Chapter 9
Rosa
“Congratulations, again,” I said, giving the bride, Noah’s older sister, Ronnie, another hug.
Unlike some brides, she didn’t care at all that Noah and I had eloped on her weekend. She didn’t seem like the type who would care about ‘stolen thunder’... but she eyed me warily. All the Tripps did.
And I couldn’t even blame them.
“Thank you,” she said and gave me a smile. “I guess we should be welcoming you to the family as well.”
“Oh no,” I said and immediately regretted it as Ronnie’s brow disappeared beneath her side swept bangs.
“No?”
“I just mean, this is your day. There will be plenty of time to celebrate Noah and me some other time.”
Lex, her new husband, slid an arm around Ronnie’s waist. “That’s very thoughtful of Rosa, isn’t it, love?”
“Mmmm, yes. It is,” Ronnie agreed as her free hand fell to rest on her small, but swollen belly. Noah had told me she was expecting. Whatever stress she seemed to feel toward me melted away as she cradled her future baby.
“Oh, we will be celebrating your wedding,” Noah’s mom said, grinning from ear to ear. “Don’t think you two are getting away with a quiet elopement.” She hugged me, all smiles, without so much as a sharp edge to her voice.
It was something I could barely comprehend. My own mother was going to lose her shit when she learned about the elopement. But Marty Tripp seemed to take it in stride, despite Callie’s warnings.
As cliche as it sounded, maybe that was the difference between Noah being the youngest of five siblings… and me being an only child.
Noah slid his hand into mine with a natural ease that made me really appreciate how good an actor the man truly was.
That angsty teen vampire show really didn’t do his acting chops justice.
“I’m going to stay and help them clean up a bit,” Noah said with a squeeze of my hand.
“But you should head to the hotel and get settled.”
He glanced back at his family over his shoulder. “She rushed right here to make it in time for the wedding.”
Everyone nodded, acknowledging his statement and Callie jumped right in, pulling me in for a big hug. “Of course! You must be exhausted! Why don’t we all meet up for brunch tomorrow?”
I smiled back at her, but mine was no doubt brittle. The acting gene did not pass down to me from my mother, unfortunately. “That would be great. I can’t wait to, um, get to know all of you better.”
I scanned Noah’s intimidatingly large family that I had only talked to in small bursts throughout the reception–his oldest brother, Cam, regarded me with a cool politeness.
But Cam’s daughter, Maddie and fiance, Lydia were sweet as could be.
Hugging me and trying to get to know me.
Likewise, Steve’s fiance was also very kind.
And while Steve was nice, he seemed more intent on pushing Noah’s buttons.
“I’ll walk you out,” Noah said, guiding me toward the driveway.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Noah said, “I have the presidential suite at the Maple Grove Inn. There’s an adjoining room that I didn’t reserve, but as of this morning, it was still available.”
Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his credit card and handed it to me. “Here. Reserve it using this. But ask them to put the room under the name Ted Wilkins. It’s the alias I sometimes use when I don’t want people to know I’m at a certain place.”
I pushed his credit card back to him. “I can pay for my own room.”
“I know you can , but in order to get the adjoining presidential suite room, it’s going to be more than…”
“More than what ?”
Noah pressed his lips together and sighed. “Fine. I’m just going to say it. More than most people are used to spending in a town like this.”
His statement turned my belly. On one hand, it was clear Noah had no idea just how influential and famous my parents were…
something that I’d made sure of. Sure, I had mentioned briefly to Noah that my dad was in politics, but I very specifically didn’t go into detail.
And he definitely didn’t know about my mother’s fame.
Only Hazel knew and she was sworn to secrecy.
Even if she did tell her husband, Reid, she knew that it was a piece of myself I didn’t want to share.
Just like my trust fund.
It was there when I needed it.
And boy, did I need it.
Only, I was trying really, really hard not to touch it.
I already had such a huge advantage with the fact I didn’t have any student loans to worry about. I never wanted to take that for granted.
But I also didn’t love that Noah just assumed he needed to pay for me.
I ignored the credit card he held in his outstretched hand and turned, unlocking my rental car I had picked up at the bus station. “I’ve got it covered.”
“Okay,” he said. As I yanked open the car door, Noah cleared his throat behind me. Slowly, I turned back to face him.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he asked.
I had my wallet… my keys… my suitcase. The annulment papers were tucked in my purse. “Ummm…”
“A kiss goodbye?” he prodded. “I can almost guarantee that at least one of my siblings is watching us like a hawk right now. If you jump into your car and peel out of here without even hugging me? They’re going to know something is up.”
Dammit. He was right.
Clearing my throat, I snuck a quick glance around. With only my cursory sweep of the yard, I spotted Steve, leaning seemingly casually against a tree in the distance. His gaze was pinned directly onto me… not even us… me . I swear, if the man had had binoculars, he would have been lip reading me.
I crossed to Noah and wrapped my arms around his neck.
Strong arms cradled me in a hug that was all-encompassing. He engulfed me. One arm snaked around my hips and lower back and the other scooped up into the back of my hair. He held me like I was precious.
He held me like I was his.
And when I pulled away from the embrace, he cupped my jaw tenderly and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Drive safely. I won’t be long.”
He turned and headed back to help his family clean up. Meanwhile, I was left dumbfounded in the driveway… reeling from a simple, but exquisite hug.
Since I was only driving two miles into town to the Maple Grove Inn, I decided to take the scenic route and stopped into a few shops and bakeries along the way.
As much as I loved living in New York City and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, Maple Grove was a breath of fresh air. It was the kind of town I could see myself buying a summer house and spending several months a year working remotely in.
Forty-five minutes later, I had half a dozen cupcakes in tow as well as a cup of cold brew coffee, and I had downed a hotdog from an adorable couple who were running a hotdog cart in the park.
I was basically eating my way through Maple Grove and I wasn’t even sorry about it.
I finally parked at the Maple Grove Inn and entered the surprisingly busy lobby. Tons of people were milling about and spilling into the lobby from the adjoining cafe.
I weaved through a small group of two women and a man and slid my way to the front desk, giving the woman working there a big smile. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Michelle. How can I help you today?”
“Hi,” I said, returning her smile. “I was hoping to reserve the suite room that is adjoining with Noah Tripp’s?”
“Oh, no. You didn’t reserve your room earlier?” The woman’s smile faltered and she clacked her fingers against the keyboard. “Well, we don’t have anyone here by the name you mentioned. And unfortunately, we’re completely booked. We don’t have a single room available.”
I blinked. Booked?
Sure, it was a tourist town here in the lakes region, but it seemed unlikely that this early in the season, they’d be completely booked. Especially since Noah had said he’d checked earlier and the adjoining room was not yet taken.
“Oh, wait… he doesn’t go by Noah in hotel reservations.” Shoot… what was the decoy name he gave me? Tim? No… Ted! That’s right.
I leaned in and lowered my voice so none of the surrounding people could hear me. “Ted, um… Wilkins, I think. He would like to reserve the adjoining room.”
Michelle’s smile was back and she nodded knowingly. “Oh, yes. Mr. Wilkins is a frequent guest of ours. You wouldn’t happen to be Rosa, would you?”
I nodded. “I am.”
“Oh, good. He called a little while ago and asked that we prepare an extra key for you.”
“An extra key? To his room?”
“Well, he had asked for the adjoining room as well, but as I mentioned, unfortunately, we’re all booked for the next two days.”
Dammit . Did this mean I would have to stay with Noah? In his suite?
Surely, this town had to have other accommodations.
Michelle slid the keycard across the marble counter.
I stared at it, not reaching out to grab it. “Um… and Noah’s expecting me? Upstairs?”
Michelle kept her face passively smiling, but even I could see the slight twitch of her brows. “Of course,” she said, then added, whispering, “You are his wife , aren’t you?”
Holy. God. She knew?
“Um… yes. Yeah. I just wasn’t sure if he was already upstairs or not,” I said, trying not to stammer over my correction.
“I haven’t seen him come in yet.”
Well, at least there was that. I would have a little time to set my stuff down and maybe even find a rental on VRBO or Airbnb or something before he made it back.
I finished off what was left of my iced coffee before tossing the empty cup into the garbage can beside the front desk, then grabbed the keycard giving Michelle a final, parting smile.
The Maple Grove Inn wasn’t huge by any means, but it was large enough to have an elevator at the back of the grand staircase. And Noah’s suite was on the top floor.
Just as I reached room 610, my cell phone buzzed from within my purse.
Balancing the box of half a dozen cupcakes in my hand, I grabbed from deep within my pocket and nearly groaned when I saw my mother’s name blinking on the screen.
I couldn’t avoid them forever. And I’d already silenced two of their calls today during Noah’s sister’s wedding.
I slid my thumb across the screen and pinned the phone between my shoulder and ear as I slid the keycard into the door. The lock beeped and turned green.
“Hey Mama.”
“Hey Mama?!” she shrieked. “You ignore my calls all day and then all I get is hey mama!?”
I sighed and yanked my rolling luggage over the threshold, letting the door shut behind me.
Holy cow… I had to hand it to the Maple Grove Inn.
This suite was gorgeous. I kicked off my heels and let my aching feet sink into the plush, cream colored rug.
The accent wall was adorned with a gray and white damask wallpaper.
The bedding on the California King was a heather gray to match with silk pillows in varying sizes.
The suite had a small kitchen and a sitting area.
It was like a gorgeous studio apartment you might find in the West Village.
“Rosalina Maria Alvarez! Are you there?” Mama snapped.
“Sorry. Yes, mama. I’m not ignoring you. I was busy all day. This was the first minute I had to answer.”
“Busy with what ?”
I paused before answering. What were the chances news had spread to California about mine and Noah’s wedding? It wasn’t in the papers yet that Francesca Reyes’ daughter had married Noah… I was still just some unknown woman to the eyes of the papers.
God, I hoped it stayed that way.
“I… I was at a friend’s wedding.”
“Whose?”
“You remember Hazel? From undergrad? She eloped last night. And then today, um, another friend you haven’t met had a garden wedding.”
Mama scoffed. “Eloped? How trashy. I swear to you, Rosalina, if you were to ever elope and deny me my right as mother of the bride—me cago en la mar!”
Oh, boy. This conversation was going South fast.
I wasn’t sure if it was the nerves of talking to my mother, the secret marriage I was hiding from her, or just the fact that I’d guzzled a 24 oz cold brew in less than thirty minutes, but I suddenly had to pee.
“Um, Mama…” I paused, looking around for a door that might be a bathroom and found it near the bedroom area. I grabbed the handle of the door, yanking it open. “I need to run. I’m sorry it was so short. I promise to call you when I’m back in the—penis!”
I yelped and nearly dropped the phone. There, standing in the bathroom was a fully naked Noah, drying off after a shower.
And I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. Holy hell, he was gorgeous. All Adonis tanned skin pulled tightly over roped muscles. And the sexiest little birthmark on his pelvis, just beside his…
“When you’re back in the what?!” Mama screeched in my ear and woke me up from my shock.
Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Not only did I walk in on Noah naked, but I’d just spent several seconds staring, no doubt with drool dripping from the corner of my mouth.
I spun around and ran out of the bathroom.
“The city! When I’m back in the city! I need to go, Mama!”
“Don’t you hang u?—”
I didn’t let her finish the thought as I pressed my thumb into the red dot at the bottom of my screen.
Oh my God. Oh my God .
I’d just seen Noah.
Naked.
Very, very naked.
And I very, very much liked what I saw.