35. Noah
Saturday was…a lot.
Between driving back and forth to Charlotte, running into my mom, giving True her desk, and everything we’d done after…my mind was still trying to catch up with the good and not focus on the lingering shame working through me.
It would never not fuck with me how an isolated interaction could crowd out the other things in my head until it was all I could focus on.
Being on this date with True was helping, though.
She got to tell me about all the writing she’d done yesterday and today, and I got to hear her voice. True could read me the phone book and I’d ask follow up questions. She made everything sound like something I needed to know. I had zero shame about the way I hung on her every word.
“So,” she exhaled, dropping her paint brush to pick up her glass of wine. “I don’t know how many of those words I’ll be keeping but I’m just happy I want to write again, you know? It was shaky for a while.”
“I’m happy for you, Red.” My response held a note of panic I hoped she didn’t hear. I was happy for her. But the more she talked about writing her book, the more it forced me to remember Bliss Peak wasn’t her home.
Cleaning my brush, I saw her place her wine glass back on the table and give me her full attention.
“My original deadline was December 31st. But I’m moving it to the end of January. That gives me two and a half more months to finish my first draft.”
Two and a half months for me to get my shit together and remember maybe this wasn’t forever and that I should still enjoy it.
“Hmm. I’m missing something. I need more yellow…” she trailed, looking over her painting with narrowed eyes. Then she added offhandedly, “It was wild making my birthday my deadline anyway.”
“You’re a New Year’s Eve baby, True?”
Her lip twitched. “Mhm.”
I filed that information away and caught my lip between my teeth when she sat forward, pushing the deep v-cut of her sweater further into my line of sight.
We were in the back of Noir, in their private event room. Alone and painting. And all the blood in my body had just rushed to my dick because of an innocent change in her posture.
Unaware, she kept staring over her canvas at me, her nose wrinkled from the easy smile she always aimed at me.
“This is fun,” she whispered. “How did you get this room for our date?” The excitement in her voice was cute and I knew I would spend my days finding ways to hear it again.
“I went to college with the owner. I used to cut his hair when we lived in the dorms. He owed me a few favors.”
Her brows jumped and a hint of admiration entered her tone. “You know how to cut hair?”
“Yea. I’ve had a lotta hobbies,” I confessed, studying my painting of Main Street while I felt her eyes rake over me.
“Like what?”
We made eye contact and I started running through the list of things I’d done before I moved to Bliss Peak.
“Cutting hair, dog grooming, private concierge, and I worked for a moving company for three days before I quit.“
Her laughter filled up the space between us. “So you’ve done it all.”
When I nodded, a thoughtful look passed over her face.
“You keep finding ways to surprise me, Noah.”
“That’s a good thing?”
True tipped her head and the weight of her attention was all I needed. But then she said, “It’s a great thing. You’re a great thing, Noah,” and suddenly it felt like I was floating.
Nine words and she sealed what I already knew before this damn date. This wasn’t temporary and I wasn’t letting this woman go in two and a half months.
I didn’t care if I had to follow her to King’s Town and start a new life there. True St. John wasn’t someone I wanted to live without.