“I really wasn’t cute, but thank you for saying that.”
“How old are you in this picture?”
“Fifteen. I grew about a foot and a half the next year.”
“And Sawyer was out of the house at that point?”
“Yeah. He left as soon as he could. Went into the military, which really pissed off my dad. He’d wanted him to go to business school and work for him, but it didn’t happen that way. Plus, I think my dad felt like Sawyer was always making him look bad. Dad went to a military school as a boy, but didn’t have the nerve to do what Sawyer did.”
Lily lifted the page to look at more. “May I?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
She flipped to the next set of photographs, some more formal-looking portraits around a Christmas tree. “Who’s in this one?”
Noah went straight down the line. “That’s my dad, my dad’s second wife, Charlotte, me, Sawyer and then my stepsiblings, Todd and Beth.”
“Did you like them?”
“I did. A lot. We were actually quite close. But then my dad divorced their mom, they moved out and I had another set of siblings to get used to.”
“Not exactly your normal upbringing.”
“No. Not really.” Noah took the photo album from her hands. “What about you?”
“Hey. I wanted to look some more.” She let her voice express her true disappointment. She loved looking at old photos, especially of Noah.
“I promise it’s more of the same.”
“No baby pictures?”
He laughed. “Hold on one second.” He put the photo album back and pulled out a small leather box. Inside it was a tidy stack of old photos. “Here you go. No laughing. This was the origin of chubby Noah.”
Lily couldn’t help but smile as she looked at the photograph. There was a very happy baby in the arms of a beautiful woman. “All babies are chubby. And you were adorable with your big bald head and thigh rolls.”
“Exactly what every guy wants to hear.”
“Is that your mom? She’s beautiful.”
“Yep. She really was beautiful. I miss her a lot. You know how they say some people are the glue that holds a family together? Well, my mom was the glue. Things were never the same after she died.”
“I’m so sorry, Noah. I’m sure that was hard for you.” Lily noticed that there was a blue Tiffany box inside the leather box. “Made more than one trip to Tiffany?”
He shook his head. “Actually, no. This is my mom’s ring. Remember I told you about it the day we went to get yours?”
“Right. Of course.” Lily didn’t ask to see it. It was just a reminder of their arrangement.
“You didn’t answer my question. What about you and your family? For as much as we’ve worked together, I don’t know much.”
“I’m boring. My parents are happily married. I have one brother. He’s two years younger than me. Grew up outside Philadelphia. My mom and dad managed a small hotel. That’s how I ended up in hospitality.”
“That doesn’t sound boring at all. That sounds really nice.”
“It definitely wasn’t bad.”
“And then what brought you to New York?”
“Honestly, I just needed to get out of Philadelphia. I figured all of the best hotels were in the city, so I moved here to get a job. I switched around a few times, trying to get a position as a general manager, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. But then I read in a hospitality magazine that you and Sawyer were going to renovate the Grand Legacy and I wanted to be a part of it.” She picked at a spot on her jeans. At the root of that story was Peter and the failed engagement.
“Hold on. Back up. Why did you feel like you needed to get out of Philadelphia?”
Lily could’ve easily talked her way out of this, but Noah had shown her some pretty embarrassing things about himself. Maybe it was time to let him know at least a little bit about her past. “Yeah, that. A bad ex.”
He turned to her, his eyes saying he was eager for more. “One of the guys who yanked you around?”
“Yeah. You could say that.” The words were like a rock lodged in her throat. “He broke off our engagement.”
Noah’s shoulders visibly dropped. “Lil. Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“It’s not exactly something that comes up during a job interview or in normal office chitchat.”
“Well, yeah, but I took you to Tiffany and bought you an engagement ring. Now I feel like an ass. I mean, even more of an ass than I felt like before. I’m so sorry.”
She hated hearing the pity in his voice. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault. And I dodged the proverbial bullet. He got married and divorced since then.”