“Yeah. Once. I was with Maggie at her mother’s place. Those were tough days, right after their dad died. For a while they just didn’t know…” Brandon scowled as if irritated with himself. “I’m talking too much. I never used to talk at all but I’ve been practicing.”
Noah hesitated but he knew he had to ask. “Did Patrick O’Dunn commit suicide, Brandon?”
Brandon shook his head but the question clearly hadn’t come as a shock. “It crossed everyone’s minds, but no, he didn’t. It was just a stupid accident. Phoebe’s guy—he couldn’t take it, having her in the middle of a family crisis. It was all about him. He gave her an ultimatum. Transfer out of UMASS and move with him to Florida or they were through.”
“Phoebe’s still here,” Noah said.
“So she is. She hasn’t been serious about a guy since then. Not that she’d tell me.” Brandon settled back with his beer, no indication he had any bitterness toward Phoebe given his own troubled situation with her younger sister. “You know sneaking into that ball the other night was a big deal for her, right?”
Noah nodded. “She didn’t tell anyone she was going.”
“It was a last-minute decision. Phoebe’s usually not impulsive. I ran into her. I kept my mouth shut but I guess the cat’s out of the bag now.” Brandon again narrowed his gaze on Noah. “You two…”
“I won’t cause problems for her,” Noah said quietly.
“As you say, not everything is predictable. It’s up to us to respond to the unexpected. You didn’t expect Phoebe. She didn’t expect you.” Brandon got to his feet. “Life does have a say, doesn’t it?”
Noah leaned back in his chair and thought he could smell orange mint in the warm air. “You’re not telling me all this as a friend. You’re warning me.”
“I guess you could look at it that way. I’m only telling you what everyone in town already knows.”
“You don’t want Phoebe hurt again.”
“Let’s just say I’m doing what I can to assess and manage risks.”
And I’m the risk, Noah thought. He was the stranger sweeping their Phoebe off her feet. Another man who could break her heart. She was happy with her life. No one wanted him to screw that up.
Noah didn’t want to, either.
He decided to shift the subject. “What happened with you and Maggie?”
“I’m in a tent for a reason.” Brandon looked up at the sky. “I’m not getting her back, Noah. It’s not going to happen.”
“Giving up easily, aren’t you?”
Brandon sighed. “Looking reality square in the eye. It’s not something I always like to do, but I want Maggie to be happy. I know that much.”
“Because you love her,” Noah said.
“Always have, always will. That doesn’t mean we can be together. Ack. I hate this kind of deep talk. I’ve been practicing, because she wants me to talk. Listening isn’t enough. She says she has to hear my voice. I should practice talking to Buster. Hell of a lot easier to talk to a dog than to an O’Dunn.”
Despite Brandon’s attempt to lighten his mood, Noah felt the other man’s pain. “I need to go back to San Diego to check on a few things,” he said. “You can see to Buster?”
“Sure. I’ll see to him.” The big dog sat at Brandon’s feet, obviously wanting to be petted. Brandon complied and grinned, his dark mood dissipating rapidly as some of his natural spark returned. “The O’Dunn women are smart and quirky and pretty as hell, but damn, they’re not easy.”
Noah smiled. “What fun would easy be?”
“Maggie’s dress the other night makes me wonder if maybe she just wants a little old-fashioned romance in her life. What do you think?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Wooing.”
Noah stared at his new friend. “Wooing?”
Brandon laughed. “Yeah. I’ll figure out some wooing options that won’t break the bank. Meantime, I’ll go up and take a shower with the goat’s milk soap.”
Brandon seemed reenergized as he headed through the mudroom into his friend’s house. Noah moved his chair into the sunlight and finished his beer. Bumblebees were again in the catmint.
No one in Knights Bridge had expected a man like him—maybe any man—to float into their librarian’s life. It wasn’t just his net worth. It was California. His work. His MIT background. His experience.
He was forbidden, he thought with a sigh.
At the same time, he liked the challenge, just as Brandon Sloan liked the challenge of “wooing” his wife back.
But what if Julius Hartley was right? Noah stood up in the sunshine, listened to the bees in the catmint, crows out in the fields. It didn’t feel as if he’d seized on Phoebe because he was bored, but what if he had? What if he was drawn to her because she was so different, so out of reach? He wasn’t playing games, and he was confident she was as attracted to him as he was to her.
Well. Maybe not that confident. But confident that his interest wasn’t one-way.