11. True
After spending the night staring idly at my computer screen, I slept until 11 the next morning and woke up to my phone ringing on the pillow beside me.
Having Noah’s voice be the first thing I heard when I was still on the cusp of slumber was unfair.
His deep but soft timbre had a hypnotic effect and made me sink deeper into my sheets. I was halfway back in dream land before he caught on.
“Red! Get up, ma. I’ll be home in ten minutes. Don’t make me pull a Greyson and walk in your house to get you.”
“He told you that?” Of course he told him that. Greyson was texting the group chat before he let himself in last night.
“Ten minutes, Red.” I could hear the smile in his voice before the line went dead.
“Did he just hang up on me?” I allowed myself a second to look at my screen before I kicked the covers off my body and stood up to get dressed.
While the rest of the furniture in this house was on its last leg, my grandfather—saint that he was—made sure I had a brand new mattress before I moved in and it was the stuff dreams were made of, even if it was small.
After pulling out a pair of leggings, a sweatshirt and my favorite vest, I hopped in the shower and hopped back out five minutes later.
As soon as I rolled on my deodorant, I heard Noah’s truck rolling over the gravel outside. “Shit.”
I spent the next two minutes brushing my teeth, getting dressed and shoving my feet into the sneakers by my door.
I grabbed the first notebook I saw, my purse and makeup and rushed out the door.
When I climbed into the passenger seat of the Denali, Noah smirked at me.
“You know I’m not in a real rush, right?” He waited until my seatbelt was secure before putting the truck back in drive. “I mean, my boss ain’t gon’ do shit if I’m a little late from lunch.”
He looked at me with a smirk and his golds glinted in the sunlight streaming through the windshield.
Gold looked good on him. The only other jewelry he wore on the regular was a gold diamond, Cuban-link chain that drew my attention to his neck more than I wanted to admit.
The tattoos, the corded muscles in his neck, the way his hair perfectly framed his face and…
Nope .
Trying to steer my thoughts away from him, I swallowed and unzipped my make up bag while shooting him a sidelong glance.
“Greyson know you talk about him like this?”
My voice was teasing and I relaxed when Noah effortlessly matched my energy.
He gave me a lazy, one-shouldered shrug as he drove us back to the main road.
“You can tell him.”
I snickered, pulling my visor down and flipping the cover on the mirror up. I didn’t have enough time to do a full face, but tinted moisturizer, blush, mascara and a red lip would do. A red lip would always do.
“You gone love this shop. It’s never really busy when I pass by, but the lady who owns it is dope. Her name is Goldyn,” Noah shared as we passed the resort. I still hadn’t visited, but Noah promised to give me a tour whenever I wanted.
“Goldyn…” I echoed. That name sounded familiar, but I didn’t know why.
We rode in companionable silence, giving me time to concentrate on not fucking up my face, but when I capped my lipstick, I squinted my eyes and asked Noah a question I’d wanted to ask since I met him.
“What made you and Greyson decide to live together?”
I’d spent the last two weeks witnessing their dynamic, and the biggest takeaway I got was that they would both move heaven and hell for each other.
But they were both eligible bachelors, supposedly in their prime and never alluded to being on the market for anything other than what they had together.
Beside me, Noah brushed a hand over his jaw and spoke. “I went through the worst break up of my life and he was the only person I thought of. I drove to Bliss Peak without realizing that’s where I was going. My sister has lived here for years with her husband but I didn’t go to them, I went to Greyson and he never thought twice about it. He had just moved into the house so he could be close to the resort and showed me to the guest suite.” He released a weighted sigh I could feel in my gut before he went on. “I told him I needed a few weeks to get my shit together. It turned into two years. I don’t see myself going anywhere anytime soon.”
I smiled and zipped up my makeup bag. The bond I had misread as romantic the first time I met them was clearly only meant for the two of them to understand. From all the dinners we’d shared, I knew they met in grade school in Charlotte and went to college at King’s Town A&M together before going their separate ways to start their careers in different cities. Noah was bisexual and tended to be a serial monogamist in his twenties, but I’d learned next to nothing about Greyson’s past love life.
“I’m glad you had him to run to. Even subconsciously, you knew that.”
Noah nodded silently, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “I owe him everything but he would never even let me mention repaying him. That’s just the type of man he is.”
That was sweet. They were sweet. No wonder it was so easy for them to welcome me like I’d always been here because they spent their days taking care of each other and expecting nothing in return. It was just who they were.
“I’ve been thinking more on it lately though. Whenever he finds someone, I know I’ll have to leave so they can have their space.”
“How do you know you would have to leave?”
“Would you wanna be a newlywed living with your husband and his roommate?”
I giggled at how bluntly he delivered the question. And while I could see where he was coming from, the fact remained: they were more than roommates. And neither of them seemed in a rush to change that, so maybe he had nothing to worry about.
Silence fell on the truck and I embraced the peace, watching the passing scenery. More leaves were on the ground now and aside from the drop in temperature, the nearly barren landscape made it obvious that a new season had fully arrived.
“I got proposed to the night I left.” Noah’s voice startled me out of my reverie.
“What?”
He kept his eyes ahead but reframed his confession. “The night I broke up with my ex, he got down on one knee and proposed to me.”
“Oh…”
“We weren’t working. Hadn’t been working for months. It took me a while to realize what he was doing for all that time was abuse. I thought just because he hadn’t put his hands on me that I was just being sensitive. Later, my therapist told me it was emotional abuse, and abusers banked on their victims not knowing that.”
My nose burned as anger filled my veins. I wanted to hurt whoever had the audacity to hurt him. This man was too good for the bullshit he’d been dragged through.
“It made it harder to understand as abuse because I was used to the same shit from my father. I thought it was tough love.” He shook his head like he was trying to clear unwanted memories from his mind. Hearing his father had been his first abuser turned my anger into a simmering rage.
Noah was clueless to the roller coaster of emotions I was on and licked his lips.
“Anyway, that night my ex threw out every single thing he knew I wanted. Or used to want, at least. A ring. Talk about looking for a surrogate so we could have a baby. Putting a down payment on a house together.”
He slowed to a stop at a red light and cast me a cautious look. When I smiled encouragingly, he went on.
“It was everything I used to want with him, but by the time he wanted to give it to me, I didn’t give a fuck anymore. The thought of raising kids with him gave me a god damn panic attack. I didn’t want to make a child endure our toxic version of love.”
My heart shattered at the sudden chill in his voice. It was the darkest I’d ever heard his tone and told me everything I needed to know about the type of man his ex was.
An ache worked its way through my sternum, making the words I wanted to say taste bitter on my tongue.
“He didn’t deserve you.”
“I know.” A scoff filled the thick silence that followed. “Even though sometimes I wish I didn’t. I know it’s toxic, but I used to be a hopeless romantic. All I wanted was to be in love and have somebody who loved me just as hard, and I feel like I fucked up my only chance at that.”
“You didn’t fuck it up, you saved yourself. And that’s the hardest part.” There was a man or woman out there who would love him correctly and make him happy he’d left. I didn’t say it aloud because I knew how trite it sounded. Even still, I believed it with every fiber of my being. Noah deserved the softest, most secure love and one day he would believe it.
“That’s why Greyson’s so protective of you,” I murmured after a silent moment.
“Protective?” Noah chuckled and the lighthearted sound pushed away some of the anger I was feeling.
“Yes. Protective ,” I emphasized. “That man was ready to give me the cold shoulder and the third degree at the same time because he thought I was your new girlfriend.” Greyson may have had his own way of showing it, but he’d seen his best friend at his lowest and didn’t want him to go back to that.
That was love, in its simplest form. Wanting the best for someone. Sometimes even if they didn’t want the best for themselves.
Before I knew it, we were pulling up in front of a double storefront on Main Street with “Bakery and Bookshop” printed on the awning outside.
When I squinted, I could see Read the Room stamped on the door on the left and Sinful Bites on the right. “This place is cute,” I said with a smile.
“Call me if you need anything. I’ll be around.” He put the truck in park so it wouldn’t move when I climbed down.
I looked up at him from the street, wanting to say something to acknowledge the secrets he’d trusted me with, but he looked like he was already past it. His easy smile was back in place and his posture was casual.
“Bye, Noah. Thanks for the ride,” I said instead, hoping it conveyed even a fraction of what I felt.
He winked and my heart skipped a beat.
“Anytime, Red. I’ll be back for you.”