Page 5 of A Lonely Road
His smile bloomed like the sun from behind a cloud, and my regret withered immediately. For a moment, it looked like he was searching for the right thing to say, then he gestured toward the bag where I’d stowed my notebook. “Are you a writer?”
“Sort of. I’m a translator, actually,” I replied. Surely work was a safe topic of conversation? “Freelance stuff, for the most part.”
I tried hard to keep my expression neutral, but I saw the way Jake studied my face. Work was something I loved, something I found intensely fulfilling. Now, I felt dangerously close to babbling out more than I ever intended to reveal to him.
Jake nodded, a small smile curving his lips. “Very cool.”
“It’s getting late, I should probably head home.” Relieved that this interaction went smoother than the last, I took a small step back, then I remembered seeing his truck in the driveway when I left the apartment. “Did you walk here?”
“Yeah, I did. After the rain earlier this week, it turned into a beautiful day. We get such a small window of nice weather, it’s hard to resist the chance to enjoy it.”
Nodding, I hummed in response. I’d put too many miles on my car in the last few years. If I wanted her to survive, it might be worth cutting the poor girl some slack, new battery or not.
I gave myself a swift mental shake. Was I truly considering coming back? I’d gotten more work done in the past hour than I had in a single day in months, sure, but could I knowingly subject myself to his curious gaze while I worked?
The answer didn’t come quickly, so I flashed him another brief smile. “Right. Well, I’ll see you around. Thanks again for the dessert.”
Jake smiled. “Any time,” he replied. “Have a good night, Nora.”
The sound of my name on his lips did something strange to my insides. “You too, Jake,” I said, forcing myself to use his in return.
I watched as he strode back to the bar and couldn’t bring myself to regret the sight of his stellar ass as he walked away. The man definitely cut an impressive figure.It was a moment beforeI recovered my senses and left the restaurant, then drove home with the radio off, allowing a pensive silence to surround me.
Starting out in a new place was no easy feat, as I knew only too well, but I really hadn’t expected it to be any different this time around. As I turned onto my street, I thought back to the last few places I’d lived—a big city, a tiny rental house in the middle of nowhere, a suburb of endless cookie cutter houses and carefully manicured yards.
In total, I'd made a bare handful of personal connections throughout my adult life, and the most notable were Audrey and Jamal, who’d never really known me as anything but “Nora from 4F.” After college, I'd set out to see new places, to figure out where I truly belonged, but the endless quest was growing tiresome.
And it was pretty freaking lonely, if I was willing to admit that to myself.
I parked in the driveway and turned off the ignition, gazing absently at Jake’s truck next door. Was I thinking aboutdatinghim, for heaven’s sake? Maybe he wasn’t even interested in me—maybe he had a girlfriend. Or a wife! I knew next to nothing about him. So what if he looked at me the way I’d looked at the strawberry shortcake after that first bite? It didn’t have to mean anything.
“Girl, you have been alone for too long,” I scolded myself. “How can you even think about getting involved with someone right now?”
My hormones must be out of whack, I concluded—biology didn’t care about logic. If I’d wanted to get laid, I should have taken it up with Audrey and Jamal back when I could still get lost in the bustling population of a city much larger than Spruce Hill, New York.
I kept that mantra on repeat as I invented excuse after excuse not to return to Jake’s restaurant over the next week, but no matter what music I blasted or how many channels I flipped through, the silence of the apartment became overwhelming to the point where I could barely think straight, nevermind get any significant amount of work done.
“Normal people like quiet while they’re working,” I told my reflection one evening. “Only freaks like to drown out distraction by working in a bar.”
Unfortunately, my reflection stared mutely back at me until I sighed and turned away from the mirror with a huff. I tucked my notebook and laptop into a canvas messenger bag, slung it across my chest, swallowed an oath when I couldn’t resist checking my hair one last time, and walked out into the warm evening.
It doesn’t mean anything.
I repeated those words to myself as I strolled down the street toward The Mermaid. Jake Lincoln was probably not interested in me, anyway. I sure as hell wasn’t looking for a relationship—or even a hookup. This was simply because I needed a place to get some work done. That was all there was to it.
Jake was not behind the bar this time. Just for one mad moment, I felt a rush of something that I’d swear was relief but which felt suspiciously like disappointment.
A second later, my quick scan of the restaurant found him seated at a table with a ledger and calculator before him. His gaze had already locked onto me, and the air sizzled around me the moment our eyes met. That slow, crooked smile of his started a low burn deep in my belly.
Hormones or otherwise, I was in deep trouble.
Chapter Three
Jake
AsNorafollowedaserver to a booth tucked in the back corner of the restaurant, she offered a tiny little wave, which I returned with a friendly smile. Unable to hide my interest, I tapped my pencil on the tabletop and watched while she passed by, trying not to be too blatant in my perusal of her long legs and rounded hips once her back was to me.
This new neighbor of mine was inexplicably intriguing, in a prickly sort of way.
