Page 39 of A Place for Daydreams

“As a person? Yeah, she’s great. I liked her right away from our first appointment, but now I like her more than ever. With each session I’m realizing more and more how good she is at her job. It gives me a perspective of her that I wouldn’t have had if I’d just met her on the street. I mean, she’s sweet and good natured, but I really respect her now because I’ve seen her in her element so much.”

Alexis immediately perked up when she heard her brother talking about Noelle so favorably. “Uh huh.” Her mind was racing a mile a minute. She watched Dean’s face carefully, and she thought she saw the tips of his ears turning pinkish again.

Dean never talks about women, she thought.Could it just be that she’s his physical therapist and they’ve become friends, or is he interested in her in a special way?

“What kinds of things does she do that make you feel she’s good at her job?” she asked, nonchalantly taking a sip of her iced tea.

“She’s very encouraging, but also pushes me to work hard. She’s good at knowing when I need to quit and when I need to persevere. It’s almost like she’s got a sixth sense or something. This food is really good, by the way, thank you.”

Alexis shook her head. “No changing the subject, please. Does she think your symptoms are going to keep improving?”

“She’s never said that for sure, but I think that’s just because she doesn’t want to get my hopes up too much. She always speaks in terms of potential outcomes, but I mean, my symptoms are improving. She definitely knows how to get me to feel better.”

“That’s wonderful.” Alexis’s heart stirred with happiness for her brother. “I’m so happy to hear that.”

“Thanks.” He smiled and let out a cheerful sigh of relief. “It does feel really good knowing that there’s something that’s going to help.”

“And Noelle sounds like the perfect woman for the job,” Alexis said. “What else do you like about her? You said she was encouraging.”

Dean shrugged, and Alexis noticed that the tips of his ears were definitely pink then. “She’s just a really kind, genuine person. I like spending time with her.”

“Just in your sessions? Or have you two hung out outside of PT?”

Dean cleared his throat gently. “I did end up showing her around town yesterday. She’d been wanting to go on a tour of Rosewood Beach when her car had broken down. I told her I’d give her a tour. Seemed like the neighborly thing to do.”

“Oh, definitely,” Alexis said, and she was grinning so hard that Dean gave her a look. “That was really nice of you.” She waited a few heartbeats, watching the way he was blushing, before saying, “Do you think that there might be a spark between you two? I mean, a romantic one?”

Dean shook his head, laughing. “Oh, please stop with the matchmaking, Alexis. Just because she’s a girl and we get along, it doesn’t mean we’re going to start dating. Like I said, I was justtrying to be nice. She’s a friend of mine, and she’s new in town. We’re just friends.”

“Okay.” Alexis sighed, feeling disappointed but believing her brother’s words. Secretly, she was hoping that his friendship with Noelle would turn out to be more than just a friendship. She immediately got a swarm of ideas for how she could try to nudge Noelle and Dean toward starting to fall for each other romantically.

I guess what we were saying earlier is true,she thought to herself with a chuckle.You do get creative ideas when you want to help out someone you love. Just like Grayson wants to help me with my jewelry business because he sees I’m in my element there, I want to help Dean find love with this Noelle girl. He seems like he’s in his element when he talks about her—it’s clear she makes him happy and comfortable.

“Well, thanks for telling me about her.” She smiled as she lifted her fajita off her plate again. “I’d love to meet her sometime.”

“Yeah, you probably will. It’s a small town,” Dean answered vaguely, winking.

Their conversation turned toward other things as they continued to eat, but Alexis’s mind kept wandering back to the subject of her brother and Noelle. She wanted to meet Noelle and get a better sense of whether she and her brother were really compatible or not. She had a feeling that they were, and she knew that she was going to be in a state of happy suspense until she found out more from Dean about how his “friendship” with Noelle was progressing.

Dean stepped out of his car, grinning in eagerness. He was at Shawn’s used car lot, and he couldn’t help feeling excited when he was near so many wonderful old cars. Most of them had already been refurbished and were ready to sell, but toward the back of the lot were the cars that needed a lot of work before they could be sold. He knew that was where Shawn was going to meet him to show him the Ford Mustang.

As he walked across the parking lot, admiring the cars he saw, he thought about his lunch with Alexis earlier that day. He’d enjoyed spending time with his sister and the fajitas had been especially delicious, but the way Alexis had implied that he and Noelle had a romantic spark beginning between them had made him feel restless. He wasn’t ready to admit to himself that he liked the idea of that being true. Noelle was friendly and kind, but he had no reason to believe that she saw him as anything more than a friend, and he didn’t want to get his hopes up.

I’ll just focus on cars today,he thought with a chuckle.Cars I know how to handle. Romance, not so much.

A moment later, he saw Shawn waiting for him at the back of the parking lot. Shawn was a big guy with a bushy red beard, and he had a personality as thunderous as his voice.

“Dean!” Shawn gave him a big bear hug. “It’s so good to see you.”

“So good to see you too, Shawn.” Dean grinned at his friend, feeling glad to see him. “It’s been too long.”

“You’re so right. We won’t let time get away from us again like this.”

They stood there for a while catching up and bantering. Then Shawn jerked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing toward the Ford Mustang that was parked behind him.

“You want to take a look at her? She’s yours if you want. Needs a lot of work, but I don’t need to tell you how satisfying it would be to get her up and running again.”

“No, you don’t.” Dean gazed in admiration at the car. “Wow, it really is beautiful.”

---