Page 17 of A Magnolia Move-In
I shook my head and took a sip of water. “I just moved here and don’t have a lot of friends. I mean, everyone I know, I know because of my daughter. I don’t have anyone that’s just my friend.”
“It won’t last long that way.”
I shrugged. “I like staying in my own world. I’m not really interested in gossip.”
He furrowed his brow before he sighed. “Well, I hope it stays that way.” He shifted in his seat until his elbows were resting on the table. “What are you doing here?”
My mouth was full, so I finished chewing before I spoke. “I moved here to be close to Maggie. She’s married now, and I anticipate babies in the future.” I shrugged. I didn’t want him to think I was a loser, so I didn’t talk about my job loss. “I didn’t want to live my life in the city anymore. Coming here was like coming home.” Which was true.
He studied me before he slowly nodded. “I can see that. There are drawbacks to living in a small town, but then there are also benefits.”
“Exactly.” A slow smile spread across my lips. The same smile that appeared every time I thought aboutMagnolia Daily. It was my future. “I am the new owner of Magnolia Daily,” I said softly.
He frowned. “The town’s newspaper?”
I nodded as I brushed the crumbs off my fingertips.
He grew still, and when I looked up, I saw that his lips were pursed. As if he was bothered by this.
“Everything we’ve talked about is off the record, you know that right?”
His response startled me. I nodded. “Of course.”
He moved to stand, the legs of his chair scraping against the linoleum. “I’m heading to bed,” he said. His tone had turned stiff.
“Yeah, of course.”
He made his way to the hallway, and just before he disappeared, I called out his name. I didn’t like how we were leaving this, and if I could somehow make it better, I was going to.
“I won’t ever write about what we talk about,” I said when he paused and turned to meet my gaze. I hoped he could tell that I was being genuine as I smiled at him.
He paused but then gave me a curt nod. “Good night, Penny.”
I wanted to call him back. I wanted to ask him if he was still worried. But he disappeared before I gathered the courage to speak.
Now alone, I finished my food and then gathered up my dirty dishes. After washing the dishes in the sink, I dried my hands and stepped back. I sighed as I turned off the light and headed to my room.
Once inside, I closed my door and padded over to my bed, where I collapsed. I covered my eyes with my arm and took in a deep breath.
I hated how I’d left things with Spencer. I wanted him to know that I was never going to invade his privacy and write something about him—he’d made it pretty clear that he was against that.
For some reason, I wanted Spencer to like me. Maybe it was because he’d opened his house to me. Or the fact that he’d made me food when he didn’t have to.
A part of me whispered that it was because he was attractive—which wasn’t a lie, but I wasn’t going to go downthatroad. I wasn’t in the market for a man, and I was fairly certain that love wasn’t in my future.
No, I wanted him to like me because he was a nice guy. And he held the keys to where I lived. If I wanted to keepmy life less complicated by staying here, then I needed to focus on what was going to keep me in his good graces.
And from how he reacted to hearing about the newspaper, that meant keeping my work life and private life separate.
I could do that.
I could.
SIX
Naomi
The next day, I woke up sore, but my nausea had subsided, so I was counting that as a win. I used all of my strength to lift my body off my bed and settle into my chair. Even though Jackson wanted to help me, I was determined to learn how to do things by myself.
