Chapter 29
It’s time for me to go to war. —Milo Warner
“No, no, no!” Tom waves a hand in the air as the leaf festival dance troupe, a group of kids who can’t be more than six, disperses across the stage, giggling.
“Scout, what happened? Didn’t we agree that the amber leaves and the golden leaves would twirl back and forth when they come out from behind the curtain? ”
The poor guy throws his hands up in the air. “I thought you said the brown leaves should twirl! And I can’t get them all to twirl in the right direction anyway! Are you sure their usual dance teacher is in labor? Maybe we could ask her to go to the hospital tomorrow instead?”
I choke back a laugh as Tom smiles at Scout and brings out his brand of charm that immediately calms down every non-famous mortal in his line of sight.
“Take a breath, Scout. The mahogany leaves come out second. And let’s all take a breath, shall we?
Scout, I know I can come off as a bit of a militant director at times—”
In the seat next to me, Colin coughs loudly to cover his laugh, and Tom glares at him.
“But,” he goes on. “Let’s take stock of what really matters here.
” He sweeps his arms around, drawing all eyes to the ornate, gilded decor of the Devon Falls Opera House.
The opera house is over a hundred years old, I’m told, and it was in pretty nasty disrepair until Tom came charging in, determined to raise the money to renovate it.
Now it’s back to at least some of its former glory, but with much more comfortable chairs and a shiny electronic marquee sign.
Tom’s running it as a complete nonprofit, and he’s got it set up to host events for the town, the school, and the community center, of course.
The talent show I’m watching rehearsals for right now is supposed to build excitement for the leaf festival and act as the next major fundraiser for the community center.
Which is the only damn reason I agreed to do a tap dance number for it, given how little time I’ve had to practice lately. I’ll probably make an ass out of myself on stage. I’m hoping I’ll get lucky and no one in the audience will know enough about tap to notice.
“What really matters,” Tom goes on. “Is that this event is for the town, the community center, and for everyone coming here to celebrate Devon Falls and our leaves. So, if the mahogany leaves must come out at the wrong time, so be it.” He waves magnanimously at the stage, but poor Scout looks no less stressed as he hustles a herd of six-year-olds in leaf costumes back behind the curtain.
“Thank goodness Lou’s not in that number,” Colin mutters to me. “He’s even more of a perfectionist than Tom, I swear. And I promise you both of them will be cringing hard on opening night if those mahogany leaves come out at the wrong damn time, whatever Tom might be saying now.”
I snort out a laugh as the leaves make another go at the number, and then I do my level best not to check my phone for the umpteenth time since this talent show rehearsal started. I make it three minutes, approximately, before I lose the battle again.
Nothing. No texts. No calls. Not even a damn carrier pigeon in sight.
It’s been total radio silence from Noah since he called me from Pottsville yesterday.
I’ve texted him at least five times and called twice.
No response. The concerned boyfriend in me is two hours out from begging the local police to check in on him.
The alpha in me is ten minutes away from getting in my car and breaking the speed limit all the way to that damn town.
If Ezra’s harming Noah in any way right now, which I’m becoming more and more convinced he is, I will find a way to crush him. Professionally, personally, and quite possibly literally.
I take in a long breath of my own, determined to stave off my own alpha mode for at least another hour. And that’s when my phone starts buzzing in my hand.
Noah. Finally. I charge up the aisle of the opera house, across creaking floors, out through the large wooden doors of the theatre, and into the lobby. I manage to grab the call on the phone’s third ring. “Noah?” My voice echoes through the wide space and under its elevated ceilings.
“Hi, Milo.” Noah’s voice is quiet, a little downtrodden. Fuck. I was right. Things aren’t good out there.
“What’s wrong, Chucks?” I ask. I find a plastic chair behind the ancient ticket counter and force myself to sit. That’s the only way I can keep myself from charging out to the parking lot and into my car.
“Well, basically everything.” Noah swallows. “Milo, we need to talk.”
Shit. I stand again and start pulling car keys out of my pocket. “I’m on my way,” I tell him.
“No! Milo, you can’t come here.” The sheer terror in Noah’s voice stops me in my tracks.
“Why not?” I ask him, a little more harshly than I mean to. “What’s going on, Noah?”
I can hear his hard swallow through the phone line. “We need to break up,” he finally says. “I’m quitting the center, Milo, and we can’t see each other anymore. It’s time for us to stop testing the waters. That’s all there is to it.”
Like fucking hell. “What’s Ezra done?” I hear the hiss coming through my words and don’t try to stop it.
I’m beyond done with that fucker Ezra messing with Noah.
I’m not playing his games anymore. “What’s he done, Noah?
” Noah lets out a strangled sound, and the hand I’m not holding a phone in instantly forms a fist. “Chucks, you have to tell me,” I coax him. “Tell me, and we can fix this.”
“It’s not…” I can hear Noah working to breathe, to gather himself.
“Look. I just came to my senses, okay? There can’t be anything between us, Milo.
Nothing can ever exist. Our parents may get along together, but they’re about to become rivals for the most important government position in the state of New York.
Trying to stay together through a primary election like that?
It would hurt both of us. Probably destroy us. ”
“Losing you like this will destroy me!” I shout the words so loudly they hit the ceiling with a high, hollow echo, and my own desperation bounces back into my ears.
“Chucks, I need you to understand that, okay? You can’t go along with whatever Ezra is telling you.
Is this about your father? What’s Ezra telling him now?
” Something occurs to me. “Wait a minute. Does Ezra know we’ve been dating? Did he find out?”
There’s a long silence before Noah gives the answer I already know. “Yes,” he says quietly.
Shit. I should have expected that. “Take a deep breath,” I tell Noah, and I do my best to channel some of Tom’s charming comfort through the phone.
I’d pull out my own soothing doctor voice, but I’m too jacked up with adrenaline to find it right now.
“Just talk to me. We’ll fix this together, Chucks. ”
Noah makes another strangled sound. “Milo, listen. I want you to know something, okay?”
Shit. I don’t like that response at all.
“This time we’ve spent together,” he says in a rush.
“I need you to understand how much it’s changed me.
On some level, I think I really have been stuck inside that wall since I was nine years old.
Then you found me. First in that hotel elevator, and then in your texts, and then you found me again on that gondola.
And you changed everything for me. You lifted me all the way out of the wall, Milo. ”
“Noah—” I start to interrupt him before he can get any closer to the words I’m not ready to hear, but he doesn’t stop talking. I can feel the hurry in his words, like he knows he has to get this all out before he loses steam.
“You’ll never know how much you've changed for me, Milo,” he goes on.
The tears in his voice have me blinking back my own.
“You made me see so much in myself. You helped me finally deal with my past in ways I never have. You looked at me and saw all of me, and you made me believe that all of me is good and right and worthy. Me. Little omega me.”
“Oh, Noah.” I need to tell him how much he’s done for me too. I need him to know how much of a gift he’s been in my life, how many ways he’s changed me.
I need him to know how very, very much I’m not ready to let go of him. Yet. Ever.
But Noah’s clearly decided he’s not giving me a choice or a chance to argue with him right now.
“I hope you know that I’m doing this because I care so much about you, Milo, and I can’t risk you getting hurt.
I know what I’m saying can’t feel good, but the danger if you and I stay together—it’s so much worse.
Please tell everyone in Devon Falls I’m sorry I have to leave.
They’ll always feel like family to me. In some ways, spending time in that place always felt like it was too good to be true, you know? I guess it really was.”
He stops to take a breath, but I can’t even get a word in before he starts talking again.
“So,” he goes on. “Please know that I’ll always remember our time together, Milo.
Please know how much of a difference you made in my life.
Please tell everyone I’ll miss them. I’ll never forget any of you.
” He’s crying now, fully. I can hear the sobs in between the starts and stops of his words, and I have to physically clutch the counter to keep from rushing to him in Pottsville as fast as I fucking can.
“Goodbye, Milo. I’m so, so sorry.”
Then the call ends, and I’m left standing in the lobby of the Devon Falls Opera House, alone.
I stay stock-still, rage and sadness and a whole host of other emotions I can’t even identify coursing through my veins, and I’m not sure how long I’ve been standing there when Colin comes out of the theater doors.
“Hey, is everything okay?” he asks. “You’re up next. Tom and Scout asked me to find you.”
It’s a long moment before I can find my words, but eventually I do.
“Noah says he’s gone for good,” I tell him. “Which means it’s time for me to go to war.”