Page 10 of Numbers Boy (Working Boys #2)

CHAPTER EIGHT

Noah

Lilly sees my car first, and I can almost sense her excitement coming down the sidewalk and through the car door.

She pulls on Isabella’s coat sleeve, and my lips twitch at the puff of air that forms when she sighs.

But as annoyed as she seems for a second, Isabella quickly takes her younger sister’s hand, and they head toward me.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder how long it will be before she’s too cool to hold hands.

When they reach the car, Lilly yanks the handle and scoots in as fast as her bulky snowpants and boots will let her, squeezing an arm through the gap in the front seats to give me an awkward hug.

Isabella follows at a more composed pace, but she still reaches out for a hug.

I wonder if that’s another thing that she’ll outgrow for a while.

I hope not, but I know I certainly wasn’t the most pleasant middle schooler to be around, so I’ll get it if she needs more personal space over the next couple of years.

“Hi, Uncle Noah! Guess what we did in science today?”

“What’s that, Lil?” I ask as I inch my way toward freedom, I mean, out of the school parking lot.

“We finally got to race our balloon-powered cars! It was so cool to see how far some of them went. Some of them went so fast Miss Smith barely had time to get out of their way.”

“That sounds awesome. I know you’ve been working hard on your car the past week. How about you, Isabella? What was something good that happened today?”

I glance in the rear-view mirror to see Isabella looking down at her hands and shrug. “We got to see a high school choir perform. That was kinda cool.”

“Yeah? Did they sing any songs you know?” Hopefully, this is a topic she’ll want to stay on. Isabella has always loved when I pull out my guitar and sing with her, so having more connections to music can only be a good thing.

“They did a version of ‘Here Comes the Sun,’” she says, her voice getting slightly more animated as she thinks about it.

I wish I wasn’t driving so I could give her my full attention, but maybe this is what she needs to open up a bit more.

“It was pretty cool. Parts of it were different from the one I’ve heard before, but that made me think of when you play and sometimes change bits and pieces of the music.

The teacher even talked about that for a bit. ”

“I’m glad you enjoyed listening to them and gave them a chance even though it was different from what you already knew.

” I don’t push for more when she shrugs and turns to look out the window, happy that she was willing to give me that much.

A minute later, I pull into my parking spot and turn to face the two precious kids in my back seat.

“Now, who wants hot chocolate and muffins?”

“Me!” both of them exclaim, unbuckling and out of the car before I can even turn back around. I follow after them, chuckling to myself.

Once we’re upstairs and the girls have taken off their snow stuff, we head into the kitchen.

They promptly get to work helping me get our snack ready.

I take care of the hot chocolate, Isabella grabs plates and cups, and Lilly gets the mini muffins out of their hiding spot at the back of the cupboard full of pots and pans.

“Does Uncle Blake really steal all the muffins if we don’t put them back there?” she asks suspiciously as she straightens up from grabbing them.

“Why don’t you leave them on the counter this time and find out?

” I send her a wink, and she grins, popping open the container and placing two on each plate.

Honestly, Blake is the one who makes sure the snacks stay full, but putting them in that cupboard makes Lilly giggle and helps us all have our own little space to go to in my not-so-spacious kitchen.

Plus, I like to tease Blake, even when he’s not here.

We all dig into our snacks while the girls tell me more about their day and what they’ve got planned for Valentine’s Day in a few weeks. Lilly is in the middle of describing her design ideas for a cat-shaped mailbox when Blake stomps through the door and calls out to us.

“Dude, did you grow two extra pairs of feet? What are all these boots for?” Lilly’s face lights up, and she hops up to go give him a hug while Isabella rolls her eyes, but I catch the smile she tries to hide behind her mug.

Blake has been my best friend since we were Lilly’s age, so the girls treat him like a bonus uncle.

In the next minute, he makes it to the kitchen, Lilly clinging to his back like an overgrown backpack.

“Ooh, are there enough snacks for me, or did Uncle Noah eat them all?”

“There’s plenty, you big goofball.” I point to the extra muffins on the counter. “Lilly was just telling us about her Valentine’s mailbox. She’s going to make it look like a cat.”

Blake scrunches up his nose and turns his head dramatically toward the girl still hanging off him. I bite back a laugh, knowing what’s coming next. “A cat? A cat , Lillybean? Out of all the awesome animals you could choose, why would you go with a cat?”

Lilly huffs and wiggles down so she can plant her hands on her hips. She looks so much like my sister when we were little when she does that. “Cats are awesome, too, Uncle Blake. Just because you are silly enough to be allergic to them doesn’t mean the rest of the world can’t enjoy them.”

“Fair enough,” Blake concedes with an overdramatic sigh. “I guess I’ll just have to steal candy from Isabella instead.”

Isabella groans and hops off her stool to put her dishes in the sink. “Or you could just ask nicely, and we might give you candy. Besides, it’s not like you’ll be allergic to a cardboard box, even if it does look like a cat.”

“You mean use my manners?” he asks, fake-surprised, as he grabs a muffin. “What a novel idea. Wanna take this to the couch? I’ve got some new pictures of cute animals to show you all.”

That gets their attention, and the girls quickly take off, leaving Blake and me in the dust. “How was your day?” I ask.

“It was great, actually. Not too cold to enjoy being outside. How about you?”

“Same here.” I sneak one more muffin and eat it before we follow my nieces to the living room. “And I’ve got some pictures to share, too.”

“Dibs on going first!” Blake grins and plops down with his phone already out. “I think we left off here last time.”

The next ten minutes are basically a recap of the walks and pet sits that Blake has done since the girls were here last. They ooh and aww, asking questions about all of the animals and amazing me with some of the things they remember about each of our clients.

Then it’s my turn to share. Without thinking, I pull up that first picture I took of Stacy and show them all.

“This is Stacy. She’s a new dog I get to walk each week while her doggy dad is busy.” I try to keep my voice even, but I must not do a great job because Isabella cocks her head and narrows her eyes at me.

“Do you have any more pictures of her?” Lilly asks, thankfully oblivious to what’s going on. “What does her human do?”

“Well, he’s an accountant, but I’m not sure what he does on the nights he needs help with Stacy.

I can show you the pictures he’s got of her on her Instagram account.

” I pull up Stacy’s page and tap on a picture with her and Steve outside when the sun is starting to set.

He’s bundled up against the cold, but even with a hat on, his green eyes pop in the sunlight, and there’s a loose red curl across his forehead.

“He’s pretty,” Lilly says and pulls my phone away to scroll through the other pictures, her sister leaning in to snoop as well.

“Ooh, look at his eyeshadow in this one!” Isabella says, and even without looking, I have a good idea which photo they’re on.

I may or may not have stared at that one for about five minutes when I first saw it because he’s so gorgeous that I forgot I was pretending to be finding out more about Stacy.

Blake uses the fact that the girls are distracted looking at the pretty puppy and even prettier human to scoot closer. “How’s it going with him? And how does it feel to know you’re so transparent about your crush that Isabella clocked you instantly?”

“It’s going good,” I hedge. “We’ve chatted a few times when he happens to be coming home and I’m finishing up with Stacy’s walk.”

“It’s cool that Isabella’s impressed with his makeup skills. You know Amy says that’s something she’s been interested in lately. And don’t think we’re going to ignore the fact that you follow his dog on Instagram.”

“I follow lots of our clients if they have social media pages,” I mumble, body sinking lower into the couch.

“And how many of them get personalized text convos every time you see their pet?” Blake keeps going before I can even get my mouth all the way open to reply, ignoring the fact that the girls are now grabbing the container we keep full of brushes and hair ties, getting ready to set up camp and play with his hair.

“And not just the normal check-in texts. I know you, Noah. This guy is different.”

“Yeah, okay, he is,” I admit, feeling my neck start to heat.

“He’s gorgeous, but he’s also really nice and funny.

Take a look at this.” I grab my phone from where the girls left it as they got sidetracked talking about how to do Blake’s hair and pull up my text thread with Steve, showing him the exchange we had last week.

Steve: How did your walk go? Sorry you had to be out in the bitter cold.

Me: That’s okay, I made sure Stacy didn’t turn into a pup-sicle.

Steve: That was paw-ful *face palm emoji*

“He sends me puns back, Blake. I’m screwed.”

“You are so screwed.” Blake pats me on the shoulder, careful not to move his head too much. “But at least it seems like he’d be open to you flirting.”

“You think so?” I ask hopefully.

“Dude, how many emojis with hearts has he sent you since you started texting?”

“Um, a lot? But they’re in relation to his dog. Who is an absolute sweetheart, by the way. She deserves all those heart eyes.” I grin thinking about Stacy.

“Still not something most people would send to their dog walker.” Blake shrugs. “Maybe heart-based emojis are just his MO, but it wouldn’t hurt to see if Steve is open to more.”

I nod just as there’s a knock on the door.

“Knock-knock!” comes my sister’s voice as she pushes it open.

“Mommy, Uncle Noah has got a cruuuush,” Lilly singsongs as soon as Amy is through the doorway.

I huff a sad laugh and flop my head back on the couch. Serves me right for thinking they weren’t listening. Little ears hear everything.

“Is that so?” Amy smirks and sits next to me on the arm of the couch. “Who are they? And I want to see pictures.”

“He’s so pretty, Mom,” Isabella chimes in, eyes lighting up. “His makeup literally slays in all his pictures.”

I give in to the inevitable, pulling Stacy’s page back up and handing over my phone. “He’s also a nice person. I don’t just like him for his makeup skills.”

“Dang, he is really cute though,” Amy says. “Those eyes are something else. You going to ask him out? I’m assuming that he’s a client since this is his pet’s account. How does that work with you being interested?”

I rub my hand over the back of my neck. “Not sure. Neither of us has ever had to think about how dating a client would work. But that’s a way off.

I don’t even know if he would be interested in me.

” Although the lingering, heated looks he sends me make me think I might have a chance, and yeah, okay, the texts are a little flirtier than with anyone else I walk dogs for.

“We’ll figure it out, Noah,” Blake assures me. “Take some baby steps with him and see how it goes.”

Baby steps. That’s doable.

As the girls are packing up to head home, my phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out, and a grin splits my face when I see who it is.

“I take it from that goofy look, Steve just texted you,” Blake teases. “Now’s your first chance for a baby step.”

Steve: Hey, what are some good dog parks I should take Stacy to?

Steve: I think we’re both getting bored of the same one every day and I figured you’d have some insight for us.

How can I turn this into baby steps? I send him the details of a few that I go to most often because they’re easy to access from most of the city.

Me: Those are ones I go to a lot.

Steve: Perfect, thank you!

Me: Not a problem

I can see Steve typing for a while, and I wonder if he’s trying to find a way to keep this conversation going, too.

Steve: So, say you had to pick your favorite one. Like, the one you plan to go to tomorrow?

My chest fills with hope as I reread his words. Is he saying he wants to meet up tomorrow?

Me: I would have to say Bark Avenue is one that I go to most days. Usually around 1?

Steve: Huh, that’s usually when Stacy and I take our afternoon walk

Me: What a coincidence *squinty laugh emoji*

Steve: What are the chances? *winky face emoji*

I think we just set up a doggy date.