Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
CORMAC
Nora does not sound like a raccoon, but the sound is startling and primal enough to plant fear into the hearts of the men beyond the door. They run away. Literally. They sound like a herd of wildebeest in the middle of the Serengeti’s Great Migration.
I’m shaken by our near miss with…okay, not the law, but a couple of employees who would certainly have embarrassed us. But that’s not the main feeling pumping through me as I grab my guitar and Nora’s hand and flee the closet.
I feel like a changed man.
I was a little bit in love with Nora Leigh in high school, but the truth is, I’m a lot fucking in love with her now.
I don’t know what to do about it, but I’m going to ride this wave where it takes me. Even if it takes me too far, into a place I don’t recognize or understand the rules for.
Nora’s laughing as we weave our way to and out of the back door of the building, both of us panting. There’s nothing on this side of the old warehouse other than a gravel lot and a commercial dumpster that smells exactly how a person might imagine.
She looks incredibly gorgeous, especially with her lipstick smeared and her hair a mess from my hands.
Wait—
“Do I have lipstick all over my face?” I murmur.
She laughs harder, then licks her finger and wipes the sides of my mouth before giving her face the same treatment.
“Did you just lick your finger and use it to clean me?”
Grinning, she pushes me lightly with the side of her arm. “Yes, and it shouldn’t bother you since you probably have a lot of my spit in your mouth.”
She bursts into peals of laughter at the expression on my face, then surprises me by weaving her fingers through mine and squeezing.
She’s holding my hand in public. She wants to. It feels like I’m in a dream.
I want to say something meaningful, but when I finally gather myself enough to speak, I say, “Mick gave me a ride.”
Idiot.
“Let’s go find my car,” Nora says. “I’ll bring you home. But first I want to tell you all about my brilliant idea.” She starts walking along the side of the building, and I walk with her. Carried along by the wonder of her.
“Your last brilliant idea doesn’t seem to be going so well,” I point out. “Pansy hasn’t broken up with José yet.”
She kicks a small rock and swings my hand. “That’s okay. We’re playing the long game.”
I guess I am.
Stealing a glance at me as we walk, she adds, “This idea is about Ann.”
“Do you have any other bad celebrities to set her up with?”
Her smiles spreads wider, flashing a hint of white teeth. “No, we’re going to set her up with Nathaniel.”
I take a moment to consider this as we turn the corner and find ourselves at the front of the building. There’s a buzz of activity out here. People smoking and hanging out with their drinks, which are allowed within a certain radius of the front doors. Other people getting into their cars to leave.
“Nathaniel talks a lot,” I point out. “She didn’t seem to be a fan of loquaciousness.”
She nods her head playfully. “Yes, but consider this.” She lifts one finger. “He has an incredibly lush beard. Ann said she only wants a bearded guy. No one else is a real man.”
I run a hand across my own stubbled jaw. I shave every morning because I don’t like the feeling of having a beard, but what if Nora likes it?
“Do you—”
“I like you just the way you are.”
It was a throwaway remark, but warmth blossoms inside of me as we leave the parking area. I see Nora’s little Fiat parked a couple of blocks away on the grassy side of the road, as if it was abandoned by people fleeing a zombie takeover.
A few cars drive past as we walk toward it, and I shift our positions so Nora has the inside position, farther away from possible death-by-vehicle.
I’m worried she’s going to comment on it, but she just gives me a probing glance and then continues with our discussion.
“He may talk too much, but he wouldn’t mind if she switched off her hearing aid.
Besides, he doesn’t really talk about himself, he talks about animals.
That’s not nearly as annoying. He also seems very interested in other people’s problems. He wanted to know all about our fake relationship. ”
I never thought I could dislike two words in the English language as much as I’m coming to dislike fake relationship.
“Okay,” I agree. “We’ll introduce them. We’ll have to act quickly, though. I’m leaving for San Francisco in a week. Right after our second disastrous double date.”
“I forgot your trip was coming up so soon,” she says, looking downcast. “How long will you be gone?”
“Almost three weeks.”
The thought makes me uncomfortable. I don’t want to leave right now, when everything is in medias res. It’ll feel wrong, being away from home. Being away from her.
She gasps. “What about Cookie?”
Her concern for my difficult dog makes me grin. “I’m bringing her with me. Kenji made the travel arrangements. I’m flying out of Charlotte.”
“And the band?”
“I can’t take them with me. I’ve been told there’s a weight limit on carrying crates.”
We reach the car. Standing by the driver’s side, Nora lays one hand on the roof and observes me.
“The band’s aware of my travel plans,” I continue. “We planned our performance schedule around it.”
“Do I have permission to send you annoying text messages?”
“Since when do you ask for permission?”
She smiles. “It was a rhetorical question.”
“I hope you make me sorry I ever heard of a cell phone.” I stuff my hands in my pockets, then admit, “I’m going to miss you. A lot. But look, I know Ann’s love life is important to you. We can introduce them before I go.”
She’s already shaking her head, her hair flying outward with the motion. “We can’t just introduce them.”
This seems like a wild conclusion to me, because introducing them should be the logical next step in her plan.
“We need to create the perfect moment,” she says. “A meet-cute they’ll remember.”
“What’s a meet-cute?”
“You know exactly what it is.”
I do not in fact know, but I hazard a guess. “A meeting that’s…cute?”
“You have to ruin everything,” she says, her eyes dancing with amusement.
God, I’m ridiculously happy to be here with her. But I’m not a good passenger at the best of the times, especially in small cars, so I clear my throat and say, “I’m probably about to ruin your good mood. I’d prefer to drive, if that’s okay.”
She averts her eyes skyward for a moment but hands me her keys.
I open the side door for her, then stow my guitar in the back and get in beside her. “I don’t mean to be disagreeable,” I say.
“Then you’re not off to a great start.”
I clasp her hand. “We can try to do the meet-cute thing if you’re set on it, but I’d argue that the best moments in life are unpredictable.”
“Your high school robot disagrees with you.”
This is where I could tell her. My heart pulses with the need to do it.
I kept that note. I made the robot for you. It was supposed to help you brew your ginger beer.
But I don’t. I’m…
Honestly, I’m fucking terrified that she’ll withdraw. That I’ll be too much, the way I’ve been for a lot of people. My mother was the first in a long line.
So I don’t vocalize any of it.
“You’re the one who said it, not me,” I say. “I was thinking about the moment when Pansy walked in on us.”
I release her hand so we can secure our seat belts.
“Be careful, Cormac. You almost sound grateful that I roped you into—”
“It’s not a fake relationship anymore,” I say, my tone harsh.
Shit. I hadn’t meant to say it like that.
She’s quiet for a moment, and I start driving toward the house, needing the distraction because I can’t look at her right now. I don’t want to see the end of us written across her features.
We’re nearly there when she finally says, “No, I guess not, but I don’t really know what we should call it.”
That makes two of us.
“I am grateful it happened,” I say into the quiet of the car. “Regardless of the circumstances that got us here. Still. I think it’s a very bad idea to willingly go bowling with a possible psychopath. Do you know how much bowling balls weigh?”
She puts her hand on my leg, her touch warm and intimate and so very welcome. “No, Cormac, but I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.”
The rest of the weekend passes quickly. Nora has to work all day Sunday, so her desire to set up Nathaniel and Ann is, perforce, delayed.
I also suggest that maybe we should wait awhile—it might be a good idea to give Ann time to recover after her heartbreak.
Nora, in turn, points out that Ann is in her seventies or eighties, and probably shouldn’t wait too long if she wants to “get back on that horse.”
I ask her to please not use that metaphor again, especially in reference to Ann, and she hits me with a pillow.
Fuck, I love her, and it’s getting harder to hold back.
She comes over on Monday to share some takeout, and we sit on the couch to eat.
Oh, the things she does to me…
Before I brought her home for the first time, this couch had never experienced a crumb.
After we finish eating, I finally ask her about Jonah.
“Liam told you about that?” she asks. “I always suspected he was secretly a gossip.”
“It must have been difficult.” I hesitate. “After your father—”
“Yes, I’m perfectly aware of what my dad did.” She nestles against me. “And yeah, the whole Jonah experience wasn’t great. It was worse because it happened at the same time Pansy was sending me those nasty texts. It fucked with my head a bit.”
“I don’t like that.”
“You want to be the only person who gets to fuck with my head?” she asks with a teasing smile.
“I want to be the person who makes sure no one fucks with your head.”
Her gaze soaks me in, her eyes soft and warm, and then she leans in and kisses me. “I like you.”
I love her, but she’s one woman I’d prefer not to drive off by being an idiot. So I settle for repeating it back to her, my forehead nearly pressed to hers. “I like you.”
“Show me,” she says.
“Gladly.”