30. Noah
Duchess derailed my plans to make this a quick in and out trip. Every time I tried to get True’s desk onto the cart so I could take it up the hill to my truck, the cat snaked between my legs, meowing for attention. I almost tripped over her twice before I gave up and sat down on the edge of the desk to give her some love.
“What’s up, Dutch?” I scooped her off the ground and stared into her blue eyes. “You missed me today?”
She purred under my attention and nudged her head against my chin.
“I know. Missed you too, pretty girl. But I had to take True shopping.”
She tilted her head like she understood what I was saying and quiet laughter rumbled in my chest. “You like True? She’s nice, right?”
Duchess let out a long, approving trill.
“You spent the day with Greyson? How was that?”
She meowed and started kneading my pants leg. The repetitive motion gave my brain permission to fixate on what happened at the mall.
I should have known my day was going too good.
I’d slept harder than I’d slept in a long time last night on the couch, but I didn’t even remember falling asleep. When I woke up, it was seven o’clock and only because Greyson was in the kitchen making coffee. When he noticed I was up, he made a mug of decaf for me and it was waiting on the kitchen counter when I got back from using the bathroom. Beside the coffee, he’d left his titanium credit card, not needing to say what it was for.
I had a slow morning alone at the house before heading to the resort to do inventory for the gift shop. Then I picked up True.
I talked to her for most of the trip to Charlotte and felt like I was finally getting to know her.
Then all hell broke loose in that dressing room. My parents had a way with words and none of those words led to anything good.
My mind stayed in that dressing room for too long, ruminating on the things my mother had said to me. The things True heard her say to me. In the grand scheme of things, what she heard wasn’t even bad, but it was enough to get the bigger picture. Who the fuck wanted to be with a man who got antagonized by the woman who gave him life?
I didn’t like how pity filled her eyes. But the hard set of her jaw when she looked at my mother had been…new. I’d never seen True angry before today.
A cold gust of wind was the only reason I snapped out of my thoughts. When I looked down at my lap, Duchess was gone and my phone was vibrating in my pocket.
“H-hello?” I stammered without checking the ID.
“Where are you? It’s been half an hour and I’m about to leave. Do you want me to take True home with me?”
Greyson .
Shit.
True.
I told her we’d be here for five minutes, tops and zoned out.
“Um, I’m getting her desk on the cart now.” I patted my pockets down for my keys, trying to get my shit together while I was actively scrambling. “You can take her home. I need to feed the cat. I’ll just take the desk straight to her house when I pull up.”
Greyson hesitated and I knew he wanted to ask me if I was good. Things were back to “normal” with us after my dream a week and a half ago, but I hadn’t stopped thinking about it and the dreams hadn’t stopped, either.
But since I wasn’t taking Ambien every night, at least I wasn’t in his bed having the dreams. And so far, coming in my sleep had been a one-time thing. I hadn’t woken up again in the middle of acting one out.
“Aight, see you at home,” he said before the line died.
I sighed in relief and finally got the desk on the cart. After loading it in the back of my truck, I walked back through the resort to find Duchess and set out her dinner. Then I talked to the overnight desk staff and headed out.
When I got home, I pulled up in front of True’s cabin in reverse.
Her front door was wide open as usual but she didn’t walk up before I could get her gift down.
I knocked and heard her husky voice before hurried footfalls gave away her arrival. “Coming!”
Her face split into the prettiest smile when she saw me on the other side of her screen door.
I’d had weeks and I still wasn’t used to it. I didn’t think a lifetime would be enough. Her hair was a little wilder than it had been before and her lips were bare, no longer painted in the shade of pomegranate that matched one of the dresses she bought so well.
“Noah! What happened to you? I was about to get in the shower, but I’m glad you’re here. Did you bring the cat home? Are you ok?”
True fussed over me like I’d been gone for weeks instead of an hour, and it was shit like that that made me fall so much harder for her every single day.
She pushed the door open and peered around me expectantly, but froze when she saw what was actually behind me.
“Noah, what’s that?”
“Can I come in?” I licked my lips, trying to combat how dry my mouth felt right now. “I have something to show you.”
True adjusted the lever on the screen door so it would stay opened whether she held it or not. Then she backed up and let me move the desk into her house.
“You told me you didn’t have a desk, so I made you one. I know you don’t have a lot of space in here, so I tried not to make it too bulky or heavy in case you wanted to move it on your own. Like from your room to the living room and back again. It doesn’t matter, I guess. Anywhere with the most sunlight…”
I was rambling. True’s eyes were watering and I was rambling. Ah, fuck.
I snapped my mouth shut and let my thoughts flow freely before I voiced the most succinct one.
“I just wanted you to have something so you don’t have to leave your house for a good writing session or fuck up your back, writing on the couch.”
All I did was blink and True launched herself at me. We collided with her wood-paneled wall while she rained kisses all over my face.
“If you didn’t want to drive me to the bookstore anymore, you could’ve just said that, Noah.”
“What? That’s not why?—”
“I’m messing with you, Noah. I’m sorry. It was a bad joke.”
She kissed my cheek again then grabbed my face, her soft hands bracketing my jaw while she smiled at me with so much affection in her eyes I felt like I was melting into her.
“Thank you, Noah. I think this is the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me.”
“Anything for you, Red.”
More moisture gathered in her eyes and she blinked it away. I wanted to say something but I was enjoying her hands on me too much to disrupt the moment.
Adrenaline rushed through me when True’s eyes flicked to my lips and back to my eyes. Her lids grew heavy as she leaned in, inching closer and closer until our lips were a whisper apart.
“I want to kiss you,” she warned, waiting for me to object.
Instead, I wrapped my arms around her waist and sighed at the way her softness molded against me. Then I lowered my head, just a fraction, and took the kiss she’d promised me.
I smelled like outside. Probably tasted like it too. But True kissed me like I was the answer to something she’d been searching for and I kissed her back with just as much neediness.
I felt at home in her kisses. In the way she pressed herself against me so hard that there was nothing between us. In the way that her hands mindlessly went to my hair, her fingers locking around my roots and holding on tight enough to make me kiss her harder.
It all felt like True. And it all felt like home. Exactly where I wanted to be.
Until the kisses stopped and the woman in front of me dropped her forehead against mine.
“I’m sorry, Noah.”
Stunned, I released her waist and ran a hand over my mouth. “Did you just apologize for kissing me, Red?”
That was new.
She looked at me, her expression pained before she took a step back. Her legs collided with the desk so she couldn’t get far, but the way she shuttered her emotions put more distance between us than space ever could.
“I’m not apologizing for kissing you. Because I wanted to do it. It’s what I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. But I need to be upfront with you.” She raked a hand over her hair again.
“I kissed Greyson,” she confessed. “I more than kissed him. I’ve been with him, and I don’t feel like it’s fair for me to sit on that when I’m here with you now.”
Somehow, her words weren’t a surprise. Dread dimmed the giddiness I was feeling until it felt like a heavy weight in my stomach.
She wanted Greyson. That made sense. He wasn’t like me. He could give her more. Be more calculated in the way he took care of her. He already was. Just because he was quiet didn’t mean I was clueless. Greyson adored True.
I swallowed hard, nodding.
“Are you telling me because that’s who you want?” Who you picked? Over me? I didn’t ask those last two questions out loud, but True’s face scrunched as if she’d read my mind.
“No. I wouldn’t have kissed you if I didn’t want you, Noah.”
“Ok…” I didn’t know where this was going, and when my heart got that memo, it decided to make a run for it out of my chest. “So what you saying, Red?”
True stared at me, her eyes wide but unwavering. “I’m saying, what if I want both of you?”