Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Noah
Quickly, I walk back towards the bar. Her careless comment was like pouring water on the hottest flame. Footsteps sound behind me before I have the time to process any more of what I just allowed myself to do in that dark alleyway.
“Noah don’t you dare walk away from me again,” she shouts.
The door to the bar opens and Rex walks a few feet out into the night.
“We good out here?” He questions.
I nod. He glances behind me and I can only guess Eva motioned the same because he quickly disappears back through the door. I stand with my back to Eva and wait for her to speak first.
“Why do you keep running from me? Why won’t you let me talk to you?” she asks.
Turning, I finally look at her. Her lips are swollen from our encounter.
Her hair is a hot mess, her eye makeup is smudged lightly from the heat of our contact.
Fuck, she’s breathtaking. Right now, there is nothing on earth I want more than her.
But I can’t be a momentary stepping stone in her path anymore.
I need forever. I want forever. And she once told me she couldn’t promise me that.
I look to the floor, and whisper, “I don’t know what you can say that can change the way I feel. I don’t know anything you can come up with that will erase the way we ended.”
“I didn’t end us, you did,” she yells.
My eyes snap to hers. Can she really be serious?
I was there that day in the hospital. I heard what she had to say.
The only reason she is standing in front of me right now is because she took a chance on her dream and it didn’t work out.
Just like that other woman in the bar right now, trying to crawl back for a second chance.
“You made it really clear you were done with me, Eva. I’ve never been one to beg and stick around where I am not wanted.”
She crosses her arms over her chest, and the bourbon takes over momentarily as I glance down at her cleavage, still red and marked from my lips a few minutes ago.
Forcing myself to glance back up, I shoot her a look that dares her to challenge me.
I dare her to protest the truth. A truth I know she will repeat if given the chance.
“What are you talking about?” she asks, confused. “I didn’t..”
“Oh come on,” I hiss. “How can you even deny it? You said it yourself. ‘Your dream,’ remember? How you ‘hoped I’d be happy for you.’ I bet that dream didn’t work out so well after you healed up from a few broken bones and you want to come here and see if I will let you sneak back into my world like you were not about to just drop me for what you thought was a better life. ”
Her eyes widen, and I know I have hit my target. Bingo. She just gave herself away completely. There’s no need for her mouth to confess what her face just said.
“You can’t be serious?” Eva angrily asks with a roll of her eyes.
“And yes, while we are on the subject, thanks for checking in on me, asshole. You know, after I almost lost my life. If you are so upset over the lies you have obviously conspired in your mind against me, then don’t you think someone that cared that much would have at least stuck around more than a day?
Hard to believe you are so upset Noah when you obviously didn’t care if I lived or died. ”
My heart breaks. That was a bastard move, I know it, but she doesn’t know what I heard. And to hell if I am going to tell her I was there that day. That I heard what she said. She knows the truth. Her stubborn ass just refuses to admit it so she can get what she wants.
“I wrote you a note,” I say harshly. “Didn’t you get it?”
She laughs. “Yeah, a note, that’s right. Our entire relationship’s end was summed up on one piece of paper. Such an easy way out - for a coward.”
“Coward?” I take a few heated steps toward her.
She doesn’t budge. She doesn’t even blink an eye.
“You heard me,” she taunts. “Did I stutter? Seems to me you couldn’t handle the truth. You’d rather live in your web of lies because it’s safer there. Safer than taking a chance.”
“What the fuck do you know about taking chances?” I yell.
“You have no idea what I have given up. What I have taken chances on. With your perfect little life in your perfect little family. Do you ever make any decisions on your own Eva, or just ride the wave of mommy and daddy’s vision for your future? ”
Her hand meets my face before the sting even registers. Looking back into her eyes, they don’t even hold a small amount of concern or apology for what she’s just done. I am just about to speak when she says, “Chances? I am here now, aren’t I Noah?”
The door to the bar opens, and Jolene and Gwen make their way out into the night, snickering and whispering before they come into view. Eva’s eyes stay trained on mine.
“We’re done here,” I say, turning to leave.
“Why won’t you fight for us?” she whispers sadly.
With my hand on the door to the bar, I pause. I try to come up with an answer, but shit, I don’t know why. Between the drinks, Becky, the alleyway, and Eva’s confrontation - I can’t seem to find the words. So I answer her the only way I see logical, with a question of my own.
“When L.A. called, why wasn’t your first instinct to stay?”
Opening the door, I step back into the bar and hope she gets the hint and packs her bags and heads home.
Reaching in my pocket, I pull out my phone and contact an Uber.
Slipping into a nearby booth, I wait in the corner for my ride and wrestle with my demons.
The ones that won’t let me fight for a woman I know I can’t live without.