19. Greyson
Something was wrong with Noah.
I was under no illusion that he needed to be under my supervision all day to know he was doing his job, but the few times we’d crossed paths today, something had been off.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
When we were going over the excursions he had planned today, he kept looking at my hands, then his clipboard, and finally out of the window behind my desk.
Everything except me was worth his full attention and the sting that caused was one I wasn’t prepared for. Especially since I couldn’t think of anything I’d done wrong.
This couldn’t be about that fucking cat. He could bring her home tonight if he just opened his mouth and talked to me.
All I had gotten so far today was a few grunts of agreement before he moved on, usually to a completely opposite side of the resort.
Every time frustration coiled in my chest, making it tight, I tried to remember True’s words.
Maybe he was processing something and wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.
But in all the twenty years we’d been friends, he’d never been cold to me once.
Noah was the walking definition of sunshine. I didn’t know how to cope with him being any other way. All I wanted to do was make it right, but he wouldn’t tell me what was wrong, so there was nothing to fix.
Now, it was the end of the day and I’d tracked him down in the back area of the resort. The quiet place where he usually chopped wood for the fireplaces in winter and worked on whatever he felt like.
He had free rein over his responsibilities here and I trusted him to do whatever was best for the resort. Our friendship had created a level of trust that I didn’t have with many other people. He loved this place as much as I did, so whether he was leading excursions, teaching a ski lesson, or filling in at the gift shop, I knew things were handled and done right the first time.
“Hey, I’m heading out. Did you get True’s text about dinner?” Of course I knew he’d seen the text, I’d seen him react to it at 10AM when she sent it. It was 6 now, but what the fuck else was I supposed to say? He’d reduced me to small talk in less than twenty-four hours.
“It’s just us tonight.”
It might have been my imagination, but I swear he flinched at just us tonight .
Noah drew his bottom lip into his mouth and I did a double take at the absence of his golds.
Then he looked up from the table saw separating us and nodded. “Um, I’ma stay a little while longer and work on True’s desk. Then I’ll grab something to eat from the dining hall before I come home. So you ain’t gotta cook anything for me.”
In silence, I watched him pull a pencil from his tool belt and mark something on the wood.
“Oh, aight. Ima head to Lucky’s and have a drink. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Drive safe,” he muttered after my departure, his voice fading as soon as he turned the power tool back on. I walked back through the resort and out to the parking lot with a stunned frown on my face.
What the fuck was going on?
When I reached my truck, Noah’s identical Denali was parked beside it. The only difference was my matte paint job compared to his glossy finish. That and the cat draped across his hood, like she was lounging in the lap of luxury.
The cat meowed and observed me with a squinted stare as if I was intruding on her “me time.”
“Not now, Duchess.”
When she trilled at me again, I hopped in my driver’s seat and started the engine. I had enough on my plate without adding bickering with a damn cat to the list.
Instead of going for the beer I normally got at Lucky’s, I asked Trinity for a neat bourbon as soon as I sat down.
There was a bar at Wolfe Summit, but I liked coming here to put distance between myself and work.
The people watching was more entertaining at Lucky’s too. But tonight, all I could focus on was the heat of this liquor burning my chest.
That didn’t mean I was oblivious to the woman on my right, throwing hints and leaning into me every chance she got.
Her name was Treasure, if I remembered correctly and she’d introduced herself to me the second I sat down.
“What are you getting into after this, handsome?” she purred suggestively, her long nails running along the arm of my navy, tweed suit jacket.
Not you , I wanted to retort. But I drained what was left in my glass instead and turned to look at her.
She was pretty in all the conventional ways. Button nose, full lips, doe eyes. But when I looked at her, I felt nothing but a tinge of annoyance because she was ruining my chance at a buzz.
“What’s wrong, honey? Cat got your tongue?” Thick lashes fluttered against her made up cheeks and I had to bite back a smile. Hearing the word cat threw my mind back to the resort and Duchess.
And thinking about Duchess made me think about Noah.
And thinking about Noah made me think about True.
So, yea, the cat did have my tongue because it wasn’t one of the two people I cared about who wanted my attention.
It would be easy enough to go home with Treasure. I could sleep with her and relieve some of the tension that had been mounting for weeks. But I couldn’t even think about it without guilt stamping out the possibility before a flame could form.
If she wasn’t True, I didn’t want her. True had never even verbally expressed her interest in me, yet she held the reins on what I would entertain.
“I’m getting outta here, Treasure. Long day tomorrow,” I lied, pulling two crisp bills from my wallet. “But let me cover your drinks for the night.”
I slid the money over the counter when Trinity walked up to ask if I needed a refill. When I told her no and to put the money towards Treasure’s tab and her tip, she walked away with a smile.
I got off the barstool and adjusted my tie, giving Treasure a smile I didn’t feel. “Have a good night, sweetheart.”
On the sidewalk outside of the bar, I rolled some of the tightness out of my shoulders and pulled out my phone to see if the group chat had any new messages. Nobody had said anything since 10AM and it was going on 8 now.
That shouldn’t have left me feeling so deflated. I stuck a stick of gum in my mouth and got back in my truck, deciding that a drive around town would be the cure for my restlessness.
I passed Main Street and saw that some of it was already blocked off for the Fall Festival that was happening tomorrow through Sunday. It was a yearly thing and brought farmer’s market season to a close in Bliss Peak. Because the street I needed was blocked off, I detoured down a busier road and slowed to a stop in front of Noir.
Noah loved the truffle mac and cheese there.
Without thinking, I pulled into the last parking spot big enough for my truck and got down, hoping they would let me pick up something for takeout.
I made it inside the dimly lit restaurant and smiled at the hostess, only for that smile to falter when I saw the couple being seated across the dining room.
Black dress.
Red lips.
Red shoes.
True St. John.
She looked fucking incredible.
Her hair was straight and falling around her shoulders and that dress fit her full frame like a glove.
The only problem was the man with his hand on her bare lower back.
Who the fuck was he?