My shoulders slump. “Yes.”
He smiles, and those shoulders of mine are perking right back up. I need to get out of here. He’s being strange, and I like it way too much. It makes me wonder if maybe his house is so clean because he needs someone else to help him and Sam live in it a little more. Someone like me.
“I need to see what Joanna is doing here.” I push past him, and this time he lets me go.
Chapter Fourteen
JAKE
I let Evie leave my room and have a few minutes alone with her boss before I join them. Okay, fine, it was me who needed a few minutes alone to process. Evie was in my bedroom. And she looked perfect there. Too perfect. This room had never felt so bright before.
I watched her in the doorway for a minute before she noticed me, and I felt desperate to know what was going through her head. Did she like this space I’ve set up for myself? Or did she think it was dull?
She touched my bedspread. What does that mean? I’m pretty sure it can only mean one thing. I mean, it’s been a while since I’ve been around a woman who wasn’t my wife, but I’m thinking that snooping through a man’s room and casting longing looks at his bedspread can only mean one thing: she’s attracted to me.
What the heck am I supposed to do with that thought?
Friendship was fine when there was only a small probability that a woman like her could be attracted to me—a single dad with so much baggage that I have to rent a U-Haul to hitch to the back of my truck—but after seeing her smile when her fingers landed on my bed, that complicated things.
I don’t know what else to do, so after peeking down the hallway to make sure no one is around, I shut my bedroom door and pull out my phone to dial the one person I know can tell me what to do. “June! Thank God you answered,” I say when my baby sister picks up.
“What’s wrong? You sound crazy.”
“I am crazy,” I say, scraping my hand through my hair. “I think she likes me.”
“No way! Did she steal your baseball cap at recess?”
“Shut up. I’m serious. And I’m freaking out.”
June chuckles a minute, and then I hear her shuffling some baking pans around. “Okay, hang on. Let me go outside so I can talk to you and not have Stacy listening in. YES, I see you tilting your ear toward me, Stacy! Mind your own biscuits.” June and her best friend, Stacy, own a trendy donut shop they opened a year ago called Darlin’ Donuts. I’m proud of June. Everyone in Charleston loves their donut shop. The storefront itself looks like something right off a Pinterest page. Everything is white with pops of bright color, and each of their original-flavored donuts have names like “Just Peachy” for their peach-flavored donut, and “Slow as Molasses” for their cinnamon-molasses donuts, and then my personal favorite “Kiss my Grits” for their newest savory-grits-inspired donut.
“Okay, I’m ready. Spill.”
I sigh and go into my bathroom and shut the door just in case anyone is in the hallway and can hear me. “Do you remember the woman, Evie Jones, I was telling you about the other day?”
“The hot toddy that works for the service dog company?”
“I never once called her a hot toddy.”
“You should. I bet she’d love it. Ladies love a sexy nickname.” Oh my gosh. Why did I call her again?
I sigh loudly into the phone so she knows I’m done with her game. “Anyways, I just found her in my room.”
“NAKED?!” I cringe hearing that word come off of my sister’s tongue.
“No, you perv. Fully clothed. I just mean that she was in my room, looking around because…I think that she likes me. Likes me-likes me.” Wow, yeah. I hear how immature that makes me sound, but whatever.
June chuckles. “Okay, what’s the problem? That seems like good news to me. Worthy of celebrating.”
“It’s not.”
This time she sighs. “You’re going to self-sabotage this, aren’t you?”
“Most likely. Which is why I’m calling. I need you to tell me what to do so I don’t jump out my bedroom window just to keep from having to face her again.”
“Do you like her?”
I pause for a moment. “Yeah. A lot.”