Forever Summer - Melody Grace Page 0,19

it had all turned out so well. “Thank you. Cooper is a godsend. I propose marriage to him daily.”

“And what does your husband think about that?” Noah asked lightly.

Evie froze. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just … I heard you talking about him to Louie,” Noah explained. He paused, giving her an inscrutable look. “You didn’t mention you were married.”

Evie blinked. “That’s because I’m not. Not anymore.” She paused. “He passed away, a couple of years ago,” she admitted quietly.

Noah cursed under his breath. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

Evie nodded. She’d gotten used to accepting condolences by now. “We weren’t married long,” she added.

“I can’t imagine that makes much of a difference.”

Evie gave a rueful smile. “No, it doesn’t. Anyway, I’m here to start over, instead of staying trapped in all the memories and grief. That’s what the inn is all about—in case you were thinking I was just some reckless idiot, diving into chaos headfirst for the hell of it,” she added, joking to lift the mood.

“I didn’t—” Noah began to protest. Then he stopped and gave a grin. “Well, now that you mention it …”

Evie laughed, glad to have broken the tension. There was nothing like a dead husband to stop a conversation in its tracks. People suddenly started treating her with kid gloves, like she was about to break down in tears at any moment, and Evie always found herself wishing she’d never said anything at all.

Luckily, Noah didn’t dwell on it. He paused by a shelf of tools instead. “I should pick up one of these bench clamps for my dad,” he said. “He’s working on a new chest of drawers.”

“He makes furniture?” she asked. “If it’s any good, let me know. I need a ton of stuff for the inn.”

Noah snorted. “Not unless your guests are three inches tall. It’s dollhouse furniture,” he explained. “The man’s obsessed.”

“Oh,” Evie said, surprised. “That sounds … nice.”

Noah laughed. “I think you mean eccentric, but it keeps him occupied. After he retired, he had no idea what to do with himself,” he explained as they slowly strolled the aisle. “He was driving my mom crazy, just hanging around the house. But then this buddy of his had an old dollhouse he wanted fixing up, as a gift for his granddaughter. Dad took it on, and—well, it was a match made in heaven. He even sells some of it online. You wouldn’t believe what people will pay for a miniature dining table and eight tiny matching chairs.”

Evie laughed, throwing a couple of rolls of duct tape into her cart. If there was one thing she was learning about living on a construction site, it was that you couldn’t have too much duct tape. “My mom breeds ragdoll cats,” she confided. “They’re this special breed, extra docile and affectionate. Personally, I think they look creepy. Like the ghost of a spoiled prince got trapped in a cat’s body. But she loves it. She took it up after the divorce. Every time she’d get a little low, I’d come home to find another one of them glaring at me.”

Noah chuckled. “Whatever keeps them happy, right?”

“Right,” Evie agreed. “Although mine probably won’t be satisfied as long as I’m out here, trying to make a go of the inn. She means well,” she added. “She doesn’t think I’m ready for a big life change like this. You know, after everything.”

Her mom was just trying to look out for her, Evie knew. After Glen died, she had been in a pretty bleak place, and it had taken a ton of support from family and friends to pull herself back together. But even though Evie was just fine standing on her own two feet again, her mom worried that a big change like this would be too much, and no amount of reassurance would make her see otherwise.

“And are you?” Noah asked. “Ready, I mean.”

Evie gave a determined nod. “I can’t just stay spinning my wheels in one place forever. It’s time to move on. I just didn’t expect moving on to have quite so many damp patches,” she added, rueful. “Or dead racoons.”

Noah grinned. “You can handle it.”

Evie smiled back. “You sound pretty certain for a man who’s had to stop me from plummeting to my doom twice already.”

“Balance issues aside, I’m not worried,” Noah replied. “I have a feeling you can handle anything.”

When Evie glanced over, she found Noah looking at her with a strange, quiet intensity in his expression. His eyes locked on hers,