Chapter 11

11

TALLULAH

I felt like a complete idiot as I stared at the breaker box. Trust me to have somehow broken the electricity supply of a house that has been around for two hundred years—give or take.

I had no idea what I’d done, but I’d lost power in the kitchen while I’d been cooking. I wasn’t the best chef in the world, but causing an outage wasn’t something I’d expected to deal with this evening.

I sighed, wondering where Derrick had gone off to. About thirty minutes ago, he’d disappeared to make a phone call and I hadn’t seen him again since. I just had to hope he hadn’t gone home and left me to try to fix this by myself. I knew he wasn’t an expert in electricity either, but with my luck, I’d burn down the whole plantation trying to get my stove working again.

When I heard the front door open and someone walking into the house, relief trickled through me. “Derrick! I’m so glad you came back. I was just starting to wonder if you’d abandoned me.”

I twisted around to grin at the elderly man who claimed to have been working on this plantation for half a century, but it wasn’t Derrick who walked into the kitchen. It was Niall.

Looking as good as ever, he shrugged off his tailored jacket, casually hung it over the back of one of the chairs at the kitchen table, and started unbuttoning his cuffs. “Not Derrick, but I’ll see what I can do. What happened?”

I blushed so hard, it felt like my heart was beating in my cheeks. I hadn’t spoken to him since I’d run off after our kiss. Looking at him now, it was hard to believe that had even been real. I’ve kissed that guy? Wow.

“I, uh, I was just trying to run the dishwasher to clean the stuff I used when I was prepping my dinner, but as soon as I turned on the stove as well, it all went out. It looks like the power to the whole kitchen has been shut off. The fridge is dark too.”

“Makes sense,” he said, rolling up his sleeves after flicking open those cuffs. I watched as he expertly rolled the fabric to his elbows, exposing strong forearms that rippled with the movement.

When my mouth started watering, I jerked my eyes away and pretended I’d been studying the floor all along. “What makes sense?”

“It’s an old house,” he explained lightly, striding past me toward the breaker box. “I rarely have anyone staying here, so we might have some hiccups every now and then as it gets used to the load. It should be safe enough, but maybe I shouldn’t have offered it to you without having someone come out to look it over again.”

“Why did you?” I blurted out, but I’d been hanging onto the question ever since he had. “Offer it to me, I mean.”

He shrugged, those blue eyes finding mine for a moment before he turned to the electrics. “It seemed like a better option for you than staying in an old apartment in a not-so-great part of town when I knew you’d be getting back late often while the events are going on.”

As he said it, he flipped the breakers, and as if a magician had waved a magic wand, the hum of the fridge coming on started almost immediately. I blinked hard.

It would’ve taken me a couple seconds to do that by myself, but I hadn’t.

“Wow, I feel pretty useless right now,” I muttered. “I’m so sorry you came all the way out here just for that.”

A soft smile graced his lips, crinkling the corners of his eyes ever so slightly. He shook his head at me. “It’s no trouble at all. Derrick’s been wary of this place’s electrics since I had it redone and I know his team feels the same way. There’s no reason for you to feel any different, especially not when the maintenance people themselves are just walking around looking at stuff.”

I grimaced. “I wasn’t wary. I’d have done it myself if I’d thought it might work, but I just didn’t even think about it.”

“Never lived in a place with some quirks, huh?”

I shrugged. “No, I have, but I guess there’s just always been someone else around to do this kind of thing. This is the first time it’s just me.”

“Of course,” he said slowly, those eyes locking on my own. “This is your first time living alone, right?”

I nodded, my cheeks growing hot all over again. “This is as alone as I’ve ever been.”

“May I ask why?” He moved his gaze from one of my eyes to the other, taking a step back to lean against the kitchen counter as he waited for me to think it over.

For most people, sharing some background on their lives wasn’t a big deal, but I hardly ever said anything about my past. It wasn’t some big secret. Well, most of it wasn’t, but I just didn’t like talking about it very much.

Something about Niall made me want to tell him, though. Maybe it was the way he asked or the way he looked at me when he did.

“It’s really not that interesting,” I said, needing to temper his expectations if he thought he was about to get some terrible sob story. “Growing up, my parents were really strict. They were pretty controlling too and they don’t much approve of creative types, so when I got accepted to an art history program for college, they weren’t too happy.”

A thin crease appeared between his brows, but he nodded. “I get being different from one’s parents, but that’s a story for another day. Continue, please.”

“They insisted that I live with them even after I graduated high school. I think they were hoping that if I was still under their roof, they might be able to convince me to change my major. Obviously, that didn’t happen. You already know from my resume that I got the art history degree.”

“Yeah, I recall seeing that.”

I sighed. “It was the only thing I was ever really interested in, so it seemed like the right thing to do to pursue it, but my parents never came around. In the end, I moved in with my college boyfriend and I stayed with him until I came out here two years ago.”

“When you moved in with your roommates,” he concluded for me, his head tilting slightly as he looked into my eyes. “That’s why you’ve never lived alone. You went from your parents’ house, to a boyfriend’s place, to moving in with roommates. Did I get that right?”

I nodded. “All the way up until that day in your office when you offered me this house.”

“Well, in that case, I’m glad to have aided in the next step to your freedom, I suppose,” he commented, but something seemed to be bothering him.

There was still a furrow in his brow and some confusion clouding his eyes. I frowned back at him. “What is it?”

He focused on me. “Forgive me if I’m being intrusive, but what happened between you and the boyfriend? If you moved in with him before you graduated college and you lived together until you moved out here two years ago now, that means you were in a relationship with him for several years. In my experience, those usually end in marriage.”

My blood ran cold, and for just a second, I considered telling him the truth, but I knew I had to be careful about what I said. I didn’t even really know why I cared whether or not Niall knew about Carter, but I just wasn’t ready to share that part of myself with him.

I was making a life for myself here and I didn’t want the ghosts of my past joining the much more fun variety of ghosts they had here in New Orleans. I’d take a spirit over the curse that had been Carter any day.

“You are being intrusive,” I said. “I will forgive you for it, though. Do you really want to know what happened?”

He nodded. “I’m curious, but you’re obviously not obligated to satisfy my curiosity.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “It’s really not as fascinating a story as you seem to think. He cheated on me with my friend and my parents loved him so much that instead of being supportive of me, they tried to persuade me to get back together with him.”

“So as the ultimate fuck you, you left California and came out here?” he guessed. “All because of your love for horror and Anne Rice.”

I smiled, giving him another little shrug. “That’s about it. Two years ago, I arrived here with nothing but a couple hundred bucks in my pocket and an intense desire to live my own life on my own terms.”

“Well, on behalf of all of New Orleans, I’d like to thank you for choosing this city,” he said with a slight but genuine grin. “You belong here, Tallulah, even if I’m suddenly getting the sense that you’re not as sure of yourself as you try to be.”

“Some days, I am,” I admitted, deciding that this part I could be completely honest about. After all the times he’d been honest with me, I felt safe enough to give the same in return. “Other days, I feel like I’m behind in life.”

He frowned deeply. “How so?”

I shrugged again. I didn’t really know what else to do. “I’m twenty-six years old and I have no support system at all. I’ve never lived on my own and I didn’t even know I could just flip the breakers to try and fix the problem. I eat cereal for dinner most nights and this is the first real, big girl job I’ve ever had. I’m terrified of letting you down, Niall.”

For a long moment, he said nothing at all, but he suddenly looked a little bit uncomfortable as he shifted on his feet. “You’re in no danger of that. I assure you, you’re doing a great job.”

It looked like he wanted to say something else, but eventually, he seemed to decide against it. Pushing away from the counter, he strode back to the kitchen table, picking up his jacket and letting it hang over his arm.

“Do you need help with anything else around the house?” he offered. “As you can imagine, these old places come with a lot of quirks. Insofar as first places to live by oneself, you seem to have landed in the deep end.”

I shook my head. “I think I’m alright. Thanks again for coming out here to help me. I’ll remember that for the next time I break the power.”

A beat later, he managed another small grin. “You didn’t break it, Tallulah. It tripped, is all. If Derrick wasn’t afraid of the spirits being pissed at me for ripping out the old wiring, he’d have had you back on in no time. Really, don’t worry about it. I’m just happy we got it fixed up for you.”

As I stared at him from across the kitchen, I wondered what he thought of me now that he knew more about where I’d come from. I hated being the subject of pity, and I was sure he probably thought less of me now.

The sheltered little girl who’d been so controlled by her parents that she hadn’t even moved out of their house until she’d been in a relationship so serious that she’d moved in with her boyfriend instead. A relationship with a man her parents had loved more than they loved her, no less.

I sighed, wishing I could go back on having told him, and yet, I was weirdly relieved that he knew as much as he did now. Also, those eyes were fixed on mine and I couldn’t see a single trace of pity in them, but maybe that was just wishful thinking.

Or maybe he was just really good at hiding his emotions.

Either way, I walked him to the door. As we reached the foyer, he turned to look at me again. “I have to host a Halloween party and a haunted house at my home on Friday evening. There’s a street fair going on in my neighborhood and it slipped my mind that I’d offered to have the party at my place after. Jake suggested I ask for your help in putting it together.”

“Of course,” I agreed immediately, a tiny spark of excitement lighting in my chest that he hadn’t written me off now that he knew about my background. If he was still trusting me enough to let me handle another project for him, then he hadn’t lost his faith in me now that he knew how sheltered I’d once been. “I’d love to help.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “I know it’s extremely short notice, but if you’re up to the challenge, I’d really appreciate it.”

“I accept,” I said without hesitation. “I love a good challenge and this one sounds like it’s right up my alley. We’ll get it done. Don’t worry about it.”

He nodded and I expected him to leave, but instead, his eyes remained hooked on mine and he didn’t look away. Neither of us had mentioned the kiss and it was for the best, or at least, that was what I thought until he spoke again.

“I apologize for what happened on Saturday, Tallulah,” he said, his tone gravelly as he inclined his chin at me. “Truly. It was unprofessional of me and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

With that, he turned and walked away, letting himself out before shutting the door decisively behind him. I sighed, part of me wishing it burst open and he’d come back in, stride directly to me and slam his lips into mine.

He didn’t.

In the time since Saturday night, I’d realized that I wasn’t sorry for kissing him, and that was perhaps the worst part of all this. I’d freaked out after it’d happened, but as I’d calmed down, I’d realized it didn’t matter that he was richer than me or that he was out of my league.

He’d known I wasn’t some kind of secret millionaire when he’d kissed me back, and it hadn’t stopped him. He’d also known exactly what I looked like, and that hadn’t stopped him either. Neither had it mattered that he could have any woman he wanted.

When I’d lowered myself into his lap, he’d been hard as a rock—and that had been for me . He’d wanted me, despite the money, my lack of status, my position at his company, or anything else. He’d just wanted me, and I wanted nothing more than to do it all over again—minus the part where I’d freaked out and run away.