She knew it was for the best. She hadn’t really planned on anything that happened today. She felt exhausted from all the emotions that had been roiling through her from the moment he’d shown up at the park and helped her replant those roses.
Conrad wasn’t what she’d expected yet at the same time...he was what she wanted. She shook her head and went inside to call Nola and ask if she could chat.
“Is it a cookies and ice cream chat or a tequila chat?” Nola asked.
“Both?” she said.
“Give me ten minutes and I’ll be there,” Nola said.
Fifteen minutes later they were both seated on the front porch in the Kennedy Rockers that Indy had restored over the holiday season. They both had a bowl of Chunky Monkey ice cream, and an opened package of Milano cookies was on the table between them.
“So, um, Conrad Gilbert.”
“Yeah. I saw you two working together. What happened? It was pretty busy at the coffee shop so I couldn’t really tell what was happening with you guys.”
She didn’t hesitate to tell Nola everything. This woman was like a soul sister. From the moment they’d met they both sort of got each other.
“He left just like that?” Nola asked after Indy finished.
“Yeah. I mean I didn’t ask him to stay. I don’t know that I wanted him to stay,” she said, taking a big spoon of ice cream, hoping that it would numb her mouth and maybe give her brain freeze so she could think of anything other than how it had felt to kiss him or to hold on to his back as they’d ridden on his bike the way his back had felt pressed against her chest. Her breasts felt fuller when she remembered that adn she hadn’t washed her shirt when she got home because the scent of his aftershave lingered on it.
“Maybe he knew that and that’s why he left,” Nola said. “But he’s usually all growly on this TV show. But he’s different in person. Not like he used to be, but not like he is on TV either.”
“I mean sort of, but it’s more of a bluff, I think. But there is a part of him that’s almost sweet.”
“He sounds like a decent guy which makes sense because Dash is super nice too. I heard old Lance was a piece of work but that was from the factory workers who he fired. So who knows?”
“Maybe. How did Conrad and his cousins end up here?” she asked Nola, because if Lance wasn’t a great person, then where did that innate kindness come from?
“I can’t really remember the details because I was a kid, but Conrad’s and Dash’s parents were killed in a plane crash. They were brought here to live at Gilbert Manor. They went to our school for like two weeks. I was in third grade and they were in fifth. That’s all I know. Rory was in my class. She was so shy but very sweet.”
Indy looked over at her friend, wishing she knew more of the story. She was trying to imagine what it had been like to lose his parents like that. She thought about what he said about not being able to talk to his grandfather as an adult. What if it wasn’t just his grandfather he wanted to talk to, but also his parents?
“Did you go to that party the night of the accident?” she asked.
“Yes, it was something else. Declan Owen, whose family did business with the Gilberts, was drunk and hitting on Rory, and then something happened and Conrad knocked him out. Lance told Conrad and Dash that he should disown his grandchildren for causing a scene. Conrad went after the old man and Dash pulled him off and said something, I wasn’t close enough to hear, but my mom said it was heated. Then they drove off, going too fast. Declan went after them. We all heard the crash.”
“Where did it happen?”
“Right on the bridge over the river in the middle of town. The roads were okay, but the bridge had iced over and they skidded across it. The car rolled several times. It was horrible.”
Indy’s heart was racing just from imagining what it had been like for Conrad in that car. He’d told her the aftermath, but now she thought she understood him a little bit better. And the man who’d been so kind to her that afternoon. Maybe he was trying to treat her the way he’d never been treated.
Seven
At midnight her phone dinged with a text message. She only had two chapters left to finish in the book she was reading and really didn’t want to stop, but glanced at her phone in case it was her parents with an emergency.
Instead it was an unknown number with a New York City area code.
Intrigued, she pulled the phone closer.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: It’s Con. Couldn’t sleep thinking about you.
She read the message, and then reread it. How was she meant to respond? Had he texted her by mistake? To be honest, it was only the fact that Nola had come over that had allowed her to stop thinking about him. The book had provided a distraction... but to be fair, the hero had taken on Conrad’s large frame, scarred face and soft lips.
Indy Belmont: It’s Indy, you know that right?
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Yes.