Chapter 40
FORTY
NOAH
“Everyone get in here, right the fuck now!” Cole’s shout echoes throughout the cottage and there’s silence for a moment before I—and no doubt the others—spring into action.
I rush into the theater room to find Cole pacing in front of the TV before Lana strolls in, seemingly unbothered, followed by Logan and Harley.
Harley looks out of breath with a frantic look on his face while Logan looks bored.
Typical.
We’re all silent as we take a seat and wait for Cole to speak, only he doesn’t. He just continues to pace, muttering to himself as he does.
Lana sighs and breaks the silence. “What’s wrong?”
Cole swings his gaze to her, a soft look taking over his frantic features before it hardens. “Gracie is seeing someone.”
Lana, who was just about to take a drink from a bottle of water, chokes as she’s taking a sip, spitting the liquid out in front of her and gives me the side-eye, which I find strange. Why is she looking to me? It’s not like she could know about Gracie and me.
Harley looks pissed and Logan flicks his eyes in my direction before focusing back on Cole.
Meanwhile, I’m internally reeling at this news. Not that Gracie is seeing someone obviously, but at the fact Cole knows about it.
What the hell.
Clearly, he doesn’t know exactly who it is that she’s been dating because I would be pinned down as I received his fists right now if he did, but how does he know that she is?
I school my features, not wanting to let anything slip as I look towards my best friend.
“And this is a problem?” I ask, already knowing the answer but trying anyway to talk some sense into him.
I mean, if this was six months ago and Cole had made this revelation, I would be pacing and thinking of a way to put an end to it too, because it would have been some other guy that she’s seeing.
But the guy she’s actually dating is me, so how do I go about acting like a concerned pseudo brother when it’s me that’s fucking her?
Christ, this is a mess.
“What the fuck do you mean? Of course, it’s a problem,” Cole barks and I hold my hands up in surrender.
Before I can say anything, Lana jumps in and I silently thank whatever deity brought her into Cole’s life because if anyone can get through to him, it’s her.
“I think what Noah means to say is, is this really that big of a deal? Gracie is a grown woman, she can fuck, date, and do whatever the hell she wants.”
Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t have put it exactly like that, but I’m still grateful that she’s here.
“And of course, if this asshole hurts her in anyway, we can just kill him.”
I take it all back, I think we were better off without her.
“Yeah…” I say slowly. “I know she was with that asshole a few years ago that messed with her, but we just need to trust Gracie’s judgment. We can’t force her not to date.”
There’s silence for an entire five seconds before Cole starts up again, ranting and raging about how his innocent little sister is too young for a boyfriend and blah blah blah.
If Cole had any idea of what Gracie and I have been getting up to, I’m pretty sure it would give the poor guy an aneurism.
Or just make him drop dead.
“They’re right,” Logan says, making each of us turn to him. It’s not often Logan speaks up but when he does, it makes us all listen. “Gracie is a grown woman, whether we like it or not. It’s not up to us to dictate her private life and we have to respect her choices.”
I inwardly sigh in relief, the tension draining from me as Cole nods slowly, as though Logan’s words have actually gotten through to him. They all carry on talking, and I discretely pull out my phone and send a text to Gracie.
Did you tell Cole that you were seeing someone?
Gracie
Oh god, is he losing it? I only said it to get him to shut up. Does he know it’s you?
Never mind, if he knew it was you, you wouldn’t be texting me right now.
Maybe this is a bad idea, I don’t want you to die because you had the audacity to date me.
I suppress a snort at that, but something must show on my face because Harley gives me a confused look.
I shake my head before focusing my attention back on the screen, my jaw ticking at the sight of her name in my phone.
On my burner, I’m free to have her saved as My Gracie, but I have no choice but to just use her name and her name alone when there’s a possibility that someone could see.
It’ll be worth it, love. Don’t worry about that for now, we have time.
It’s only once the message is sent that I realize what I called her, and the implications of it. Fuck, will she figure it out from that alone? My heart pounds as the possibility visualizes into an image of Gracie ending things with me because of everything that I’ve done.
I can’t let that happen.
I won’t let that happen.
I’ll keep her, one way or another.
Gracie
Okay, but I really don’t want your death on my conscience, so how about we table the idea of outing ourselves for now, yeah?
Oh, thank fuck.
Clearly, I was being overly paranoid. Of course, the use of a nickname wasn’t enough to tip her off enough about who I really am.
Gracie is… Gracie is sensible, if she had any doubts, concerns or suspicions at all, she would have voiced it.
I focus back on the conversation around me, but we’ve thankfully moved on to less stressful topics, and I listen and speak up here and there as they all chat about their classes and other mundane things but as always, my mind doesn’t stray far from Gracie.
I want to see her, be with her, hold her.
I just want to spend time with her and bask in her presence.
I’ll be okay not seeing her for tonight though, because I do actually have some self-control.
Okay so maybe I don’t have any self-control at all.
I was planning on having an early night and then seeing Gracie between classes tomorrow, but I couldn’t sleep. I was just tossing and turning, unable to stop thinking about the fact that she had told Cole about us.
Well, not about us, but she had told Cole that she’s seeing someone.
And she wouldn’t do that if she wasn’t serious about me.
Which made me practically giddy.
And that’s why I’m here, letting myself into her apartment at 3 a.m. while wearing the mask because it would be a little weird for Noah to just show up like this.
But perfectly acceptable for her stalker to do it.
My heart warms when I spot her sleeping peacefully in bed, the covers pulled right up over her head with only a little of her face peeking out and her leg bent and sticking out.
She’s just so beautiful.
Too beautiful for words, really.
She shifts and I take a step back, a moment of anxiety hitting me. What if she wakes up? What do I do then? Things have been different lately, and there’s a part of my brain that insists she’s cheating on me… with me, when she texts the burner phone or draws my mask.
It’s ridiculous, I know that, but the logical side and the… fucked up side can’t seem to coincide.
She shifts again, but her eyes remain closed and her face stays peaceful.
Just another minute, and then I’ll leave.
All I needed was to lay my eyes on her for a few moments.
She mumbles something, so quietly that I can’t make it out, so I take a step towards her, then another, and another until I’m basically looming over the bed as I look down at her.
“Noah,” she whispers, her eyes still closed and her body still unmoving, and it hits me that she’s dreaming.
She’s dreaming about me.
All of those feelings of jealousy vanish at that one whispered word.
That’s all the proof I need that she isn’t just dating me to…what? Take her mind off her stalker?
I knew that wasn’t the case, but I couldn’t help the tiny part of me that thought, maybe, that was what she was doing, since she’s never once shown any interest in me, always claiming that I was like a brother to her.
But she’s dreaming about me, she’s saying my name in her sleep, and she wouldn’t be doing that if she didn’t feel something for me.
Hell, she told her brother about us, and if that isn’t serious, then I don’t know what is.
This moment just solidifies what I need to do. No more coming here in the mask.
I need to focus on our relationship as us and not hide behind the anonymity.
I carefully remove the mask from my face and lay it on the bed next to her before leaning down to place a soft kiss in her hair.
“Goodnight, my love.”
I leave without looking back and head back home, grateful for everything I have in my life right now.
Just as I’m heading up the steps to the front door, my phone vibrates in my pocket.
Weird.
Who the hell is texting me at this time of night?
I pull it out, a sickening feeling filling me as I see it’s a text from an unknown number. There’s no preview, and I unlock the phone to open the message.
Unknown
What would your best friend think about you visiting his little sister in the middle of the night wearing a mask?
The wording is clearly the same from the note left on my car, meaning it’s the same person who sent the messages.
Which means they not only know about mine and Gracie’s relationship, but about my masked persona too…
Well fuck.