Page 13 of There I Find Hope

Part of him was glad about that, because he could watch her as much as he wanted to, part of him wanted her to notice him.

The conversation must have taken a turn, because Sunday’s eyes filled with tears.

“Hey there. You’re early. I guess that’s normal. Which is why I try to be early, but somehow you always beat me.” Franklin slid into the seat opposite Noah at the booth, effectively blocking his view of Sunday.

“Hey, man,” he said, wishing he could move to the right or to the left to keep Sunday in his view.

Then he shook the thought away. He was here to talk business with his friend, and he needed to make sure he was giving his all for what he was doing. He couldn’t allow himself to be sidetracked by a woman. Even if she was one that held a special place in his heart and always would.

“I heard they’re getting some type of buggy that the horses can pull, that will go on sand.”

“A buggy on sand?” Noah’s attention was pulled back to his friend.

“That’s what I heard. Something about the tires.”

“Hello, fellows,” Chi said as she walked to the table. “Good to see you guys today.”

“Good to be back in Strawberry Sands,” Noah said, meaning every word.

“How’s the moving coming?” she asked as she pulled her notepad out of her apron pocket.

“I’m looking for a place. Do you know of one?”

Chi laughed a little. “If you want a small, one-bedroom apartment, there are two of them for rent over top of the old diner. That’s where I lived before Griff and I got married. And if you don’t want them, you can spread the word around.”

“I’ll take it.” Noah didn’t need to think about it. He’d move into the apartment while he looked for property. He already knew there weren’t any houses for sale close enough. And he was kind of thinking he’d like to build a house on the beach. Nothing fancy, just something with a great view.

“Did you say there were two of them?” Franklin asked.

“I did. One has three rooms. Potentially it could be a two-bedroom apartment. The other one is a one-bedroom. They’re both small.”

“I’ll take the two-bedroom, unless Noah wanted it. My brother Peter talked about moving to town. He bought a farm just outside of Strawberry Sands, but it doesn’t have a house on it.”

“I see. Well, I was not thinking I was gonna rent out both apartments in one fell swoop and today of all days,” Chi said with a laugh.

“Looks like that’s what you did. You have to let us know the details.”

“I can do that. But I can take your orders and get your food started first.”

They gave their drink orders, and she walked away, promising to be back to chat about the apartments. Noah wasn’t worried about it. She wouldn’t be asking much for it, and he could afford to pay whatever she wanted. It would just be that he would be that much closer to Sunday, and he wasn’t expecting that. But he couldn’t say he was upset about it.

“I don’t know. There are a lot of people working from home now, but do we really want to move two hours away from the city?” Franklin said after she left.

Franklin was a little more tied to the business or maybe just a little more into the city life than Noah was. Funny that he would have a brother who was all about farming.

“If you’re getting cold feet, you don’t have to. But I’m ready to get out. Every time I come back here, it just feels more and more like home. I didn’t really want to leave to begin with. But there weren’t any opportunities for people to make a living here when I was a kid. Now, with the ability to work from home as long as we have internet, the door is open, and I’m going to walk through.”

“I’ll miss the restaurants. I like good food.”

“This new menu looks pretty good to me. And Griff is amazing in the kitchen.”

“It’s all his strawberry recipes that I really like.”

“I don’t know, that onion soup bread smells amazing. That’s the special today, and I think I could probably just order a whole loaf and consider that my meal.”

“Think of the carbs, man.”

Noah snorted. Growing up, he didn’t even know what a carb was.

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