Chapter 33
HANNAH
Noah removes himself from our heated embrace, adjusting his dick through his dark jeans, then makes sure his sweater isn’t twisted in a weird position.
“Hannah, you missed breakfast. Are you okay? Ill? Avoiding a certain someone?” Maya calls through the door.
Noah smirks, placing a single finger to his lips to keep quiet. He tiptoes across the room and opens the nearest window.
“What are you doing?” I hiss under my breath.
His playful wink tells me all I need to know when he removes the screen and hops out, but one of his boots’ shoelaces catches on the corner of the windowsill, and he grunts as he faceplants in the snow.
I have to cross my legs to keep from peeing myself and muffle my laughter. Trying to contain my hysterics, Noah waves me over for help. Through calming breaths, laughter still caught in my throat, I tried to release his shoelace, finding it stuck.
“Are you okay?” I quietly ask, some of my laughter coming up.
He throws a thumbs up, struggling at the same time to reach for his laces. “Yes! Hurry!” Snow coats his eyelashes and brows, face red from the impact.
My doorknob starts to turn, halting us in place. Panic mirrors our expressions, and I turn as she comes inside, shaking off snow from her shoulders.
“Girl, where the heck were you this morning? And why is your window open?” she inquires, coming closer.
“I woke up late, then got hit with an intense hot flash, so I needed some air.” There, a simple enough answer for no further questioning. I adjust my position so it blocks Noah’s boot from view, sitting down so my ass almost hangs out the window.
“Right, and it’s not because you had a screaming match with Noah on the halfpipe yesterday?” Leave it to Maya to hear the latest gossip within twenty-four hours.
“When am I not yelling at him?”
“Nice job trying to deflect. Now, tell me the truth.”
Maya is a true friend when it comes to secrets; never once has she told any of my darkest, but I’m not sure this one with Noah is such a good idea. Not yet, anyway.
Shit, I can’t believe I said yes to him.
She waits, tapping her foot. “Well?”
“Menstruation shit, nothing new. Period side effects, but nothing major.” I really don’t want to keep it from her, adding another lie to the list, and I’m afraid it might get bigger.
“Huh.” She scans my room again. “Right.” Maya’s eyes land on Noah’s black jacket, half draped over the couch, then to me, and her dark eyebrows rise almost to her hairline. “Whose jacket is that?”
I swallow hard, hands clammy. I have to be quick with my response; otherwise, Maya won’t stop until she finds out who owns it. “Mine, it just came in.”
She picks it up, examining it, right down to sticking her hands in the pockets, thankfully coming up empty. “It’s huge, Hannah.”
“Yeah, I realized that after I opened it. They must’ve messed up on their end. I’ll return it when I get home.” I bite the inside of my cheek, hoping she takes the bait. Fuck, she might pick up Noah’s cologne from it.
She does another examination of the jacket but changes the subject, tossing it back on the couch. “My parents are setting up a meeting to go over the possible food vendors that are participating. Would you like to come?”
Relief floods my body. “Sure, let me just change.”
“All right, I’m grabbing some muffins. Do you want anything?” Her smile returns.
“Yeah, a blueberry one.” I cross my arms, freezing my ass off from the open window, Noah’s boot hanging on for dear life.
“Okay, see you in a few.” She leaves, the door softly clicking shut.
I inhale a deep breath, and my heart begins to slow its erratic beating, when Noah’s boot starts to move.
“Um, help?”