11. Lydia

11

LYDIA

I woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs and the delectable scent of coffee. After taking a quick shower and throwing on a long hunter-green sweater and black tights, I ran a towel through my curly hair and dried it for just a few minutes. Before leaving my room, I fastened my magic mistletoe to my sweater. Every time I touched it, I felt its warmth.

I could hear Jake rummaging around in the kitchen and Hailey's comment about him wandering around the house in his underwear came to mind. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he were. I'd seen him numerous times like that years ago when I spent the night at Hailey's house.

When I peeked around the corner, I saw Jake in the kitchen . . . and he was clothed. He was standing with his back to me, his hair standing up all over his head and dressed in a gray T-shirt and jeans.

"Good morning," I called out.

He glanced at me over his shoulder and waved with an egg-encrusted spatula. "Morning. You hungry?"

My stomach growled.

"I am," I said, sitting at the kitchen bar where he had two plates with silverware already placed and glasses filled with orange juice. I set my phone down and took a sip of my drink. "You didn't have to cook breakfast, Jake."

He shrugged and brought the pan of eggs over to me. "It's the least I could do. I figured you wouldn't let me pay you, so I thought cooking breakfast would show my appreciation."

I gasped. "Money? You never mentioned anything about paying me." When he looked at me and laughed, I held out my hand. "You have plenty. I'll take some."

Jake fetched the plate of bacon and held it out to me. "How much do you want?"

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed two pieces of bacon and set them on my plate. "I could never take your money."

He chuckled and piled his plate high with food before sitting down beside me. "I still owe you two dinners for predicting my tournament wins."

That made me smile. Predicting his wins was one of the things I added to our past. It was still strange to comprehend that in a matter of two dream-filled nights, I'd changed so much.

"Yes, you do," I said, stuffing a forkful of eggs into my mouth. "But you made me breakfast, so that's good for one. Now, you only have to owe me one more meal."

My phone beeped and I looked over to see Max's name on the screen.

"Is that Violet saying she's working today?" Jake asked.

"No, but I do need to call her," I said, picking up my phone. I clicked on the text, and Max's words made me smile.

Max: Good morning. I hope you have a great day! I can't wait to see you tomorrow.

I texted him back.

Me: Good morning! I hope you have a great day as well. Tomorrow will be fun.

Once the text was sent, I set my phone back down and took a bite of bacon.

"Actually, it was a text from Max," I replied, grinning over at Jake. "He said he hopes I have a great day and that he can't wait to see me tomorrow."

Jake smirked. "Nice. What do you know about him?"

I shrugged. "Not much. I met him at my nana's retirement home two years ago, and I recently ran into him again. I think my grandmother likes his grandfather."

Jake's eyes widened. "Wow, that's got to be something. After your grandfather died, I was worried about her."

My heart hurt just thinking about it. "We all were. But she's different now. There's a spark in her eyes that hasn't been there for a long time."

Jake finished his food and smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."

Once I was done, he took my plate, and surprisingly, cleaned the dishes. I'd known Jake my entire life, but it just occurred to me there was a lot I probably didn't know about him. I had no clue he knew how to cook.

While he straightened up the kitchen, I called Violet. Her voice sounded much better when she answered the phone.

"Hey, sis," she answered. Before I could speak, she kept going. "I'm walking downstairs now to open the gallery. I feel so bad that you had to do it alone the past couple of days." The sound of her door slamming echoed through the phone.

"It wasn't a big deal at all, Vi. But I'm happy you're feeling better. The reason I'm calling is to see if you'd mind if I came in a little later. Jake's in town and he wants me to look at houses with him this morning."

Violet squealed. "Jake's in town!"

Anyone from a mile away could've heard her through the phone. Jake laughed and shook his head. "Tell her I'll stop by the gallery this afternoon to see her."

Violet shrieked again. "I heard him. Sounds good to me. Have fun looking at houses."

"Thanks, Violet."

We said our goodbyes just as Jake finished wiping the counters. "We ready to go?" I slid out of my chair, and he handed me one of my red Christmas travel mugs, full of coffee. "It's not Sarah's crème brulee concoction from the café," he said, taking a sip out of one of my other Christmas travel mugs, "but I know you love hazelnut with a dash of creamer." He lifted his mug in the air. "I think I have a new favorite. Hazelnut's not that bad."

"It's one of the best. I'm honestly surprised you remembered I liked it. It's been a long time since I ordered coffee around you." I sipped the coffee, which had just the right amount of creamer.

Jake shrugged. "I don't forget so easily."

The way he said it with that dashing smile of his made butterflies flutter in my stomach. It wasn't something I should be feeling now. My focus had to stay on Max and Ben.

I grabbed my purse off the counter and held onto my coffee. "All right, let's go look at these houses. I'm curious to see what your realtor found."

Jake pointed out the window at his silver sports car. "There's a folder in my car with all the prospects. I can drive us around to look at them and then drop you off at work if you want. That way, I can see Violet like I said I would."

We walked out onto the front porch and I locked the door. Having him drive me around excited me more than it should. "Don't you have other things you want to do besides chauffeuring me around?"

He jumped down the porch steps and laughed as he made his way to the car. "I don't mind."

When I opened the passenger's side door and hopped in, it smelled brand new. "Okay," I said, fastening my seatbelt. "If you want to drive me around in your fancy car, I won't complain. Do you think the paparazzi will take photos of us?"

He turned on the ignition and it rumbled to life in that expensive, fast car way. "They were following me a lot after I ended things with Daphne. They thought I was seeing someone else and wanted to blast it all over social media, mainly to make it look like I cheated on her." He reached behind my seat and pulled out a folder. "They lost interest when they realized there wasn't a scandalous story they could exploit. I doubt any of them will show up here in Blowing Rock. Besides, I think it was Daphne's PR people pushing the cheating story to get her more publicity. Now that she's moved on to an NFL player, the paparazzi don't mess with me."

"Wow," I said, completely flabbergasted. All of that happened because I said different things to him last Christmas Eve and changed his course. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

He shrugged it off and handed me the folder, his green gaze serious and determined. "In all honesty, it helped me. I know what I'm looking for now."

"And that would be?" I asked.

All he did was grin and tap a finger on the folder. "I'm not going to bore you with that. Let's just focus on finding me a house."

"You could never bore me, Jake," I assured him, opening up the folder. "But yes, let's find you a house."

Jake slowly drove us down my winding driveway to the main road. Inside the folder, there were about ten sheets of paper, all with pictures of the houses and their specifications. I looked at them all but couldn't see him living in any of them.

It only took a few minutes to get to the first one and Jake slowed down. It wasn't a house; it was a mansion. All the houses his realtor gave him were ginormous.

Jake pulled into the driveway. "This one's vacant but fully furnished for whoever buys it. Nobody will say anything about us sitting here."

The house was gorgeous with its elegant rustic charm and stone exterior. It sat on almost four acres of land and had an amazing mountain view. According to the listing, it had five bedrooms and six bathrooms. What would one guy need with all of that?

"Jake, this isn't you," I said, nodding toward the house. Then, I held up the entire folder. "None of these are."

He averted his gaze to the house and sighed. I could tell by the look on his face that he knew I was right. "I know. I thought that when she gave them to me."

I closed the folder and placed it between our seats. "Tell your realtor that just because you can afford a multimillion-dollar house it doesn't mean that's what you want."

He leaned back and sighed again, gazing at the house before us. "I've tried looking for what I wanted and couldn't find anything. That's why I hired a realtor."

"What are you wanting?" I asked curiously.

A chuckle escaped his lips, and he turned to me. "Your cabin."

I lifted my brows. "Think again, Jake. It's not for sale. I don't care if you offered me ten times the value."

He stared at me incredulously. "I know, Lydia. I'm just saying that something like your grandparents' place is what I'm looking for. It's secluded and has one of the best mountain views around. It's just the right size for a family."

His words caught me off guard. "A family, huh? I was wondering when you'd want to settle down."

"What about you?" he questioned. "I figured you would've been married and started having kids a long time ago."

I snorted. "Believe me, I would've loved that, but the universe had other plans for me. However, it seems my luck has changed."

"That's right," he said. "You have two dates this weekend. Do you think one of them could be the one ?"

"I don't know," I ended up saying. "Guess we will see." One of them had to be, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "So, what are you going to do about your realtor?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

Jake backed out of the driveway and glanced at the house one last time. "I'll tell her exactly what I'm looking for. I'm just afraid she won't be able to find it." He stopped on the street and turned to me. "The last thing I want to do is outstay my welcome. If she doesn't find a place for me by the end of the week, I'll either rent a place or get a hotel room."

I shook my head. "You don't have to do that, Jake. You can stay as long as you need to."

He smiled, but I could tell there was something on his mind that he didn't want to say out loud.

"Are you ready for me to drop you off at work?" His gaze dropped to the folder in between our seats. "I don't think we should waste our time looking at the others."

"Okay," I replied, nodding in agreement. "But if your realtor finds you more, let me know and I'll go with you to see them."

"Thanks, Lydia. It means a lot that you'd take the time to do this with me."

"Of course." I placed a hand on his arm. "What are friends for?"

"Right," he said, focusing back on the road. "Friends."

V iolet was excited to see Jake when he dropped me off at the gallery. They talked for over an hour while I tended to the customers. Hailey and I were a pain in the ass to him growing up, but he always had a soft spot for my sister. She was eight years younger than him, so he was around when she was born. He was the big brother Violet always wanted.

The day went by fast, and it was almost time for Jake to pick me up.

"So, what's going on with you and Jake?" Violet asked, shutting down the computer.

Furrowing my brows, I jerked my head in her direction. "What do you mean?"

Violet smirked. "Oh, come on, he comes to town and all he wants to do is spend time with you. You don't think there's some ulterior motive there?"

"No!" I exclaimed, wondering why she would even say that. "Jake and I are friends. We always try to spend time together when he's around."

Violet giggled and shook her head. "You are so oblivious, Lydia. You should've seen how he looked at you when you were with customers." She slapped a hand to her chest. "I was here; I noticed. The guy wants you."

Jake had never shown an interest in me before. We were friends and I cared about him, but that was as far as it went.

"That's ridiculous," I said, waving her off. "Jake doesn't see me that way."

Violet snorted. "Whatever you say, sis. Now that Jake's staying with you for a while, I see things getting a little crazy in your life."

"How so?"

She shrugged and looked way too happy judging by the wide grin on her face. "Not sure yet, but I'm excited to see it all play out." Her gaze shifted to the door, and I turned to see Jake pull into a parking space across the street. "Okay," Violet called out, "I'm headed upstairs. You two have a good night."

She hurried up to her apartment, leaving me alone in the store. Jake walked in and my heart did something strange in my chest. Could what Violet said be true? Did Jake see me as possibly more than a friend?

No.

It wasn't possible.

However, the real question wasn't that. I knew the question I needed to ask myself, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It was best to pretend the thought never occurred in my mind.