Forever Summer - Melody Grace Page 0,42

that the kind of man she liked?

“Yes. And sweet, too. He always noticed the little things, you know? He was just … good. A good man.” Evie fell silent, and Noah regretted asking anything. Not just because she wasn’t laughing anymore, but because he felt a peculiar stab of jealousy.

Did she still love this guy?

But he was getting ahead of things, Noah reminded himself. And didn’t everyone have a past? He still had Caitlin’s voicemails on his phone, lurking like an unwelcome ghost. He knew as well as anyone how long it took a broken heart to mend.

“I moved here for a fresh start, too,” he found himself sharing, as rainfall beat against the windshield. “I had a bad break-up back in Nashville. We were engaged.”

“Really?” Evie blinked at him, looking surprised. “I didn’t think … well …”

“That I knew the meaning of the word ‘commitment?’” Noah asked lightly. He couldn’t help feeling insulted, but could he really blame her? Nothing about the way he’d been behaving lately suggested that he was a man who believed in love.

But he had, once upon a time.

When he looked over, he found Evie studying him, looking more thoughtful. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I didn’t realize. What happened? If you don’t mind talking about it.”

He did.

Noah took a breath. “It’s a long story,” he said casually, not wanting to ruin the mood. “I guess we just weren’t meant to be. Some things aren’t built to last—the world gets in the way.”

He knew it sounded trite, but what else could he say? All the best intentions in the world couldn’t keep a relationship together if the other person changed into someone you didn’t even recognize.

Evie nodded slowly. It looked as if she wanted to ask more, and Noah braced himself for a series of painful questions. But instead she just smiled, her tone turning lighter. “So, all this dating around you’ve been doing as the Number One Playboy of Sweetbriar Cove …?”

Noah gave a wry chuckle. “Maybe I’ve gone a little overboard, but I just wanted to put it behind me and move on.”

“I get it,” Evie said. “It’s hard, feeling stuck in one place. So …” She shot him a mischievous look. “How’s all that dating working out for you?”

Noah paused. Right now, with her in the passenger seat beside him, it was working out great. But he didn’t want to come on too strong, so he just gave a casual shrug. “It has its moments … and some of them, I’d prefer to forget,” he added, flashing a smile.

She laughed. “Like your friend in the pub the other night.”

“Exactly,” Noah replied, even though he was pretty sure he owed Marisa a gift basket for how that had worked out.

The expensive kind, with name-brand candy.

“I went on some terrible dates last year,” Evie confided. “I shouldn’t have tried so soon, but I thought it was about time to pick myself up and stop weeping over a tub of ice cream on a Friday night.”

“Been there, done that,” Noah agreed. “Although with me, it was sheet cake.”

Evie snorted with laughter.

“Oh, you can laugh now, but it wasn’t funny,” he continued. “They sold it at a Cuban grocery down my block. Chocolate with this thick, fudgy frosting. Most people bought them for birthday parties—they fed a crowd—but I got through one pan a week just sitting around in my sweatpants. It wasn’t a good look,” he added, only half kidding.

Those months after the split with Caitlin, he’d been a mess. Drinking too much, losing sleep, wallowing over what could have been. Moving back to Sweetbriar Cove had been his last-ditch try to break the depressing cycle—and it had worked. He’d pulled himself together and put the past behind him.

He’d met Evie.

“Look, I think that’s the place,” Evie broke his thoughts, pointing up ahead through the rain. This inn looked more approachable, set back behind some overgrown bushes, with …

“Are those garden gnomes?” Noah asked, peering at the decorative blobs dotted around the front yard. “A battalion of gnomes?”

“Yup,” Evie said, smiling. “Something tells me you should brace yourself for cute.”

She was right: there were clusters of ornamental fruit on the porch, and the cranberry-red door had a knocker in the shape of a bird. This time, Noah decided to switch his cover story and go for a down-to-earth-lovebirds effect, and he explained to the owner that they were looking for a romantic staycation spot.

“We’d just love to take a look around,” he added, playing up