Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) (9 page)

She supposed she could have told Ella about why Noah was actually here, and that he likely only wanted her company so he could pry more information about Tabitha out of her, but she must not have been a hundred percent convinced herself, because she didn’t.

“I saw the way he looked at you,” Ella pronounced. “That’s not a look you can fake. He
likes
you.”

Maggie sank to the stool again and re-assumed her earlier position. “It’s not what you think. I promise.” Suddenly she felt exhausted by the whole situation. Damn Tabitha for dragging her back in when she’d carefully steered clear for so long.

“That’s who you should be dating,” Ella said with absolute certainty. “Not Calvin.”

“I’m sure he’d be really pleased to hear you relinquish his side so quickly,” Maggie said wryly. “You’ve only known him since he was born. You’ve known Noah Fox for less than five minutes.”

“Oh, I don’t mean the way he looks, though sure as shit that doesn’t hurt. If I was twenty years younger, I’d break me off a piece of that. But that’s not what I mean. You and Noah have the chemistry that you and Cal never will,” Ella insisted.

Maggie rolled her eyes. “We talked for approximately two minutes. Don’t you think you’re being a bit premature?”

“You like him too, you just won’t admit it,” Ella said stubbornly.

“Even if I did, it doesn’t matter. He’s only going to be here a week. I’m not going to get involved with someone who’s so temporary. It’s not my kind of thing.”

“It’d be a pretty great thing, though.” Ella grinned and Maggie had to grudgingly admit she probably wasn’t wrong.

“I’m not all repressed and locked down. And I don’t need a hot fling to recharge my batteries. My life is great just as it is. You’ve been reading too many romance novels.”

“If you say so,” Ella said airily. “A lot can happen in a week.”

Maggie shot her a reprimanding look. “So I take it that’s a no
to dating Cal?”

“Yep,” Ella said so cheerfully that Maggie almost felt sorry for Cal. Nobody wanted to take his side, even her. It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t built like a Greek god with a heartbreaker of a face. And really, Cal
was
handsome. She’d heard many women say so. It just happened his clean cut, Captain America look had never done anything for her.

“I’m going to have to tell him no,” Maggie sighed. “And that might be even worse than saying yes and then regretting it afterwards.”

“He’ll get over it,” Ella said. “You can’t choose who you’re attracted to. Calvin knows that.” She leaned over and patted Maggie’s head absently. “Now scram and run those errands so you don’t make yourself into a liar.”

Maggie left Ella’s store feeling both better and worse—better because it was hard not
to be a little pleased that Noah Fox wanted to spend time with her and worse because she knew now, definitely, that she was going to have to tell Cal no.

Turning past the Café, Maggie decided she deserved a night off cooking and that she’d pick up Chinese on her way home for dinner. The Chinese restaurant was on the next block, and Maggie was almost halfway down it, just passing Loretta Hale’s yarn shop, when suddenly, Noah was in front of her, looking as surprised to see her as she was to see him, and still so, so hot.
Illegally hot
, Maggie thought
,
even though she knew it was bad on so many levels to let herself go down this particular path.

“Thinking of taking up knitting?” Maggie asked demurely, hoping her blush wasn’t too obvious as she glanced over at how tightly his t-shirt clung to his biceps, the dark blue color accentuating perfectly the tan of his skin.

Of course it was her again. Maggie King. Tabitha’s sister. When Noah had asked her to join him on his walk, he’d assumed it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, but now with her in front of him again, he realized it hadn’t been at all. He should have recognized the way his heart had slightly sped up as he’d spotted her in Ella’s store, but this time, it was unmistakable. He was far too glad to see her again for it to be mere coincidence.

Basically, he was fucked.

A crush on Maggie King might not be the very worst thing that could have happened, but Noah knew it also wasn’t the best either. It made an already weird situation even weirder.

“Knitting?” Noah asked because the sun was setting and dusk was falling and in the dimming light, he couldn’t believe how blue her eyes were. The realization wasn’t a welcome one, and Noah couldn’t help but wish a little that he could go back to the time when he wasn’t sure if she was pretty or not—because that moment was long gone and he was in a lot deeper than he liked.

“You were in Loretta’s shop,” Maggie said, smiling gently and so sweetly at him that Noah couldn’t help the answering blush he gave her.

He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed to be caught in a
yarn
shop, of all things. The only saving grace Noah could think of was that he hadn’t actually bought any yarn. The disappointment on the lady’s face was difficult to deal with, but Noah was really glad he hadn’t given in and walked out with a plastic bag full of yarn that he wouldn’t know what to do with.

“I said I was visiting all the shops, even the embarrassing ones,” he admitted.

Maggie smiled again, brighter this time, and it hit him like a two by four to the face. She was just so warm and sweet and open. No games. No pretending. It was all there, written on her features for him to read—and it was maybe the hottest thing he’d ever seen in his life. Who knew that honesty was such a turn on?

Noah had told himself only earlier that day that he was going to stay away from Maggie, but he knew his resolve was slipping. It had begun with that impromptu invitation and the situation was growing more and more dire with each moment they stood outside together in the growing dusk. Wisps of her honey blond hair framed her face and those blue eyes were probably going to be the death of him sometime in the next thirty seconds.

“And what do you think?” she asked

“I like it,” he admitted, and to his own surprise, he found that he was being completely honest. “It’s a great little town.”

Maggie’s face softened into a nearly unbearable fondness. “It is. The people here can be difficult sometimes, but I still think it’s the best place in the world.”

“Where were you off to?” he asked, even though it was absolutely no business of his if she’d lied earlier and didn’t have errands to run after all. She was allowed to tell him no for absolutely zero reason. He just didn’t have to like it.

She blushed again, a slightly deeper red this time around, and Noah wanted to press his fingertips to her cheeks to feel the heat in her skin. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was as soft as it looked. “I was actually just running over to the Chinese place to grab some dinner.”

“The cook doesn’t feel like cooking?” he asked, with what he hoped was a cute grin. He liked teasing her a lot. He liked making her blush, too, and he wanted to do quite a bit more of both.

He hadn’t really intended to stay longer than a week, at the very most, but the truth was, Noah didn’t have anywhere he had to be. He could stay here as long as he liked. There was nothing forcing him to move on to San Francisco or return to Portland. He could stay in Sand Point and make Maggie laugh all the time.

The idea was slightly intoxicating.

“You caught me,” Maggie said shyly.

“Could. . .” Noah usually had a lot stronger game than this, he knew he did, but something about Maggie reminded him of being sixteen again and horribly hesitant and unsure. His only thought was that he could not fuck this up. “Could I join you, maybe?”

Her eyes grew wide with surprise and it was only then that Noah remembered that this was the
second
time today that he had asked her to spend time with him. She’d already rejected him once; it was embarrassing how hard she made him keep trying.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and he couldn’t help the pulse of disappointment but he could also hear just how reluctantly she’d turned him down. “Honestly,” she continued, “I do have things that need doing. Paperwork and other horrid business things.” She made a face that on anyone else wouldn’t have been nearly as adorable.

“Maybe soon, then,” he said, making sure she understood that while she’d said no twice, he wasn’t about to stop asking.

“Okay, but I should warn you in advance,” she said, shading her eyes from the drooping sun, “I’m pretty much the most boring person in this whole town.”

“Somehow I find that impossible to believe,” he insisted and to his own thrilled disbelief, she laughed like he was the funniest comedian she’d ever heard.

It was the best thing he’d felt in months.

The next morning, Noah couldn’t put off the daily run he’d been neglecting for nearly a week, and as masochistic punishment, decided to head up the hill Ella and Maggie had talked about the night before. Dr. Singh had just let him start jogging again, and every time he began he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of nervousness that maybe
this
time he’d feel nauseous and dizzy again. He climbed the incline at a decent pace, feeling the burn in his lungs and his legs and knew he should have been at least lifting weights if he wasn’t able to run. He’d let himself get distracted and sink into a vicious cycle of sitting on the couch, eating junk food, and watching bad reality TV. Part of his inactivity had been the concussion symptoms but some of it had also been him just feeling way too sorry for himself.

Pushing up his t-shirt to wipe the sweat off his forehead, he eyed the rest of the hill and knew if Jack was here, he’d be churning those short legs and finishing it off with a pitying glance in Noah’s direction.

It was the thought of Jack that pushed him through the burn and got him to the top, where the view took away the rest of his breath.

Glistening from the spray, even with a cloudy sky overhead, the rocky cliffs rose from the blue-gray waves and stretched as far as he could see to the south. Behind him lay the Cliffs restaurant, which he’d seen from a distance. Maybe he’d try it tonight, despite Ella’s protestations that the food there wasn’t nearly as good as it was at Maggie’s.

The truth was, Noah wasn’t the biggest fan of going to fancy restaurants alone, especially when they were practically designed for a man to walk in hand in hand with a beautiful woman. He considered tracking Maggie down and asking her to go to dinner with him, but she’d already turned him down twice. Maybe he needed to find a better invitation, and then she’d finally go out with him.

Besides, eating by himself at a nice place was something he
should
get used to, Noah thought. It was time to stop whining and feeling sorry for himself and just live—whether he was alone or not. Suddenly, it seemed rather stupid that he was giving Tabitha the satisfaction of not only leaving him, but letting it ruin his life.

Ahead of him, right off the winding two-lane road, lay a few scattered houses, and Noah started walking that direction, eager to explore some new territory. The town of Sand Point had seemed alarmingly small at first, but the longer he was here, the less soul-shrinking it felt. Yesterday, he’d felt only peace as he’d strolled through town, enjoying the small businesses and the unique personalities that ran them. It felt good to be connecting with people again—it wasn’t something he’d even felt himself stop doing, but he realized now that for the last year or so, he’d been merely going through the motions. Sand Point, as bizarre as it was, was helping him feel alive again.

The road hugged the curves of the cliffs, and when Noah came around one particularly terrifying hairpin turn, he came face to face with an overgrown mess of a yard, the wooden fence having long given up the hope of keeping the vegetation confined to the immediate grounds, and the façade of an old house rising from the jungle.

His interest was immediately piqued. The remnant of an old “For Sale” sign was half-hidden by the rogue shrubbery. Walking over, he pushed the weeds aside and mused that since the house was still clearly empty, it must still be on the market. There was a realtor’s phone number written on the sign, and though it was faded from too much wind and sun and rain, Noah could still just make it out. And even though he couldn’t really explain why, he pulled out his phone and dialed the number.