4. Noah
It wasn’t a bat.
I followed the soapy trail of her footsteps to the bathroom, found the water still going at full-blast and turned it off while I inspected the tiny space. There was no sign of anything except the products she knocked over when she ran out. I bent to pick up her loofah and bottle of body wash, sliding it back in place on the rack at the back of the shower.
In the kitchen, I found cleaning supplies lined up on the counter and nothing else.
Scanning every inch of her wood-paneled living room, I came up empty again.
But when I got to her bedroom, I found what I was looking for. A black bird was camped out in the far right corner of her ceiling, flapping its wings in a panic. Over and over, it flew from the corner to the closed window and back again.
“She must have had the window open when she was cleaning earlier, and now it’s trapped inside,” I mused, walking over to the window opposite her bed.
The bird flew out as soon as I opened it, and I snickered before retracing my steps back to the door my new neighbor had left wide open. After making sure it wasn’t locked, I pulled it closed behind me and hit the path leading back home.
Another smile quirked my lips, and this time I let it spread into a full grin when I remembered the way her eyes clashed with mine. I didn’t know her name, but I’d just seen every inch of her home. And now she was waiting in my house. Unsupervised. Wearing my clothes.
This was not how my Thursday nights usually went, but I wasn’t complaining.
Once I was back in the house, I announced my presence so I wouldn’t scare her. “Good news, it wasn’t a bat.”
But instead of my words being met with relief, I got silence and I didn’t see any immediate signs of my houseguest.
“Where did she go?” I mumbled, walking down the hall to my room and coming up empty.
Aside from her towel in a heap in the middle of my floor, there were no other signs she’d been here.
“What the hell?” I checked the bathroom attached to my suite. Nothing.
Had I passed her in the kitchen or living room without noticing?
Rustling on the other side of the house told me yes, that was exactly what I’d done.
I made it back to the kitchen in time to see the woman walk out of the pantry inspecting an electric mop I’d never used.
“How do you use this thing?” She muttered to herself, unaware of my presence until I cleared my throat.
Even then, she only stared at me for a millisecond before looking back at the mop while noting, “Your pantry is huge.”
“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning up the mess I made. Well, attempting to,” she said, setting the mop down and pressing the button on the handle. When a spray of cleaner hit the floor in front of it, a triumphant smile lit her face.
God, that smile. It wasn’t even directed at me and here I was losing my mind.
Stay calm, Noah. You’ve been around beautiful women before . Stay fucking calm .
Unfortunately, calm was not a destination I visited often.
“I can do it,” I said, reaching for the mop.
“Don’t be silly, you just chased a bat out of my house and gave me clothes to wear. The least I can do is?—”
“It wasn’t a bat. It was a bird and I let it out of your bedroom window.”
She paused. Looked me over. Then moved around me to walk down the hall like I hadn’t said anything.
“Well, either way…” She made quick work of going back to my room and mopping over all the places she’d walked.
Next, she did the hallway and the trail she’d walked from the front door. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
There shouldn’t have been anything mesmerizing about this interaction, but I was glued in place, unable to do anything but watch her move around my space like she belonged here.
And the fact remained, I still didn’t know this woman’s name.
“I’m Noah,” I shared when she emptied the disposable cleaning pad into the trash. My eyes followed her back into the pantry.
“Nice to meet you, Noah.” She didn’t volunteer anything after that and my brows slumped.
“And you are?”
“Leaving,” she said, reappearing with a lazy version of her previous smile. “But just in case I show up again, I’m True.”
True.
Everything in my head evaporated in that moment, and I stood there staring at her until she tilted her head with an awkward twist of her lips.
“Um, I’m gonna go. Thanks again, Noah.”
I found my voice and fell in step beside her. “Let me walk you back to your place.”
“I promise I won’t get lost,” she said with a teasing lilt to her words.
Then she met my gaze and I got lost.
Invite her to stay for dinner so she doesn’t have to eat alone.
Tell her to take a pair of your shoes so she doesn’t have to walk barefoot.
Say…something. Anything , Noah.
But I couldn’t. The signal connecting my brain and my mouth was MIA, and I couldn’t even pretend to play it smooth.
The only thing snapping me out of my trance was the sound of Greyson’s tires rolling over the gravel on the side of the house.
Something about knowing he was here made the wires in my brain spark and start working again.
Finally .
I stepped out of my slides and nodded toward them, happy when she didn’t protest and slid her feet inside. Then I slipped my feet in the pair Greyson kept by the door, turning to her with a smile.
“Come on, I’ll walk you home. And watch your step.” Without thinking, I extended my arm for her to grab onto, and my brain turned to static when she wrapped her fingers around my forearm.
“Such a gentleman,” she complimented faintly, like she didn’t mean for me to hear it. Except I did hear it and it made my heart stutter in my chest.
Before I could respond, Greyson’s key turned in the lock and he pulled the door open, exposing us to the air that had chilled even more in the short time she’d been here. Instead of greeting me like he usually did, my best friend’s eyes immediately fell to where True held my arm and they stayed there for longer than I could hold my breath.
Coolly, he met our gazes with a raised brow and used his index finger to push his glasses up higher on his nose.
“True, this is Greyson. Greyson, this is our new neighbor, True.”
“Hi,” True greeted warmly, only to get a nod in return.
He ran his eyes over her before stuffing his hands in the pockets of his slacks.
“He’s shy,” I attempted to excuse his silence, frowning at the lack of words falling from my best friend’s lips.
True held tighter to my forearm, her eyes ping-ponging between us before she gave a slight nod.
We made it back to her front door too fast and she turned to me with a comforting smile. “Thanks, Noah. It was nice to meet you.”
“Anytime.” My heart hammered like it was its first day on the job and I swallowed against the knot in my throat. “I was about to make dinner when you showed up, so if you’re hungry later, I can?—”
Her hand dropped away from my arm. “Oh, that’s okay. You’ve already done more than enough. I have to get some work done tonight, anyway. If I take another break, I won’t get anything done.”
I nodded, masking my disappointment with a smile. “It’s an open invitation. Greyson doesn’t like to eat out so one of us cooks every night. And we always make enough for the next day, so if you ever…”
I was rambling.
And True was too nice to laugh at me, so she smiled. It was warm. Patient. Kind.
“I’ma let you go. But I meant what I said. Anytime, I’m just a few steps away.”
“Thank you, Noah. But I don’t think your boyfriend is fond of me, so maybe I shouldn’t come around.”
My nerves took a backseat while her words tumbled around my brain and I tried to make sense of them. My boyfriend ?
“Boyfriend?” I echoed.
“Sorry. Are you two married? Your husband, then. I didn’t mean to offend.” Her brows wrinkled in genuine confusion, and I couldn’t hold back my laugh. Her lips twitched at the snort I let out.
“Why are we laughing?” she asked in a conspiratorial whisper.
“Greyson is straight. We’re not married. We just live together.”
“Oh.” She covered her mouth to suppress a giggle, averting her eyes. “I shouldn’t have assumed. Sorry.”
Her words were sheepish and apologetic, but I couldn’t stop laughing.
“You good, True. Don’t even worry about it.” I studied the kiss prints stamped across her shower cap while she shifted from foot to foot. Then my gaze fell to how her body filled out my clothes. The sweats that were usually baggy on me, were pulled taut and molded to her thick hips and thighs. My t-shirt stretched over her torso and chest, giving me a new appreciation for my alma mater.
The words King’s Town A&M had never looked better than they did on this woman.
“God, today has been odd ,” she exhaled. “I needed that laugh. Night, Noah.”
It was the third time she’d tried to leave and I still wasn’t ready for her to go. But I backed away from her door once she walked in. “See you around, True.”