Chapter 24
Noah
I rushed to the wedding gown shop, thinking I’d find Rosa there, only I came face to face with her mother and learned that she hadn’t returned after lunch.
Rosa’s mother grew concerned, her face dropping. “You don’t know where she is? I thought she was finishing lunch with you?”
“She was…” I wasn’t sure what else to add. Other than Morgan acting like a bitch, I wasn’t sure why she’d run away from lunch. “But the um, the dog needed a potty break.”
Francesca rolled her eyes dramatically. “That’s exactly why you need to weewee pad train your dog.
Especially with your schedule filming, Noah.
You’re going to be fifteen hours on set some days and what?
Rosa will be left caring for that little creature alone?
Walking him at all hours of the night alone in New York City? ”
I hated to admit she had a point, but also there were much bigger fish to fry at the moment.
I gave her my best smile, hoping it looked more genuine than it felt. “You’re right, Francesca. I think we will train him on the wee pads.”
“ Good ,” she nodded, satisfied with herself.
“Okay, well, if Rosa’s not here, then I really have to be going.”
I backed out of the bridal shop, grateful that she didn’t try to stop me or convince me to stay.
As I turned the corner, hurrying back to our hotel, I replayed the events of lunch in my head. Would she be mad about my costars coming to town for the wedding? But… that’s on her parents. They’re the ones who invited people in my life without talking to me first.
I flung open the door to our suite, only to find it empty.
Fuck.
Well, not exactly empty.
Birdie was fast asleep in his crate and blinked his eyes open, yawning at me. Then, he promptly dropped his head and fell right back asleep.
So she was here. She must have come home to bring Birdie back. The question was, where did she go? And why was she avoiding me?
I texted her again… the third text in thirty minutes.
Nothing.
Still no response.
Not sure what to do, I headed back down to Elsa’s… the little cafe that was attached to the Maple Grove Inn.
There wasn’t much that pie from Elsa’s couldn’t fix.
Weary, I walked in and was immediately greeted with Elsa running up to me. “Well, it’s about time you showed your face in here!” she said, pulling me in for a hug.
I raked my fingers through my hair, tugged on the strands sheepishly. “Yeah,” I laughed. “Sorry. But you know I can’t come to Maple Grove without a piece of your chocolate chess pie.”
“Damn straight,” she said, smacking me with her rag, then tucking it back into her apron. “Go take a seat with your wife and I’ll bring you an extra large slice.”
I froze, my spine straight. There in the corner booth, Rosa sat, eyes cast down, like she’d been hoping I wouldn’t see her sitting there, tucked away.
I cleared my throat and tried again to flash my easy breezy smile. Everything’s fine. No one’s mad.
Right?
“Thanks, Elsa.” I crossed the cafe and slid into the bench across from Rosa where she was cradling a steaming mug of coffee in her clenched hands.
“You’ve got to try the pie,” I told her, as if she couldn’t hear the entire conversation between me and Elsa thirty seconds prior.
“I’m really more of a crumble girl,” Rosa mumbled.
“Hey Elsa!” I called out. “Add a piece of your blueberry lavender crumble to my order!”
She gave me a thumb’s up from behind the counter and I tried smiling at Rosa. But all it earned me was a deeper scowl.
I tried to ignore the scowl and lighten the mood.
"This place really takes me back. I have so many great memories here. It was one of the few places where my dad would take me and Callie when we were really little. Our siblings were in school and my mom was working a nursing shift, so he’d bring us here for some pie and hot chocolate.
He always told us it was our little secret because the others would get jealous. ”
I smiled at Elsa as she dropped two plates of pie in front of us with a wink. She even brought me my own cup of coffee, even though I didn’t ask for it.
A warm, comforting aroma of freshly baked pie filled the air, with notes of rich chocolate and buttery pastry. It was like a hug for my senses.
Rosa lifted her eyes briefly, the hint of a smile ghosting across her face before the scowl returned.
That little glimpse of a smile gave me the courage to continue.
“He’s the one who introduced me to chocolate chess pie,” I said, grabbing a fork and stabbing a corner off.
“But I had this thing where I couldn’t say L’s very well and I had no idea what chess was.
So I used to call it chocowate cheese pie. He and Elsa got such a kick out of it.”
I smiled at the memory and took a bite. The pie was like a velvet symphony with rich cocoa notes that danced on the tongue. And in that moment, with one of the few good memories I had of my father and the pure delight of the pie, my smile finally shifted from forced to genuine.
Rosa huffed, blowing a strand of hair off her forehead dramatically. “This is what I’m mad at!” she hissed.
I blinked at her, momentarily confused. “You’re mad that chocolate chess pie reminds me of my dad?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
But my mind raced as I replayed the last ninety minutes or so of lunch. Yes, that lunch was uncomfortable for both of us, but I hadn’t done anything to piss her off, did I? I thought back over the last few hours, trying to pinpoint anything that could explain her attitude.
Rosa slammed her mug down on the table, sloshing coffee over the rim. I jerked, caught off guard by the outburst. “No, it’s this !” she said, gesturing at me.
I glanced down at my shirt, still fucking clueless as to what the hell was going on. And her evasiveness was starting to piss me off. I didn’t share memories about my dad often; positive memories, even less.
“This is the Noah I love,” she said, quieter.
“The sweet, introspective guy who opens up to me with vulnerable stories. But that asshole at lunch earlier? The guy with all his cocky swagger and strut who practically ignored me and let his friends talk to me like I was below them?” She let out a derisive laugh and shook her head.
“Not only don’t I love him. I think I hate him.
He’s the reason I refused to date you for years.
He’s the reason I turned you down every time you asked me out. ”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing at the moment.
Rosa's words stung, each one a dagger to my heart. I set down my fork and leaned back, trying to process what she was saying.
“I might put on a bit of an act around them, but that’s just part of the business."
“Oh, I’m aware, trust me. When your mother is a legendary actress and your father’s a politician, you become quite adept at the appearances of public personalities.”
“Then why are you getting mad? You know the real me. You know who I am at my core. That’s one of the things I love about you. You’re one of the few people in this world, including several of my fucking family members, who I can truly be myself around.”
She shook her head, her eyes flashing. “The arrogant jerk I saw today seemed pretty convincing. How do I know you’re not just putting on an act for me, too?"
"How can you think that?" I insisted, my brows furrowing together. "Never with you. Listen, having to be 'on' all the time in this business can mess with your head. But you keep me grounded. You have for the last couple years I’ve known you. With you, I can just be myself."
"Can you?" Rosa challenged. "Because 'yourself' apparently includes a healthy dose of chauvinism and disrespect toward me in front of your friends."
I fell back against the seat in the booth. “Say what you will about me being a little cocky around them, but I did not disrespect you.”
“You let Morgan disrespect me. Isn’t that the same thing?”
“You want me to go tell Morgan to fuck off? I will. Trust me, I don’t fucking want her here. You want me to tell all of them to fuck off? I will. For you. It’ll make my life hell on set, but I’ll do it if it’ll make you happy.”
Rosa stood from the table, shoving the plate of pie at me.
“Oh, spare me your righteous display, Noah. Why don’t we just go back to the original plan, huh?
Pretend to be a happy couple in love so I get my practice up and running and you get out of these teenage heartthrob roles and then we’ll get an annulment and be on our merry little ways. ”
Rosa stormed off. “Happy couple in love, huh?” I shouted after her. “That doesn’t usually involve shouting in public and storming off!”
She flipped me off over her shoulder as she disappeared around the corner.
Fuck me.
Thank God the diner wasn’t filled with people. But the few people who were here had their eyes plastered onto me.
I grabbed the fork and started shoveling bite after bite of chocolate pie in my mouth. What was once one of my greatest, sweetest memories now tasted like fucking sand in my mouth.
A shadow drifted over my table and a low, feminine voice said, “Noah Tripp, how did you fuck this up so fast?”
I looked up at the figure towering over me, pretty sure chocolate was still staining the corners of my mouth and blinked. “Hazel?”