“What sort of management—” She broke off when the elevator doors slid open.
She hadn’t even been aware that the car had stopped moving.
Still holding the ladder propped against his shoulder, Jay shifted sideways until his back was pressed against the edge of the door. “After you.”
She detached herself from the padded wall and quickly stepped out of the elevator. It meant passing him even more closely and she only realized she’d been holding her breath when it escaped after she’d put half the width of the corridor between them. Whether or not he’d ignored her for more than a week, walking away without saying some sort of goodbye felt rude.
“Well.” She pressed her palms together. “Guess I’ll see you around.” She turned to leave only to bump hard against the corner of one of the empty rolling racks stored against the wall. Feeling like an idiot, she steadied the cart as she moved around it.
“Bella, wait.”
It was painful the way her nerve endings tingled so swiftly where he was concerned. She took another sidestep, waving her arm. “I can see you’re busy and I need to get going.”
“Bella—”
Her neck prickled. “Arabella, actually. Only my family calls me that.”
His gaze flickered. “I should have called you this week.”
Something inside her head sort of popped. “Then why didn’t you?” The words flew out. Cheeks on fire, she backed up again and banged into yet another rack. “Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
“It’s not you, it’s—”
Good grief, she was going to cry at this rate. “Yeah, I know. Sorry if I don’t want to hear another it’s not you, it’s me story. No sweat, you know. You don’t have to explain a thing. We don’t even really know each other.”
I think you should know that...
She clamped down hard on that thought, cutting it off at the head.
“Tell your grandmother thanks again from me. The jam she sent me home with is already gone thanks to my brother and his family.” Afraid of what she might do or say if she let him get a word in edgewise, she quickly turned and mercifully avoided running into another one of the racks as she hurried away.
It was only divine mercy that kept her feet moving in the proper direction, because she honestly wasn’t sure how she ended up back in the lobby. The couple with the luggage was gone now and a curvy girl in a black T-shirt and trousers was dusting the leather chairs they’d occupied.
Arabella managed a smile as she sailed past her and out the door. She felt a little compunction for not looking in on Brady, but told herself he would have been busy, anyway.
Clouds had formed overhead while she’d been inside the hotel, and the air felt heavy and humid. Her car provided no relief, either, and she was grateful to get back to Brady’s place.
The house was empty—a momentary condition, she felt sure—and with Murphy trailing after her every step, she changed out of her skirt and blouse and into cutoffs and a spaghetti tank and went down to the kitchen.
“And that’s another deep cut called ‘Lonely Only’ from Carr’s first album that was released nearly ten—”
Arabella snapped off the droning voice on the radio and opened her arms. Murphy nimbly jumped up into them. She rubbed his ears. “Did you behave?”
He licked her neck, which wasn’t much of an answer, but was pretty delightful, anyway. She gave him a treat and he jumped out of her arms and darted through the dog door.
Harper and Brady had taken to leaving notes on the refrigerator for each other in an attempt to keep up with the increasing busyness of their lives. Brady’s schedule. Harper’s menu plans for the coming few days. Another note in Harper’s neat handwriting that said simply Love you.
The sweet, ordinary things of an ordinary life. Arabella sighed as she traced Harper’s little note.
How nice it would be to have someone with whom to share that sort of ordinariness.
Predictably, Jay filled her thoughts and she determinedly shrugged him off along with the clouds inside her mind as she pulled open the refrigerator door.
The least she could do was get dinner started and according to Harper’s note, the menu du jour was hamburgers on the grill and salad.
She had the salad and burger patties waiting in the fridge and was poking at the fiery coals in the grill in the backyard when she heard the rumble tumble of the twins inside the house behind her. Several minutes passed, though, before Harper came outside, Murphy on her heels. She was wearing a T-shirt and shorts.
“Look at you,” Harper greeted her delightedly. “When the boys’ checkups at the clinic went later than I expected, I figured I’d be resorting to PB&J for their supper if I wanted to get them to bed at a reasonable hour.”
“Just waiting for the coals to get hot.” Arabella hung the poker on the side of the kettle-shaped grill and fit the domed lid in place. She eyed the kiddie pool that Harper was manhandling through the doorway. “Need help?”
“I’ve got it.” Proof was in the pudding. The hard plastic pool popped out of Harper’s hands and rolled on its side off the edge of the patio, flopped down onto the grass. Murphy went nuts, immediately hopping inside it to sniff every blue plastic crevice. “Picked it up at the store on the way home. This humidity is killing, isn’t it?” Harper didn’t wait for an answer as she grabbed the end of the coiled garden hose. “Murphy, come.”
The dog flopped on his belly and woofed.
Harper shook her head, resigned. “Get wet, then.” She dropped the end of the hose into the pool and turned on the water.
Predictably, Murphy yelped. He disliked water as much as he disliked being left alone in a silent house.
