Page 22 of The Escape Plan

“Incorrigible, huh?” Nori descends into giggles.

“Yes,” I say, pointing a finger at my friend. “In fact, you’d better warn Cash about him. I’m sure Beckett will flirt his face off with you too, and Cash won’t be best pleased.”

Cash is Nori’s boyfriend, a retired baseball player who also lives on the third floor of my building. They started dating a couple months back, and they seem blissfully happy together.

“Cash has nothing to worry about.” Nori waves a dismissive hand. “Chris Hemsworth could move into the building, but I’d still only have eyes for him.”

“You guys are gross,” I tell her, but I’m grinning. Cash looks at Nori like she hung the moon.

Andrew never looked at me like that.

Not even close.

I flinch away from the thought just as Nori hands me a large, warm brown paper bag. “One regular, two with extra bacon, one with tomatoes,” she says, then winks. “And a chocolate chip muffin, of course.”

“Thanks, girl!” I tell her as I tap my card on the reader, making sure to tip well. “You all set for the first Indie Music Night? It’s coming up soon here.”

When Nori bought Serendipi-Tea after the previous owner retired, Indie Music Night was one of her ideas to bring more business to the cafe. I’m excited to see that she’s already putting her initiatives in motion, and I can’t wait to support her when the first one kicks off.

Nori flushes with pleasure. “Yes! We have quite a few sign-ups and just need one or two more to have a complete roster. It’s mostly thanks to your brother—his posters in Blue Notes advertising it have really helped spread the word.”

“It’s going to be a huge hit,” I say with confidence.

“Thanks, Keels.” She smiles. “Tell your Grandpa I say hi.”

“Will do.” I give her a wave, and then, bag of sandwiches in hand, I make my way down the street to Silver Springs retirement community. Ahead, Ezra and Mae are already parked and getting Everett out of his car seat.

“Keeley!” Mae presses me into a big hug, and I squeeze my petite sister-in-law back—she always makes me feel tall even though I’m barely five-foot-four. Then, I set down the sandwich bag and swoop to pick up three-year-old Everett from the sidewalk.

“Hey, li’l man. What’s happening?”

Everett shrieks with laughter and lovingly places a chubby (sticky) hand on each of my cheeks. “Kiwi!” he greets me, which makes me grin. My nephew not being able to say his “l’s” has earned me a very cute nickname.

“You ready to visit Grandpa Great and eat a chocolate chip muffin?” I ask, scooting him around so he’s on my hip.

My parents are Grandma and Grandpa to him, so my Grandpa—my father’s father—has the moniker “Grandpa Great” for Everett.

“Yay!” he cheers.

“You spoil him.” Mae smiles as she hitches her backpack onto her back and picks up the sandwich bag. “I’ll carry the food if you carry the child?”

“Deal,” I say readily.

Ezra grabs a grocery bag of Gramps’s favorite snack foods from the trunk and slams it shut. “Morning, li’l sister. You have a good Saturday night?”

“It was perfect. Just me, my book, an entire sausage and mushroom pizza from Domino’s, and a Korean face mask.”

“Sounds like a wild night,” Ez says, practically dripping sarcasm.

Little does he know how accurate his summary is, thanks to shirtless-middle-of-the-night Beckett on the fire escape. I’m not exactly an expert in bare-chested men, but Beckett’s body seemed to be comprised of a pretty wowing combination of broad shoulders and long, lean, ropy muscle.

Which I’m absolutely not going to tell Ezra about, for obvious reasons.

“An absolute rager,” I reply as we walk into Silver Springs together. We say hi to Lainey at reception, and she waves us right in. My dad and his wife usually visit on Saturday mornings, while Ezra, Mae, and I keep Gramps company on Sundays.

This has been our tradition ever since Grandpa moved into Silver Springs. And when I (fingers crossed) manage to score this job at Evoke in Boston—which I emailed Freya about first thing this morning—I’ll be sure to drive down here as many Sundays as I possibly can to keep this tradition going. Just like I talked about with Ezra yesterday when he encouraged me to apply.

We head straight to the sunny back porch that overlooks a beautifully maintained garden with beds full of black-eyed Susans, petunias, and asters. This space serves as a visiting area on the weekends for friends and family to spend time with the residents.

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