Noble Love (The Nobles of Sweet Rapids #1) (3 page)

T
essa opened the door to Dana's duplex and heard a raspy laugh coming from the living room. She walked through the foyer and was surprised to see Dana on the couch with blankets wrapped around her as she held a bowl of soup.

Sitting at the other end of the couch was Dana's undeniably handsome neighbor.

Tessa stood there watching the two of them, attempting to hide the look of amusement on her face.

"Tess!" Dana croaked, when she finally noticed her older sister in the room. "Hey, I didn't hear you come in."

"Obviously," Tessa teased, earning a glare from Dana.

"You remember my neighbor, Aiden, don't you?" Dana asked, looking at him.

"Of course," Tessa said, moving toward him with her hand held out. "It's nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too," his voice rumbled, and Tessa caught Dana's tremble from the corner of her eye. Aiden must have caught it too, because he turned back to Dana and asked, "Are the chills coming back?"

"Just a little," she said. Tessa had the feeling her chills weren’t from her sickness, but rather from the effect the sound of Aiden's voice clearly had on Dana.

Tessa watched with interest as Aiden reached toward Dana and wrapped the blankets tighter around her shoulders.

"Better?" he asked.

Dana nodded and smiled in Aiden's face before he stood.

"I'm gonna head out, let you ladies have your time," he said. He turned and looked at Dana with a stern look. "Finish the damn soup," he ordered.

"Don't tell me what to do," Dana spat back.

Aiden shook his head and smiled at Tessa. "See you later."

"Bye, Aiden," Tessa sang, watching him disappear toward the foyer. Once the sound of the door opening, then closing filled the air, she turned back to Dana, who was now dutifully sipping the soup that Aiden obviously brought her.

"I guess you won't be needing this," Tessa said, holding up a bag that held a fresh bowl of soup she'd picked up from one of the restaurants in downtown Sweet Rapids.

"I'll save it for later," Dana said, taking another long sip of her soup.

"So, what was Aiden doing here?" Tessa asked, as she headed for the kitchen. "I thought you couldn't stand him."

"I
can't
stand him," she grumbled. "He's the worst neighbor in the history of neighbors."

Tessa shook her head and grinned, as she stuffed the soup in the fridge.

"God, Dana! You need to clean out your damn fridge."

Dana sucked her teeth. "You sound like that asshole, Aiden."

Tessa sighed, hiding the smile from her face, as she returned to the living room.

"So, let me get this straight...Aiden is the worst neighbor in the history of neighbors
and
he's an asshole?"

"Yes..."

"Yet he came by to check on you and bring you soup. And I heard you in here giggling like a schoolgirl when I first came in."

When Aiden first moved in, he and Dana had gotten off on the wrong foot. It had turned into a war of wills, two stubborn souls who wouldn't back down; but over time, it had morphed into something...amicable.

If the way they were looking into each other's eyes when Tessa arrived was any indication, they were feeling each other a lot more than they cared to admit. Tessa wondered when they were going to stop acting foolish and finally confess that they actually really liked each other.

"Okay..." Dana said, rolling her eyes. "So, maybe he's not a
complete
asshole."

Tessa shook her head and plopped down on the oversized chair perpendicular to Dana's couch. "How are you feeling?"

"Not as shitty as when you asked me this morning."

"Well, I guess that's a good thing."

"I probably still won't be able to bake anything for another few days. Think you can handle the bakery by yourself?"

"You know I got this," Tessa said, with a wave of her hand. "Besides, you know damn well I won't be there by myself."

They stared at each other for a moment before murmuring at the same time, "Mama."

"Daddy came by earlier," Dana said. "Talked about how you got her all riled up again."

Tessa lifted her arms in the air, before slamming them down on the wide arm rests on either side of her.

"I just don't see what's wrong with introducing a few new recipes."

"I'm with you, big sis. Hell, Daddy is too. But you know we have to proceed with caution where Mama is concerned."

"Yeah..." Then Tessa grinned. "When Mama finally left, I made these." She pulled a small Everetts’ Bakery box out of her bag, and then stood and handed it to Dana.

"Oh shit!" Dana shouted. "Are these our cupcakes?"

Before today, they'd only talked about the new flavors they'd come up with; they had yet to actually test them.

Tessa nodded and smiled. "Sure is. I don't know if you'll even be able to taste it since you're sick, but…"

Dana didn't hesitate to take a large bite out of the cupcake.

"Oh my god...
oh my god!
Tess! Did you taste one?"

Tessa scoffed. "What the hell kind of question is that? Of course, I did."

It reminded her of the extra mile she was going to tack on to her morning workout. Those cupcakes were so damned good.

Dana picked up the other cupcake, which had been her own creation and took a bite, laughing joyously as she did. "
Shit
!" she yelled. "These are the
bomb
! We have
got
to convince Mama."

"I know," Tessa said, a new determination growing inside of her. "We will."

"So," Dana said, picking at the cupcake. "I hear Isaiah Noble's back in town."

Tessa attempted to keep her features neutral at the mention of Isaiah's name, but the mere thought of him and their encounter earlier that morning caused her body to have a visceral reaction that she was almost ashamed of.

Almost...

Tessa swallowed hard before responding. "Yeah, I heard too."

"Oh, so that's how you're gonna do me, heifer?" Dana said, dropping the cupcake back into the box and pinning a glare on Tessa.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you leaving out the fact that Isaiah Noble was in the bakery before opening hours trying to get all up in your goodies."

"Dana!" Tessa yelled. "He was
not
trying to get all up in my goodies." Though, if the looks he'd given her during their entire encounter were any indication...

"That ain't what Mama said," Dana mumbled.

Tessa gasped. "She saw?!"

"Mmhmm," Dana said, picking the cupcake up again to take another bite. "Said y'all were flirting with each other so hard, you didn't even notice her peeking from the back."

"Oh my gosh," Tessa said, letting her face fall into her hands. It was true. She’d been completely caught up with Isaiah during his visit.

"So now that you've been ousted," Dana said, with a smile in her voice. "Are you going to quit being a stingy heifer and give me all the juicy details? Don't forget, you have to cater to your sick baby sister."

Tessa lifted her head. "Oh, I think Aiden catered to you plenty before I arrived."

"Shut up. And quit trying to deflect. Now..." Dana said with a wiggle of her eyebrows, "...Does Isaiah look as good all grown up in person as he does on TV."

Tessa's lips slowly tilted into a naughty grin.

"Even better."

I
saiah blew out a deep breath as he rode the elevator up to the executive suites of Noble Naturals' headquarters. Returning here, surprisingly, didn't feel like the noose he'd expected it to feel like. He walked down the corridor with purpose, not with the feeling of shackles on his feet. One of the reasons Isaiah and his siblings decided on going their separate ways when they'd turned eighteen was because they'd wanted to find their own identities as individuals. None of them wanted to forever be labeled as 'one of those quad siblings'. Another reason they'd decided to leave was as a sort of uprising...a mutiny against their father and his desire for them to take over the company.

None of them actually had a problem with working for Noble Naturals. They all loved the business. Their issue was that they wanted to join the company when
they
were ready, not when Isaac deemed them ready. And they all knew he would have wanted them working in the company as soon as he could get them there.

But they all had their own passions they wanted to explore, interests they wanted to pursue.

They'd never had a stronger united front than when they'd stood together, side by side, to let their father know that they weren't ready to work for the family business. Isaac was livid, but Irene...Isaiah couldn't remember a time when he'd ever seen his mother look at them with such pride. Not in pictures of them right after she'd given birth and they'd all been carefully placed around her on the hospital bed. Not when their IQ test results came back and were off the charts. And not when they excelled in music, so much so, that they got the opportunity to travel the country to shows off their musical talents at a young age.

No.

Irene's pride soared when her children stepped up to their father and told them the way
they
wanted to handle
their
lives.

And while, to this day, Isaac didn't necessarily approve of their choices, he accepted them.

Isaiah arrived at the reception desk outside of his father's office. When the receptionist looked up, her face lit up with a grin. Her eyes squinted, and she pointed the pen she was holding in her hand at Isaiah.

"Yoooooou're...Ian?"

Isaiah chuckled. "Close. But no."

"Ah!" she said, her grin stretching into a full blown smile. "Thought I had it all figured out."

Tessa knew exactly who you were
.

The thought of Tessa sent a shiver down his spine. The fact that she automatically knew who he was...was kinda hot. He hadn't stopped thinking about her all morning. It didn't help that his mother had gone on and on about the Everetts, Tessa in particular. She couldn't say enough good things about her.

After they finished their breakfast, Irene said she needed to go in the house and get ready for work.

"The old man in?" he asked the receptionist, who couldn't stop staring at him.

"Oh...yeah. Go on in."

Isaiah gave her a short nod and a smile of thanks before walking towards his father's office door. He opened it slowly and found his father hunched over his desk, squinting at his computer.

"Mom's gonna kill you if she finds out you don't have on your reading glasses."

Isaac's head shot up and his eyes grew wide with shock. Then his face broke out into a beaming smile as he stood from his seat and came around his desk.

"I didn't expect you for a few more weeks," Isaac said, pulling his son into a bear hug. "When did you get in?"

Isaiah smiled as he pulled away. "Last night, I stayed at my place on Lake Tahoe."

"And you didn't call us? Your mother would have cooked the good stuff!"

Thanks to high blood pressure, Isaac's diet had become restricted over the last few years. But he'd gotten it back down and was probably in the best shape of his life. Thanks to rigorous exercising and Irene's no-nonsense diet, Isaac Noble's body rivaled those of men twice his junior in age. The women in town all chattered about how those 'young Noble men' clearly came from good stock.

Isaiah, Ian, Isabella and Ivy were fraternal quadruplets and the boys of the group seemed to take a bit more of their father's height. When puberty hit Isaiah and Ian, both of them had shot up. But their facial features were so similar that people would assume they were identical.

Isaiah chuckled at Isaac's disappointment over the missed opportunity for 'the good stuff' food.

"You know Mom still would have made you eat right, whether I showed up last night or not," he said closing the office door and turning to his father.

"What are you doing here?" Isaac asked. "Not that I'm not glad to see you."

"You summoned me," Isaiah said, trying to be respectful by keeping the sarcasm out of his voice. "So I'm here."

Isaac waved his hand. "I've summoned you before, and you've blown me off, saying you were coming home, then calling to say you had something 'more important' to do."

Isaiah couldn't deny that he had, in the past, told his father that he would come home to visit Noble Naturals and see how business was going but then cancel.

But he wanted to clear one thing up...

"I've never said anything was more important than Noble Naturals."

"Yet you've flaked out on me multiple times."

He was man enough to admit that he, along with his siblings, had in fact, flaked out on their parents a few times, as Isaac said.

"You're right, sir," Isaiah admitted. "And for that, I apologize. But they were all work related and they
were
all important."

"More important than your legacy?"

"I didn't say that."

"You said it without saying it."

Isaiah blew out a breath. "Look, Pop. I'm here now. I'm not here to argue, I'm here to help make sure Noble Naturals doesn't flounder in the wake of Chic and Sleek trying to bogart their way into our lane. So, can we get down to business?"

"About that..."

Isaiah looked up at his father and was shocked to see a look on his face that he'd never seen before...contrition.

"What's going on?" Isaiah asked, suddenly alarmed. "Has something bad happened already?"

The stocks still looked good the last time Isaiah had checked. According to his mother, things weren't bad...yet.

"No," Isaac said, quickly. "We're holding steady. It's just...we haven't exactly started meeting about the concepts for the commercials we want you to shoot yet."

Isaiah could already feel the steam building in his ears. He balled his fists, digging his nails in his palms to keep his composure in front of his father.

"I cancelled my vacation trip to Europe. My chance to see both my sisters for the first time in over six months...I put everything aside to come here to do business. And you mean to tell me that you have
no
business for me to conduct."

"I merely said we were 'toying' with the idea of doing commercials," Isaac said. "When you got so excited about it, I decided to run with it."

Isaiah turned away from his father, running a frustrated hand down his face. He should have known...

"I can't deal with this right now."

"I didn't think you'd actually come," Isaac admitted. "But since you're here now, you can help come up with the ideas."

Isaiah sighed as he went for the door.

"I'll call you when I'm ready to set a date for a meeting with marketing. We'll need to find a production company to bring on for the commercials."

As he opened the door, his father called out, "Where are you going, Isaiah?"

"I'm taking my vacation."

The truth of the matter was, he'd been doing too much in L.A. between producing music, directing music videos and his short film. Then the unexpected success of it at Sundance had earned him the opportunity and honor of having the film shown in a limited amount of theaters for special engagements across the country, so he'd suddenly been thrust into a nationwide tour.

When he returned home to L.A., he jumped right back into the music producer role. He'd owed a few of his clients who'd been willing to wait on his expertise, while he was traveling for his film. He was grateful for their loyalty.

He had half a mind to call his travel agent and have her book him a flight to Italy. He and his siblings tried to make a habit of visiting each other regularly. Their bond was tighter than most siblings since they'd shared a womb. Going too long without seeing them had always put Isaiah in an odd rut. He saw Ian more often because of his negotiations in L.A. for his cooking show.

Despite his desire to go to Europe to visit Isabella and Ivy almost out of spite now, Isaiah still couldn't deny that being home in Sweet Rapids felt good; and...right.

Plus sticking close to home meant he could return back to a certain bakery and visit a certain gorgeous baker, whose buns were seared into his brain, he thought, remembering how she looked bent over the display case when he'd first entered Everetts’ Bakery.

Isaiah decided if he was going to stay in Sweet Rapids and help the company, he was going to do it on his terms, and on his time.

And he was taking his much needed break.

As he walked out, he saw his mother coming towards him with a bright smile on her face. He slowed just enough to kiss her on the cheek.

"Can't stay, Mama," he said. "I'll come by for dinner soon."

As he continued toward the elevator, he heard Irene's stern voice before the door to Isaac's office slammed.

"
What the hell did you do, Isaac Noble?!
"