Fall Me Maybe: A small town, autumn-inspired, friends to lovers romcom by Laney Hatcher

Author:Laney Hatcher [Hatcher, Laney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Lu

I stared at the text thread with my stepmother and sighed. After two unanswered messages—both read—I’d given up and called the restaurant she’d mentioned taking my dad to for his birthday.

The hostess who’d answered at the Laurel Park Inn happened to be a girl I’d babysat a decade ago as a teenager. Kayleigh had recognized my name on the caller ID, but if she thought it was weird that I was asking about reservations with very little to go on, she didn’t say anything. She’d scanned their calendar system and confirmed a reservation for three tomorrow evening at seven o’clock under the name Kimberly Billings.

I’d ignored the hurt and confusion swirling inside me and asked Kayleigh to update that to four guests before thanking her and disconnecting.

That familiar bitterness threatened to rise, but I pushed it away. Why would Kimberly exclude me? Why couldn’t we be some semblance of a family? I knew that was what my father wanted. It wasn’t like I stole his attention. We didn’t have father-daughter lunches or anything requiring his time beyond the occasional phone call. After all these years, why couldn’t Kimberly invite me to be a small part of their lives?

Two women I didn’t recognize approached my booth, so I flipped my phone over and placed it on the tabletop, focusing my attention on my customers.

The farmers’ market was busy as tourists meandered the stalls and talked to the vendors. I’d met some really sweet ladies from California and talked them into checking out Dottie’s Ice Cream as well as picking up a pack of greeting cards from my display. The sun was bright, but the October afternoon was chilly. A perfect fall day that made me want to go apple picking or split a funnel cake with Noah.

I fought a dreamy sigh as the two customers browsed the stock I had left. Noah had been busy with work, both driving and with website stuff. But we’d been texting and talking since our night together earlier in the week.

We’d woken up the second time and managed to make it out of bed. I smiled when I thought about a mussed and attentive Noah who’d had a hard time keeping his hands off me. He’d held my hand out of the apartment and on the drive over to grab breakfast burritos at Tres Chicas, my favorite food truck in town. I’d gotten shy smiles and hot looks throughout the meal before he’d driven me home and kissed me senseless in the parking lot.

When the women finished making their purchases—two prints, a coffee mug, and four friendship bracelets—they stepped aside to reveal Noah waiting patiently behind them with two cups in his hands.

He took a sip of his bubble tea and held one out to me. “What’s up, Louis Vuitton?”

I couldn’t help the smile that came over my face. I knew it hadn’t been very long since I’d seen him, and maybe I was getting ahead of myself, letting my feelings run away from me, but I was happy.

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