be there.”
“You’re allowed a sick day every now and then, Lexa.”
“What’s your day look like?”
He lifted his eyebrow again at the obvious change of subject. “A lot of voice mails I don’t want to deal with and a follow-up meeting with a potential new client and whatever crisis crops up.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“It’s not. I’d rather stay here with you.”
Warmth returned to her chest, followed quickly by uncertainty. What did that mean? “What time do we need to be at your mom’s?”
Noah sat back in his chair. “Maybe we should skip dinner tonight.”
“No.”
“It’s too much. We can just hang out, put together the LEGO set.”
“I want to go, Noah. I need to go.” She offered half a smile. “Anyway, I want to make those stuffed mushrooms your sister likes in case she shows up.”
“God forbid we should disappoint Zoe.”
Alexis nudged his foot with hers. “You’re as scared of her as I am.”
“That is absolutely true.”
The conversation lulled into a shared smile. Alexis opened her mouth to thank him again for staying, but he cut her off.
“I did some research last night after you went to bed.”
Her breath caught. “Research?”
“Into him.”
The coffee turned to tar in her stomach. “What’d you find out?”
His fingers scratched his beard-covered jaw. “Most of what Candi told you seems to check out. He lives in Huntsville. Has two grown children, Candace and Cayden. Works for an aerospace engineering company. I found a link to a company newsletter with a profile of him from a few months ago. I printed it out if you want to read it.”
His fingers tapped an overturned stack of papers next to his laptop. She studied it a moment before nodding. Noah slid the stack over, but she didn’t pick it up. She’d read it later. “Did you find anything else?”
Noah hesitated. “Didn’t you say your mom is from Tennessee?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Elliott is from California, and it looks like he didn’t move out this way until 1999.”
“My mom
