Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-Four
Eva
Speaking briefly as we left town, neither one of us uttered a word once we hit the outskirts. The radio played “How Country Feels”. With the windows rolled down, we fell into a comfortable silence as we drove along.
In awe, I looked out the window at the country all around us.
Small rolling hills swept up only to sweep back down and start all over again as we drove through the Kentucky countryside.
Rock walls older than anything I had ever seen in California lined the road between us and the greenest Kentucky bluegrass.
Horses ran in the distance where big old southern homes sat.
They were complete with huge white columns like something you’d see out of Gone With The Wind.
Huge southern front porches and big tobacco barns completed the picture.
At times, the rock walls would give way to beautiful white or black picket fences.
A low fog hung around as when we would dip low into a sort of little holler on the back roads, only to evaporate as we’d drive up the next rolling hill.
The mist was a magical sort of leftover spell from the rain an hour or so before.
The humidity was light and barely noticeable as we drove.
The breeze drifting around us through the cab of the truck was refreshing. Soothing. Tranquil.
Noah smiles and taps his fingers along with the beat on the radio.
There’s a comfortable peace about him I had never seen in California.
It’s the kind of peace that settles over me as we drive this back road in a state I never thought I’d ever visit in my life.
For the first time in a long time, I can breathe. Just like my pier in Huntington Beach.
The sun begins its descent. Beautiful reds, purples, and blues shoot through the low-hanging clouds as we continue on and on without a care in the world. I couldn’t remember the last time I didn’t have a care in the world. To be honest, I may have never felt this way.
“Is it everything that you thought it would be?” Noah asks, breaking the silence.
I smile as I close my eyes and let the wind sweep across my face. It’s all that and more. Opening my eyes, looking out over the beauty I still can’t believe I am seeing as I say, “No, it’s better.”
Glancing his way, he smiles contently before he gestures to the road ahead of us. “Just a little bit further, I got a spot I used to drive out to all the time when I needed space to think as a kid.”
“You need more space than this?” I joke as I raise my hands and point to the country surrounding us. “There is no space like this where I come from.”
He laughs. “Yeah, it’s something I tried really hard to get used to while I was back there. But it was still never the same.”
“This is gorgeous, Noah. I mean absolutely stunning. Why would you ever try and get used to something that just didn’t suit you? I mean this … this is you. I see it, you’re where you belong. Why would you stay where…”
I trail off not wanting to complete my rambling, already knowing the answer to my stupid question.
Noah’s hands grip the steering wheel a little tighter.
Silence fills the cab of the truck, but unlike the peaceful silence a few minutes earlier, this one is built on tension. A tension that grows as we travel further along.
As the sun reaches its settling spot, Noah turns the truck down a gravel road.
Stuck between trying to find the words to say, and almost letting them escape my lips, I sit in his truck growing fidgety from needing to walk off the steam that has been building in our budding anxiety the last few minutes.
Finally coming to a stop at a clearing overlooking the rolling hills below us, Noah puts his truck in park.
Trying not to sound shallow, I say, “You sure do like parking to watch the sunset, don’t you?”
Irritated, Noah reaches for his door handle and says, “Yeah, something you West Coasters wouldn’t know shit about.”
He jumps out of the cab of the truck and walks off toward the view in front of us. I sit for a moment, hatred rages inside of me. As it calms, a need to understand him better takes over. I am out of the truck and walking toward him before I can tell myself to stand down.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I yell. He turns quickly around to meet me head-on. There’s a fire in his eyes that can only mean one thing, we are about to finally have this out. I for one, couldn’t be happier.
“Why’d you come here, Eva? What? Did your dream to run off to L.A. not work out as you planned?”
“I didn’t go to L.A. asshole,” I scream throwing my hands up in the air. “Damnit! I didn’t go. I called them and told them thank you, but no thank you. Something you would have known if you stuck around longer than five damn minutes before running off.”
His eyes widen. “You didn’t go?” he asks, shaking his head like he is trying to shake away the truth. “I don’t believe it.”
Feeling defeated, I search my mind for anything to say that could make him believe me.
Before I can say a word, Noah whispers, “I heard you. I heard you talking to Gwen in the hospital. You said we couldn’t work. You said it was time to let go, that nothing and no one could make you change your mind.”
Shocked, I try to rewind time and put together the pieces of what he is saying. I thought he didn’t come to the hospital?
“You heard me?” I ask frustrated. “You heard…”
The conversation in question comes flooding back to me. I walk a few steps toward him and see him stiffen as I get closer. A look of fear settles in his eyes. Fear of what? Fear of what I am about to say? Fear of me getting to close? Fear of letting himself go?
“What you heard,” I begin, hoping he hears every word.
“What you heard, Noah, was me telling Gwen I couldn’t make L.A.
work. That what I needed, I already found.
In you. That L.A. wouldn’t be the same. That my world was forever changed.
What you heard was me finally realizing that my road didn’t lead there anymore. My road leads to you, Noah.”
His stance softens. But hesitance still hangs in his eyes. He’s still guarded.
“You said it was time to say Goodbye?” He questions, as he takes a step closer and I inch forward as well.
“Yeah, to a dream. A dream I thought I wanted. A dream I wrestled with and tried to make work my whole life. But then I realized, my greatest dream had already come along, and I didn’t have to work for it at all.”
He wraps his arms around my waist tightly. “You didn’t go?” He questions, as if he needs to hear it a third time.
I roll my eyes, which awards me a bigger smile from the man I love. “I didn’t go, Noah. Although, that still doesn’t stop the fact that you did. You left me all alone after my accident with only a note?” I question him, hurt, anger, sadness, laces my tone.
He rests his head against mine and smiles, “I did do that, huh?” he asks. I nod my head. “Well, I guess I have some making up to do.”
“How about some explaining?” I laugh.
“Words are cheap,” He says, leaning in for a kiss, but I pull away and don’t allow him the satisfaction. “I prefer to show you how sorry I am. How much I intend to grovel, on my knees. Preferably while you torture me in the most delicious of ways.”
I giggle, as he comes in for my neck. “Is that so, Mr. Stewart?”
A muffled response is all I get as my eyes roll and my toes curl when his lips kiss a path across my skin.
“I want you,” he whispers in my ear. “In my truck,” he says, licking and sucking his way back down my throat. Locking eyes with mine, he growls, “Right. Fucking. Now.”
“You’re almost really good at persuading,” I grin. He smiles, questioning my motive. “But you forgot one thing.” His eyebrows lift as his hands sink lower and he grabs my ass, pulling me forward so I can feel the bulge in his jeans.
“I don’t see you on your knees,” I tease.
Before I can yell for help, Noah has me raised over his shoulder and carries me quickly toward the bed of his truck. Laughing, I try to wiggle out of his hands which results in a hard spanking.
“Stop wiggling woman,” he growls. “Or don’t. Your choice. Just know, I fully intend to wear you out right now.”
He smiles setting me down at the back of his truck.
“I’ve been waiting all night to do this.
” Noah’s lips brush against mine once, and he whispers, “Get ready Ms. Monroe. One time in the back of my truck won’t be enough, darlin’.
I fully intend to leave you breathless, shaky, and begging for me to stop.
Screaming my name this time won’t save you, it will only drive me harder, faster.
Because darlin’, I need you, want you. You’re it for me, and damn it if I’m letting you out of this truck before you understand that. ”
Grabbing his shirt, I pull him close. Devouring his mouth, my hand drops to stroke the hard length of him that is now positioned between my thighs.
He lets out a carnal groan and I slightly nip his bottom lip.
“What was it you said, Mr. Stewart? Talk is cheap. It’s time you put your words where your mouth is and show me. ”
He smiles as his hand finds the warmth between my legs, “Keep it up, and I won’t stop fucking you til sun up.”