She wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything.
“Yeah, because watching you flirt with MaeBe was the highlight of my day,” Hutch groaned. He looked down at her. “You got this or you want a ride?”
Her father would have simply started pushing. The last man she’d dated hadn’t liked to be around her when she was in the chair. He’d pretended it wasn’t there.
She liked Hutch’s approach so much more. “Nah, I’m pretty speedy, but I wouldn’t mind a glass of white wine.”
He stepped back and gave her room. “I’ll get it for you.”
“I wasn’t flirting with MaeBe,” Kyle insisted.
He and Hutch started to argue, and the smell of pizza hit her, making her stomach growl.
She settled in at the table. It was nice to have company.
She let go of her worries for a time because she was going to enjoy the moments she had with him.
* * * *
Hutch stepped out on the balcony, giving up any actual hope of getting sleep. It was way past midnight, and he’d already given the guest room to Kyle since he’d known he would be awake for a long time reading up on the woman named Jessica Layne and trying to figure out what she could be investigated for.
A lot. A whole freaking lot, if his instincts were right. He took a deep breath. At some point a mild cold front had come in and the heat of the day had broken, bringing some relief to the night around him. It would blow in and out quickly, and tomorrow would be right back to oppressive heat, but for now he enjoyed the breeze and wondered if Noelle was sleeping. The big balcony overlooking the park opened from both the living room and the master bedroom. The bedroom was dark. She was probably sleeping away.
Or using that body wand of hers and finding some relief that he wasn’t going to find.
He stared out over the quiet park, a Red Vine in his mouth, dangling like a cigarette. When he got insomnia, he tended to chew on a Red Vine. Or when he was thinking. Or playing games.
He pretty much just liked Red Vines.
A soft sound drew his attention behind him as the sliding door to the master bedroom came open and Noelle was suddenly standing there wearing a pair of pajama shorts and a T-shirt that proclaimed she was Ready to Snooze. Her hair was up in a messy bun on top of her head and she was soft and sexy, and he bit down on that damn candy.
“Hey, are you all right?” Noelle asked, stepping onto the balcony.
Her balcony was like an outdoor living room, complete with a couple of small rattan sofas and a coffee table he’d been using as a desk for the last hour. “Yeah. I’m good. Sorry if I woke you.”
“You didn’t. I wasn’t sleeping. Too much on my mind. I was going to sneak out for a snack, but I was afraid I would wake up Kyle.”
He could help with that. As long as she wanted to snack on Red Vines. “I’ve got extras. Or you can go to the kitchen without worry. I gave Kyle the guest bedroom. I knew I would be up working late. I came out here for some fresh air.”
She stepped onto the balcony, her hand going to the back of the nearest sofa, and he realized she’d arranged the furniture so she would always have something to hold onto. She wouldn’t need her cane or the braces in her closet out here. She’d made a space where she could move easily.
Noelle LaVigne adapted.
Could she adapt to him?
She took the piece of candy he offered her and unwrapped it. “Do you always carry a bunch of candy around? Are you always ready to offer someone a sweet?”
“Well, that makes me sound like a perv.”
She blinked up at him as she took a bite. “I was just asking. I don’t know many guys who have candy on their desks or in their pockets.”
“It’s in my bag. I get snacky from time to time, and my snacks resemble a five-year-old’s. I am a walking, talking example of what happens when you’re too rigid with kids. I rarely got candy when I was young. My dad liked to control pretty much everything in our lives, and diet was part of it.” He felt the need to explain so she wouldn’t think he carried around candy to tempt kids or something. “The rare times I got to see my grandma, she would sneak me candy.”
He missed that smiling old lady. She’d been his mom’s mom, and when she’d died a light had gone out in his life.
“Your dad was hard on you?”
His nightmarish relationship with his father would be difficult to explain to someone whose dad had loved her, still loved her. It could be tough to make someone with a functional family understand what it was to be truly alone in the world at such a young age.