“You’re probably right. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? For what? Being tired?” Leaning into him, she touched her lips to his. “I don’t blame you for being tired. I would be too. And while I had a fantastic day, next time don’t get up so early just for me.”
“As long as you enjoyed yourself, the missed sleep was worth it.”
Words were great when you could find the appropriate ones. At the moment, she couldn’t. With words off the table, she pressed her mouth against Aaron’s again while she lost yet another piece of her heart to him. At the rate she was going, the whole thing would belong to him soon.
Chapter 15
After picking up the various paint color cards, Aaron shuffled through them Friday night while waiting for Juliette to finish her phone call. He’d never realized there were so many shades of white, and to be honest, many of them looked the same to him. The same was true of the various purple cards. On the sofa next to him, Juliette thumbed through the catalog of light fixtures on the coffee table while she talked on the phone.
Although she didn’t close on the property until the end of the month, ever since Merry accepted her offer three weeks ago, Juliette had been focused on her dance school. When she wasn’t looking at paint colors or furniture for the office and waiting areas, she worked on a tentative class schedule with his sister. As he’d anticipated, Candace had signed on as soon as Juliette offered her a teaching position. Sandy had too. Only Lucy, another former teacher from Dance Dynamics, had turned down Juliette’s offer. Not that it mattered in the long run.
Like he’d warned Juliette, much of the town knew not only that they were together but also that Juliette had looked at the building and was thinking about opening a new dance school even before Juliette made an offer on the property. Once word got out that she’d hired Sandy and Candace but needed a third teacher, his sister had received a call from one of her former dance students. The young woman, who worked as an X-ray technician at the immediate care in Danielson, missed dancing and wanted to teach. After talking to Candace and then meeting with the woman, Juliette hired her on the spot.
“Thanks, Addie. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Aaron knew she’d mentioned the name to him at some point, along with several others, but he didn’t remember if the woman Juliette spoke to now was a friend or a cousin. The woman had more cousins than anyone else he knew.
Setting aside the cell phone, she snagged a raw pepper from the platter and dragged it through the hummus. They’d both eaten late lunches, so they’d opted for snacks rather than a full meal when he arrived earlier.
“That was my cousin Trent’s wife, Addie,” she explained.
“The interior designer?” It was as good a guess as any.
“Mmm,” she replied while she chewed.
While she’d called and made an offer on the dance school the day after they looked at the building, she’d checked out two other homes and some undeveloped land for sale before making an offer on the Victorian. When she did, they’d both expected the current owners to accept immediately. After all, Caryn claimed the owners were eager to sell, and according to her, it was the first offer they’d received since the house went on the market. They hadn’t.
Instead, they came back with a ridiculous counteroffer. It’d taken about a week of going back and forth before they’d reached an agreement.
“Caryn arranged for us to go over to the house so Addie can see what she has to work with and start doing up some plans. Addie called to warn me that Trent is coming along. Since they’re staying at my cousin Curt’s house tonight and tomorrow, Curt’s decided to come too. He’s bringing his fiancée and Taylor’s niece.”
“Curt’s the one who lives in New Hampshire?” He hadn’t met the man, but he remembered one of her cousins lived to the south of Avon and had come to visit her at least once.
“Yes. He came up not long after I arrived.” She marked the catalog page with a sticky note and closed it.
“How long do you think they’ll stay?” Over the past several weeks, he’d grown accustomed to spending his weekends with her. He’d prefer not to go all day tomorrow without seeing her.
Juliette picked up the paint cards displaying the various shades of purple available and shuffled through them. “Probably most of the day. Why?”
Although comfortable for two people, the cottage wasn’t designed for entertaining. Not to mention she’d met some of his family. He wouldn’t mind getting to know some of hers, and he might not get another opportunity anytime soon, considering all except Curt lived out of state.
“You don’t have a lot of room here. If you’re interested, you can all hang out at my house after you go over to Oak Ridge. Or even before, depending on when Caryn’s expecting you. And it’s supposed to be a nice day, so I can cook outside on the grill.”
When she didn’t answer right away, he wondered if she wasn’t ready to introduce him to her family. They spent so much time together over the past month that it often felt like they’d known each other a lot longer than they really had. If he stood in her position, perhaps he’d want to wait longer and see where things went before introducing her to his family.
Yep, maybe it’d been a dumb idea on his part. “If you’d rather not, it’s okay. I won’t be upset.”
“It’s not that.” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I was trying to decide whether or not it’s fair to subject you to my cousins already. I adore them both, and we often treat each other more like siblings. Unfortunately, that also means they sometimes like to take on the role of overprotective older brothers, especially when my brother Scott’s not around to do the honors. Trent and Jake are probably the worst about doing it. I think it’s because they’re the oldest of all the cousins. If they were the two coming tomorrow, you’d want some reinforcements around.” She paused and then patted the top of his hand. “Even though Curt’s not as bad as Jake, you’ll still have Trent to deal with, so you might want some around anyway.”
She looked serious, but the hint of humor in her voice made it hard for him to gauge how worried he should be about meeting some of the male members of her family. “I can make sure Candace and Tiegan join us. I think my mom has plans.”
“As long as you’re positive, I love the idea. And if Tiegan’s there, it’ll give Reese someone to hang around with. Taylor’s niece is around Tiegan’s age.”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t. There’s a great butcher shop in Ashford. I’ll head over there in the morning and pick stuff up. What time do you expect them?”
She set aside two of the paint cards and then went back to shuffling through the rest. She’d decided to go with a purple and white theme throughout the school. She’d already ordered a new purple awning to replace the pink one, although she hadn’t actually called it purple. She’d referred to it as Majestic Plum. Whatever Juliette and the company making the awning wanted to label it, at the end of the day, he called it purple.