Chapter 47
When Noah opens the door to me, his brows draw in as he studies me.
“Why are you here?” he asks and I know my eyes go wide at the question.
Noah must realize the question hits wrong, because he takes my hand and pulls me into the room where Dylan is seated at the small table. There are two laptops open and papers all over the room.
“Is everything okay? You look absolutely petrified and,” he looks at his watch, “the signing isn’t over.”
At that moment, Dylan’s phone buzzes in his hand and he looks down at the text. Shaking his head, he looks back up at me.
“Seriously?” Dylan says, and I nod. “Bitch.”
Now Noah’s grip tightens. “What in the hell is going on?”
I realize that I’m much too serious in this moment and force myself to let my shoulders drop.
“Sylvia answered a question that, well, it just wasn’t appropriate,” I say, trying to save face for everyone.
Dylan snorts. “Bullshit,” he says then looks at Noah. “Some fangirl of yours asked about you and Sylvia being an item. She hinted at you guys having something going on.”
Noah’s eyes widen. “Why would she …” Then his nostrils flare. “Is she really this petty?”
“Dude, you knew she was. I’m actually surprised she’s been as civil as she has been,” Dylan goes back to scrolling through the file on his computer.
Noah takes both of my hands in his. “She didn’t say anything nasty to you, did she?”
I shake my head. “I think I was just a little surprised by her answer, that’s all.”
Without worrying about Dylan sitting only a few feet from us, Noah moves in closer, and lifts his hand to my cheek. “I told you the truth. You know everything that happened between me and Sylvia.”
I nod. I knew in my heart he’d been truthful to me.
“Is Katie with her now? She’s not spreading more rumors about me, is she?”
This answer has my lips curling up into a wide smile. I press my hand to Noah’s chest. “Katie is there, but Dorothy decided after Sylvia said that, that she’d volunteer to work the signing table as my replacement, and Katie sent me here.”
Noah now backs up to arm’s length and scans a long look over me. “My mother-in-law heard Sylvia say that and then volunteered to man the table?”
I nod and purse my lips. “She did.”
“Oh, Sylvia made one hell of a mistake,” he says with a laugh as he pulls me into his side. “Damn, now I wish I were a fly on the wall.”
I decide that since I wasn’t at the store to close it up after the book signing, I’d go in early just to reset everything.
It appears that Katie knew what she was doing when she ordered more books for Sylvia. Luckily they all sold, since Sylvia had presigned them. It doesn’t look like I’m going to have to beg to return them or keep a lot of overstock.
As soon as I walk through the door, Mrs. Packer appears from the door between the stores. She has a large cup from Pack-a-Punch in her hand and a raspberry scone. She doesn’t bring out the raspberry scones too often. Last night must have been very profitable for her.
She smiles at me, then hands me the coffee and the scone.
“Did you get some sleep? You look well rested,” she says.
“I did.”
“I imagine cuddling up to him all night would help me sleep too,” she winks at me and I can’t help but laugh.
“It’s a perk.”
Then her face grows serious. “You did miss all the fun though,” she says, her brows rising.
“Did I?”
“After that girl asked about Sylvia and Noah being an item, Katie put the reins on that. And his mother-in-law sat at the table, handing Sylvia her books to sign and talked to every one of the people who came to see Sylvia speak. She told them about Noah and how her daughter had been married to him. Then she told them about how you’re the one who really is involved with him and how you’re now publishing a book. ”
I feel my cheeks fill with heat. “Oh, dear. I hope Sylvia isn’t?—”
Mrs. Packer flicks the air as if to knock my words down. “No one cares what Sylvia thought. She sold a shit ton of books. She got her ass kissed. But that Dorothy saved face for Noah, and you go look on your counter. There’s an email list for people wanting more information on your book.”
My eyes go wide. “What?”
“Yep, Julia said that when everyone came through to pay for the book, they asked about your book. They all want to know what the woman who actually is sleeping with Noah Carter has to write about.”
My lips twitch and then spread into a smile. I just can’t help it. “They want to be on my email list to learn about my book?”
Agnes lifts her shoulders. “I didn’t understand all of it. You know Julia and her social media tactics. I don’t know what it all means.”
But I do. My heart is so full.
I clean the store, though it does look like maybe it was thoroughly cleaned after the signing. I wonder which of those ladies was running the tight ship.
Katie is the first person through the door right as I open. Again, she looks like New York as she walks through in her heels, pencil skirt, and a blouse that flows in all the right places.
“How was your night?” she asks.
“It was very nice,” I say, because it was.
“Dylan said you all had dinner together.”
“They were knee deep into Noah’s next book, going through it, I think. I felt bad, as if I were interrupting, but Dylan said they could lock themselves in a room for weeks without coming up for air. So it was probably a good thing I showed up.”
“He’s right,” she agrees, then she moves to the counter and rests her arms on it. “I wanted to let you know that I asked Sylvia to head home after last night.”
I know they banked on Sylvia being there the rest of the weekend. This couldn’t have been taken lightly.
“You did?”
Katie nods. “I know that rumors start and fans want to believe things that just don’t happen, but I wasn’t comfortable with how she handled the question.
And before we got her totally shut down with Dorothy at the table—and I love and adore her by the way—she’d led a few fans to believe that maybe she and Noah had something going on. ”
I press my hand to my chest, and then fidget with my top button. “Oh.”
“Listen, I know we’re all adults. Affairs happen. Relationships happen. And, that’s fine. It’s not fine when you trade it for a sale.”
There was something about Katie that I just liked the moment she walked through my door. Integrity, she exudes it.
Now I wonder if she was as hard on Noah as I first thought she was, or if she was protective of him. Either way, she’s protective of him now.
“Are you ready for the crowd you’re going to have today? I mean, everyone has had a lot of fans, but Noah—this is going to be on a different level,” she says.
I draw in a breath and I realize that I’m so full of pride for the man, I might burst. “I think we’re ready.”
Katie smiles wide. “Okay, you’re going to man the table with him and hand him the books.
But I sure as hell am going to have Dorothy work the line,” she laughs.
“I met Abby a few times, and she was sweet, oh so sweet. Now that I’ve met her mother, I realize why Abby could handle the moody mess that is Noah Carter.
She was raised by a woman with that same kind of spirit. ”
And just like that, I learn another reason why Noah loved Abby, and I’m finding I love her too.