Chapter 6
Noah
I’ve performed on dozens of stages, been on a long-running hit television show, and just last summer, had my first supporting role in a feature film. But nothing compared to the butterflies I felt this morning as I prepared to officiate my sister’s wedding.
Between the nerves of waking up beside Rosa and knowing that it wasn’t real… that she and I weren’t actually going to stay married… and the nerves of going in front of dozens of family and friends and marrying my sister to Lex, I was a wreck.
I sat out on the dock, my dress pants rolled up to the knee with my feet dangling in the cool water’s edge of our lake. Each swirl of my toe sent ripples cascading deeper into the lake.
From within my pocket, my phone buzzed, ringing for the thousandth time that morning. With a sigh, I tugged it free from my pocket, relieved to find it wasn’t Rosa, or Hazel, or even Reid.
Instead, it was my publicist.
I shouldn’t answer. It was my sister’s wedding day and I was the officiant for God’s sake. If there was ever a day I should have off from all the Hollywood bullshit, this was it.
Even still, I sighed and swiped my thumb across the screen, answering. “Kristen,” I said. “What’s up?”
“What’s up?” she repeated and I had to tug the phone from my ear, she was yelling so loudly. “ What’s up ? Are you seriously asking me that right now?”
“Ummm, yeah.” I kept my voice calm and collected. I had a pretty good habit of acting cool, even when my life was imploding.
And holy shit was it imploding right now.
I raked my fingers through my hair, knowing my mom would kill me for messing with the way she combed it earlier.
You can look like something out of a Jack Kerouac novel the other 364 days of the year, but today? Today you are officiating your sister’s wedding. You need to look presentable, she’d said only thirty minutes earlier.
“Kristen, this really isn’t a good time,” I said. “I’m at my sister’s wedding.”
“Oh… your sister’s wedding, huh?” There was silence. Like the most boring game of chicken ever.
Finally, Kristen sighed. “Tell me the rumors aren’t true, Noah. Please, God, tell me you didn’t do what everyone is saying you did.”
“Okay. It isn’t true.”
More silence. “But… is it true? Did you elope last night?”
I cringed. How the hell did she find out? Was it leaked somewhere? Did Rosa tell anyone?
“Um…”
“Dammit, Noah!”
Kristen was quiet for a long second. And she was never quiet. It was unnerving as hell.
“We can fix this,” she muttered after what felt like a lifetime of silence.
“It looks like some kids took photos of you two as you left the chapel last night, and sold it to TMZ, but I think we can spin this before it gets out of control. We could say you were just celebrating the marriage of your best friends and that’s the photograph of you two leaving the chapel.
Yes. That’s it. We can keep the annulment quiet…
for a little while at least, until the filed paperwork goes into public record. ”
Just the thought of the annulment made my stomach ache. Rosa’s face popped into my mind and for a brief second, I wished it was true. I wished that we had soberly eloped and that she was here, holding my hand, ready to start a life with me.
“What if I don’t want an annulment…” I whispered. I was so quiet that if Kristen hadn’t stopped talking altogether, I wasn’t sure she’d heard me.
After a deep breath, Kristen said, “You are a teen heartthrob. The guy that all these girls are dreaming they could someday be with, Noah. You’re a role model. Role models don’t elope drunkenly at one in the morning in Atlantic City. They have big, romantic engagements. Lavish weddings?—”
I snorted. “Okay, let’s not get too over the top.”
Kristen sighed again and I could just see her pacing her office, her silver hair pulled into a tight bun.
She was sort of like the rich aunt who always judged your every move. Except I paid her a shit ton of money to judge me and then fix my messes.
And trust me, I had a lot of messes to fix.
But this one just about took the cake.
“So what does this mean?” she asked. “Are you married now? Officially off the market? Am I pulling you from the bachelor’s auction?”
“For the love of God, yes . I told you yesterday, I don’t want to be in that?—”
“Now more than ever, if you’re getting that annulment, you need to be in that auction! And I need to know what sort of statement to release. I have every magazine from here to London calling me.”
I was pretty damn sure Rosa wouldn’t want to stay married. Hell, she didn’t even want to date me. There was no way she would want to be my wife. “I… I need some time to think. Let me get through my sister’s wedding and I’ll get back to you.”
“You know,” she said, “just once I’d love to have a weekend off that doesn’t involve putting out your fires.”
The irony was, I wasn’t asking her to put this one out.
“Okay. I’m shutting my phone off in a few minutes for the wedding. I’ll turn it back on after the main events are over.”
“Can you be back to the city tonight?”
I swallowed, glancing around at my mother’s backyard. The wooden archway Cam had carved for Ronnie to get married beneath. The twinkling lights strung all around the deck and yard that transformed my childhood home into a romantic paradise.
I hated coming home to Maple Grove. Most trips, I did everything in my power to get the hell back to New York within twenty-four hours. But over the last two years, I’d also been making much more of an effort to reconnect with my family. Rebuild the bridges I thought had long since been burned.
“No,” I said quietly, flicking my toe against the top of the water. “I won’t be back for a few days.”
“Okay,” Kristen said, not pushing the matter. She knew my history with my family. She knew when to press me and when to back off. It was why we worked so well together… usually. When I wasn’t fucking it all up.
“Good luck officiating. Call me tonight as soon as you can. I can hold off the press for a little while, but not for long.”
“Yeah, I will. And Kristen… thank you. I’d be lost without you.”
“Believe me kid, I know.”
A sad chuckle slipped through my lips as I hung up. I tilted my face to the sun and closed my eyes, letting the warm sunshine hit my skin. Waves caused by a nearby boat lapped against the dock, splashing. In the distance, the haunting call of a loon sang its sad song, echoing across the water.
The phone started buzzing in my hands again.
“What’d you forget, Kristen?” I asked, answering the phone without looking at the screen.
“Noah Tripp,” a voice snapped in my ear and I slammed eyes closed, squeezing them shut as hard as I could. Dammit. Why didn’t I check the caller ID first?
“Hazel,” I said, greeting my best friend’s new wife. “Hey. How’s married life?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” I heard Reid in the background mumbling something and Hazel snorted. “Reid is telling me to be nice to you. Which frankly, the fact that I’m giving you this call, giving you this head’s up, is my version of nice.”
“What head’s up?”
“Rosa is on her way to Maple Grove.”
Every muscle in my body knotted. I couldn’t have heard her right. “Excuse me?”
“Rosa. Is. Coming. To. Maple. Grove.” She punctuated each word in a snotty way that paralleled the way my twin sister, Callie would have spoken to me.
“Why?” My lungs felt tight… like they were too large for my chest cavity and I pressed my palm to my sternum.
“Why?” she repeated. “Are you seriously asking me why? When you left this morning and didn’t answer anyone’s calls, she hopped on the first bus to Maple Grove. She should be there any minute.”
“But… but she doesn’t even know where I am in Maple Grove.” I breathed a little easier, knowing that she didn’t have my mom’s address.
“Oh, she knows. She found your sister’s wedding invitation in the trash of your hotel room.”
I dropped my head, the breaths now coming in short, sharp waves. “Shit,” I hissed. “I have to go, Hazel.”
I hung up the phone and immediately dialed Rosa. It started ringing and my blood ran cold. Because directly behind me, I could hear her ringtone.
I hung up and slowly turned around from where I was sitting on the dock to find Rosa standing there, her hands on her hips, glaring at me.
“Well hey there, darling .” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
She was gorgeous. A blue and white strapless sundress hugged her tight curves and the sun kissed the sexy curve of her tanned shoulders. She had a small black rolling suitcase beside her and her dark hair was wild around her dewy face.
Up until two nights ago, Rosa and I had never even kissed. Never dated.
But right now, staring at her standing in front of me… I wanted her.
She was my wife and I wanted her as more than just a kiss. More than a date. More than a fuck.
I wanted to keep her as my wife. Forever.
And based on the way she was glaring at me, that was the one thing I was never going to have.