Chapter Seven
They forgot to set the alarm.
When Noah exploded out of bed the next morning, it startled Anita awake. “What’s the matter? What happened?”
He looked so sexy standing over her, all sleepy-eyed and naked. “The pancake breakfast has already started. I’m going to run home to shower and change. I’ll be back in half an hour to pick you up.”
She wanted to groan and put her head back under the covers, or better yet, pull him back under the covers with her. But she’d promised to go. Noah was stepping out of his comfort zone in more ways than one, and she realized she did want to support him.
She sat up and raked her hands through her tangled hair. “Don’t rush. It takes me more than half an hour to get ready.”
He gave her a mock-stern look. “Half an hour.”
She mock-saluted him. “Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, sir.”
“God, you look so sexy in the morning.” He laid a quick hard kiss on her. “Gotta go.”
She took the shortest shower in history, pulled her damp hair back into a ponytail, and threw on some makeup. First impressions were important. If it were just her, she wouldn’t care what the citizens of Lakeside thought about what she wore for a Fourth of July festival. But she would be there with Noah, who was making his first appearance as a mayoral candidate. She wanted to make a good impression, especially for all those people who’d only seen her on Facebook licking Noah’s ice cream.
After she dressed in navy-and-white striped capris and a crisp red blouse, she grabbed her phone. She couldn’t believe she’d gotten ready in time. While she waited for Noah, she’d check and see what the village Facebook page looked like this morning.
Shit. Ethan and Helen Bradford were already at the fire hall, eating pancakes and smiling for the camera. She skimmed through all the positive comments and then farther down to check out Ginny’s post from yesterday. Noah definitely had his fans as well. Lots of people were looking forward to seeing the work done on her house.
She froze when she saw one of the last comments. Anita, please message me. It was from Antonio Delgado.
Her father.
“Anita?” She hadn’t even heard Noah come into the house. He sounded as if he might have called her name more than once. He put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
She couldn’t take her eyes off the phone. She nodded. Then shook her head, took a deep breath, and nodded again. She hopped off the mattress. “I’m fine. Let’s go. Your opponent is already eating breakfast. But you know, it looks like Ethan Bradford should probably stay away from pancakes. He’s got quite a belly on him already.”
Noah chuckled even as he eyed her curiously. With his navy shorts and red-and-white striped shirt, it looked as if they’d coordinated their wardrobe. Of course, red, white, and blue were the colors of the day. Anita slipped on her navy flats and grabbed her purse. She followed Noah out of the house, her mind still on the message from her father. He’d never tried to contact her in all this time. Why would he do it now? Why through the Lakeside village page of all places?
“You’re very quiet,” Noah said softly. The drive took only a few minutes. They pulled into a nearly filled, big parking lot beside the brick fire hall. “Did something happen while I was gone?”
“I’m okay. I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, you need to get in there and show the people of Lakeside how much better you are at eating pancakes than Ethan Bradford.”
The buzz of conversation stopped when they walked in the door of the fire hall. The emergency vehicles were all parked outside, and long tables and chairs filled the space. Probably a couple of hundred pairs of eyes were trained on them.
No. They were trained on her. Normally, she didn’t mind attracting attention. Normally, she savored it. She realized she was worried about screwing things up for Noah. For a man she’d only known a couple of days.
She plastered a smile on her face while Noah bought their tickets. “This is an annual fundraiser for the department,” he told her.
Noah took her hand and led her to the long table across the back wall where firefighters were pouring batter onto griddles, cooking bacon and sausage, as well as scrambling up eggs.
“Hey, Mack,” Noah said to the firefighter serving up the pancakes. “Have you met Aggie’s granddaughter, Anita?” Noah turned to Anita. “Mack Washington was one of the first responders on the scene when Aggie fell.”
“Thank you for your service and for helping my grandmother. I’m pleased to meet you. Everything smells delicious.” She accepted a plate heaping with pancakes from the brawny, bald man. “Oh, that’s way too much for me to eat.”
Mack laughed. “Noah’ll help you finish them off.”
Noah accepted bacon and sausage and scrambled eggs in addition to the pancakes. Anita waved off everything but the pancakes. As they found their way over to a couple of empty seats, she leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Be careful or you’ll get a belly like Mr. Bradford.”
He winked at her, and after they sat, he introduced her to the people sitting closest to them. Anita couldn’t remember all the names, but the two little boys were adorable even though their parents were hustling to keep them from getting their sticky fingers on everything around them. Noah drowned his pancakes in syrup. Anita was a little more restrained.
Other volunteers brought around coffee and left a full carafe on the table for refills. Anita sucked her first cup down before she dug into her pancakes. A stream of people stopped over on their way in or out to chat briefly with Noah and shake his hand. Anita didn’t pay attention to their conversations as her mind turned back to the father she barely remembered.
Her father left when she was four years old, so her memories were not much more than images of a tall bear of a man who gave great hugs. English was his second language, and she remembered him singing her lullabies in his musical, accented voice. But he was gone before his presence had made a huge impression in her life.
The hole he’d left had made a much bigger impact.
“Full already?” Noah pointed to the breakfast she’d barely started.
“No. Taking it slow. I figure you’ll be here for a while.” She refilled their coffee cups. “I can’t believe you’ve had time to eat with all the people stopping by to talk to you.”
“I’m good at multitasking.”
The cute family left, and an older couple sat across from them. Noah grinned and made introductions. “Anita Delgado is Aggie’s granddaughter. Janet and Dan Larson are friends of my parents.” He turned to the silver-haired man and redheaded woman. “Have you guys seen my folks this morning?”
“They’ve been and gone,” Dan said. “Janet and I had kitchen duty, but I saw them here first thing.” He paused. “Your dad’s looking…good.”
Noah shrugged. “As good as can be expected, I guess. Looks like a great turnout this year.”
Anita remembered Noah mentioned his father had a stroke. It sounded as if he was doing well enough to get out to a pancake breakfast, even if he wasn’t able to do much for the business right now.
When Noah and Dan started talking about the decline in volunteer firefighter membership and what the village should do about it, Janet turned to Anita and smiled. “I’m so glad to meet you. Patty was one of my best friends growing up. How’s she doing?”
Anita had never talked with anyone who’d known her mother before she was born. Another reminder that besides Aggie living here in Lakeside, her mother had grown up here, too.
When she didn’t respond right away, Janet grew concerned. “Oh no, is she not doing well? She hasn’t died, has she?”
“No, she’s still living.” How much to say? Anita didn’t want the subject of conversation running through the village today to be Patty Swanson Delgado’s regrettable condition. “She retired from nursing a few years ago.”
“Well, tell her I’d love to see her. I was always so disappointed she never came back to Lakeside after she and Tony left for Philly.”
Anita’s heart thudded. “Tony?”
“Oh, does your father go by Antonio now? Back when they were dating, they were Patty and Tony, and they were always together. A group of us used to have a blast dancing at the disco.” Her eyes narrowed good-naturedly when Anita couldn’t think of a word to say. “Don’t make fun. Disco music was the thing back then. How is your father?”
Anita could usually maintain a conversation with anyone. But trying to wrap her mind around the casual way this woman was talking about her parents had robbed her of her speech.
Janet’s cheeks pinked. “Oh dear, did I step in it this time? Tony’s alive, isn’t he? They are still together, aren’t they? I never saw a couple more in love. I thought Patty was so lucky to meet that nice, handsome guy. So much fun. And oh, that sexy accent he had.”
Anita was still getting over the shock that her father had been here in Lakeside, too. “No. I mean, yes, my father is still alive, as far as I know. But I’m afraid they divorced. My father moved back to Spain.”
“No! I never saw that coming.” Janet cleared her throat. “Well, how about you? I saw on Facebook that you’re an art teacher. And an artist yourself. I wish I were creative. Are you married? Any kids?”
Were all small towns like this with all the questions?
“No. Never married. No children.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.”
“No. No, it’s not. It’s the way I wanted it.” Anita didn’t want this woman to think she’d been searching all these years for a man to marry her. She tried to take the sharpness out of her voice. “I’ve worked hard to build my life, and it’s quite fulfilling without a man in it.”
“Of course it is, dear. But I see you’ve hooked Noah Colburn.” She lifted her brows. “He’s quite a catch.”
Anita resisted rolling her eyes. “I met Noah three days ago. I’m not trying to reel him in.” She couldn’t resist continuing the metaphor. “I wasn’t fishing for a man when I came to town.”
“Of course not. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. Dan will tell you I never stop asking questions. I used to be a reporter for the Lakeside Herald. Can’t help it, even if I’m retired. In my blood, I guess.”
Noah reached over and squeezed his hand on top of her knee. Had he heard the conversation? “How are your pancakes?”
“I’m afraid I’ve been bugging the poor girl with questions, and she hasn’t had a chance to eat.”
Anita generally bristled if someone referred to her as a girl, but somehow she didn’t mind it from Janet. She pointed to the older woman’s plate. “Neither have you.” She squeezed Noah’s hand back. “The pancakes are delicious. Sorry we missed your parents.”
“You’ll see them later at the family picnic.”
“What family picnic?”
“Didn’t I tell you? The Colburns always get together for a picnic lunch on the Fourth.”
“No. I thought we had to walk around town all day.”
He chuckled. “There will be enough of that, too. Hope your shoes are comfortable.”
“So where is the picnic?”
“At my parents’ house. You’ll be able to see the house where I grew up. Tonight, Jake’s BBQ will be serving ribs and pulled pork down at Lakeside Park.”
“So basically, today is just an excuse to eat all day long?”
Janet and Dan laughed along with Noah. “Exactly.”
…
The rest of the morning flew by as they walked around the village. Vendors lined the streets, selling everything from kettle corn to jewelry to glow sticks. Noah hadn’t expected Anita to be as patient as she was with all the people stopping to shake hands with him and meet her.
“Lot of curious people in this town,” she said after another village resident walked away, but not before shaking both their hands and asking about the work that was going to be done on Aggie’s house. “Guess it’s good the voters are getting out and meeting the candidates. But I think they mostly want to get up close and personal with me and find out what they can about the renovation plans.”
“Hey, some of them wanted to talk to me, too.”
Anita grinned and leaned in for a way-too-quick peck on the lips. Noah couldn’t resist wrapping one arm around her waist and giving her a fast-but-decent kiss. He liked her more with every minute he spent with her. He desired her more with every touch. Every kiss.
They stopped by Henry Brown’s house to say hello and check on how he was doing since his recent heart attack. The current mayor still looked pale and weak, but he shook Noah’s hand and told him how glad he was that Noah was running. Henry didn’t let on which candidate he hoped would win, but he said he was glad there was going to be an election and not an uncontested race.
The temperature had risen to over eighty by the time noon rolled around. Noah cranked up the air as soon as they jumped into his truck to head over to the family home for the picnic.
“I don’t go to many of these things.” Anita almost sounded nervous. “So I have a question.”
“What things?”
“You know. Potluck picnics. Big family gatherings. I’m pretty sure we should be bringing something like…a casserole or something?”
He had a feeling Anita didn’t make a lot of goulash or macaroni and cheese. “Do you bake casseroles?”
“No.”
“Cherry cobbler? Macaroni salad?”
“You’re scaring me now.”
“I didn’t think anything scared you.”
“Families scare me. I haven’t had experience with families.”
“You’ll do fine. They don’t bite. I won’t leave you alone with them.” He snickered.
She punched him in the shoulder. “It’s not funny. And I still think we should have picked up something to bring.”
She did sound nervous. He’d thought she was always confident. “Don’t worry about it. Mom always makes enough to feed an army.”
“Does she know I’m coming?”
Had he told his mother he was bringing Anita? The last few days were like a blur. “The more the merrier.”
“You’re full of clichés today, Mr. Mayor,” she snapped. “You need to expand your vocabulary if you’re going to convince your constituents to vote for you.”
He bristled. “What?”
“Well, respecting history is fine, but—” She crossed her arms over her seat belt. “You know what? Never mind.”
He pulled into the driveway and slammed the gearshift into park. “No. Tell me. You suddenly went off on me. Why?”
“I shoot my mouth off without thinking sometimes. I’m sorry. Don’t mind me.” She looked out the windshield. “We’re here? This is a beautiful old house. And all this land. You grew up here?”
“Yeah.” He took off his seat belt but didn’t jump out of the truck. “Anita?”
“Let’s go.”
“Okay, but you know you don’t have to be nervous. You’ve already met my mom and brothers and cousin. They already like you. You don’t have to pick a fight with me.”
“I wasn’t… Okay, maybe I was. I don’t like feeling this way. You have this huge family. I’ve lived most of my life with only my mother. Now I find out I had a grandmother who was alive most of this time, and then today my father leaves me a message out of the blue, and it’s all freaking me out a little bit.”
“I thought you didn’t have any contact with your father.”
“Yeah.”
“Did he call you?”
“No, he left a comment on the village Facebook page.”
“Really? You should—” A thump on the hood of his truck made them both jump and turn to look out the windshield. It was Beckett, grinning like an ass.
“Hey, get in the house,” he called out. “Mom and Pop are wondering what you two are doing out here.”
Noah glanced at Anita. “Sorry. Now you can be glad you don’t have any younger brothers.” He caught her hand. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“We’ll talk later.”
Beck opened the passenger door for Anita. “Great picture of you two on Facebook this morning.”
Noah met them at the front of the truck. “What picture?”
“You two were kissing on the sidewalk. Thought you knew better than that by now. Most of the commenters predict you’ll be married before the election.”
“This is ridiculous,” Noah muttered. He checked Anita’s expression, but she looked amused. She stepped up and linked her arm with his.
“I think it’s kind of fun.” Anita bumped her shoulder against his. “We know it’s not going to happen, and that’s all that counts.”
“The voters will be so disappointed.”
Anita stopped and turned to face Noah. “I told you if hanging out with me in public is going to hurt your chances, I’m okay with…” She lowered her voice, “hanging out in private.”
“And I told you this wasn’t going to be a dirty little secret. Making it a secret would be even worse if it came out.”
“‘This’?” Beck was still there, shamelessly listening in. “Are you saying you guys are really a thing now?”
“We’re having fun for a few weeks,” Anita blurted out before Noah could stop her.
His brothers would take that information and run with it. But what had he expected, taking her to a family thing? Holding hands. Kissing in public. He was sending everyone the wrong message. Why had he insisted on taking their relationship public? There had been no point.
Unless in the back of his stupid mind he wanted it to be more than a fling. Unless he hoped he could be the one man to change Anita’s mind about getting serious. Unless he thought he’d renovate her house so perfectly she’d want to stay here in little Lakeside. With him.
He didn’t have time to think about that anymore, because they’d reached the house. Mom was there at the door with a hug for each of them. She welcomed Anita warmly and led them through the kitchen to the back deck. Mom introduced Holly, Beck’s daughter, to Anita and then asked Holly to help her in the kitchen. Pop sat in the shady corner of the deck in his wheelchair.
Noah led Anita over to his father. “Pop, this is Anita Delgado, Aggie’s granddaughter. Anita, this is my dad, Chuck Colburn.”
Pop smiled his lopsided smile. “I’ve heard about you from my wife and sons. You’ve made quite an impression.” He reached his left hand out for a shake. The stroke had affected his right side, and while he’d regained some mobility, it was doubtful he’d recover any more.
“I’m glad to meet you, Mr. Colburn.”
“Call me Pop. Everyone does.” He patted the bench next to him, and after a quick glance at Noah, she sat beside his father.
“Noah was showing me around your shop yesterday. I loved seeing all the architectural details your business saves from destruction. Amazing.”
Pop was beaming. Noah knew it was from both the praise and the attention of a beautiful woman. Beckett called Noah over. He held up a finger to let Anita know he’d be right back and then followed his brother off the deck. Carter waited for them at the bottom of the steps.
Carter grabbed Noah’s arm and dragged him around the corner, out of view and hearing range. “Why don’t you quit the campaign right now? All you’re doing is giving Bradford more shit to use against you. Where is your head?”
Noah frowned. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“What are you doing with Anita Delgado?”
“What do you think I’m doing?” Noah asked through gritted teeth.
“I think you’re screwing her. You’re thinking with your dick and ruining your chances at getting elected mayor.”
“Yeah, this isn’t a good idea,” Beck chimed in.
“Look who’s lecturing me.” His youngest brother’d had a wild go of it when he was younger.
“That’s why I know what I’m talking about.”
“What’s the problem? We’re both single. There’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing. The voters will see through Bradford.”
“Carter, maybe we should keep our mouths shut. When has Noah ever let loose before? Maybe he deserves a little fun on the side.”
Noah didn’t like Anita being referred to that way, even though she’d used the term “fun” more than once for what they were doing. For what she wanted out of their fling. “Show her some respect. She’s a college professor and award-winning artist. There’s nothing wrong with being attracted to each other.”
“And when she leaves?” Carter asked. “Cuz I heard she isn’t moving to Lakeside.”
“Maybe I’ll move to Philadelphia if things get serious between us.”
“What? No way.” Carter’s eyes were wide with disbelief.
Of course he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. But he couldn’t resist getting another jab in with his brother. “Why not?”
“What about the business?” Beckett asked.
One thing that was true was he was tired of being taken for granted. “I’m not the only Colburn son.”