Crossing over to it, I opened it and frowned. I couldn’t say I knew Naomi well, so her being here, hell, her knowing where I lived, was a shock. Then again, it was a small, close-knit town, so it wouldn’t be hard to find out.
“Everything okay, Naomi?”
Her smile was shaky. “I have to be quick because Shanti’s with Carter waiting for me at the diner, but I wanted to have a quick word with you about Heidi, if that’s okay?”
Carefully blanking my expression, I motioned for her to come inside, then crossed my arms over my chest and braced myself for what she was going to say as I nodded at her to continue.
“I don’t know if you’re aware of how Heidi and I met, but she was a friend of a friend. After I got Shanti, I joined a parenting group online because I had no fucking clue what I was doing. Fast forward a few months, and the friend told me about her friend called Heidi who was pregnant and asked me if I could help her out with some information.”
Her shoulders slumped slightly. “I’ve never been pregnant, so I said she’d be best to join the Facebook group I was part of for that, but I offered to help her with anything else she needed. I’d only met her face-to-face a couple of times before she moved back to Piersville, but we became really close regardless.”
I didn’t know where she was headed with this, but it was obvious the poor woman was trying to do something on behalf of her best friend, and I liked that she was as protective as that over her. My brothers were the same way for me, and people needed that in their life—to have someone taking their back through things.
“That’s not unusual in this day and age to make close friends with people you meet online, and it’s good y’all have each other, Naomi.”
“Yeah,” she agreed gently. “She’s helped me through some of the worst moments of my life, and I feel like I owe her a vital organ as repayment.”
“I don’t doubt you’ve helped her in the same way.”
Naomi looked down at the floor and whispered, “I hope I have.” She sounded almost defeated in a way, and I had to wonder what was going through her mind.
I was just about to ask her if she was okay when she raised her head and took a deep breath. “I know you’ll be wondering why I’m here, and the reason is to beg you not to mess with her emotions. Heidi’s main focus is that little girl, and I know you’re not a bad guy—none of your family would willingly or deliberately hurt someone—but sometimes we don’t realize how much power we have over someone until it’s too late.”
“Are you telling me not to fuck this up?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m asking you to only go into this with Heidi if you’re sure you’re not playing with her emotions.” When I went to say something, she shook her head to stop me. “Please, just let me get this part out. Without betraying her confidence, I’m going to let you in on a piece of information you didn’t know—Heidi swore she wouldn’t get into a relationship with someone until Nemi was eighteen and at college.
“Her goal was to make her daughter the focus of her attention outside of work, seeing as how her job eats into so much of her life as it is. It’s not like she can quit working because it pays for their life, but she really does give Nemi her focus in her downtime, and also when she’s working, too. That’s why Nemi’s not at daycare more days a week. She also didn’t want to have to divide her attention between someone else and her kid, so Heidi agreeing to go on a date with you is a huge deal, Bond.”
BH—or before Heidi—I would have retreated into a shell and canceled the date. I didn’t want someone reading more into the situation than there really was, but I also didn’t fuck around with people’s emotions and lead them on. I never had, and I never would do that to anyone.
Knowing this about Heidi, though, had a different effect on me.
I was nervous about letting her down, I felt more determined to show her I wasn’t that guy, and I also felt like I was thirty feet tall because she was breaking her rule for me. The most significant impact the words had, was they gave me a reality check about our situation.
For both of us, Nemi had to be the priority regardless. What we did and how we did it had an impact on her, and I wouldn’t want it to be negative or to affect her for the rest of her life.