Chapter 22
N OAH ’ S FIVE - BEDROOM , WOOD - BEAMED MOUNTAIN house was located on a gated five-acre property in Snowmass Village, a town fifteen minutes outside Aspen.
The house had an indoor pool and diving board, an extravagant home theater complete with a popcorn machine, and three separate decks, each with a perfect view of the snowcapped Elk Mountain range.
Inside every room were several floor-to-ceiling windows from which you could see even more of the mountains, somehow.
Avery couldn’t believe how many windows there were, with the sun pouring into each one and casting beams of rainbow light onto the shiny hardwood floor.
The sheer number of windows seemed to taunt her, reminding her how untouchable Noah was.
“This place is unreal,” Morgan said, her eyes misty with awe.
She’d spent the first ten minutes of their arrival sitting on the cream couches on the front porch under the stone archway, staring off into the distance.
Now she stood in the living room with the rest of the group as they admired the elaborate chandeliers hanging from the sky-high ceiling and the massive fireplace crackling across a couch draped in thick chenille blankets.
Avery kept her expression neutral. She didn’t want to give Noah any more satisfaction than he was already getting.
“You’re making me look so bad, Noah,” Charlie said with a laugh as he rolled his luggage up against the wall. “Now I’ve gotta get one of these for Morgan.”
“What’s with all the security cameras?” Parker asked, nodding toward a camera mounted in the corner of the foyer.
“Can’t be too careful,” Noah said. “This place was a multimillion-dollar investment. I’ve only had it for a couple of months. And I live too far away to keep an eye on it in person.”
“There’s one in literally every room,” Viraj called out from the kitchen. “You trying to spy on us?”
Noah gave a half-hearted, tight-lipped laugh, the kind that indicated he was not amused. Avery felt sick. Did this mean there were cameras everywhere, even in the bedrooms? She suspected Noah did lots of nonconsensual spying on women, if so.
“Hilarious,” he said, deadpan. “They’re mainly down here, and then upstairs in the hallway only. You guys are welcome to the footage anytime.”
“Hey, where’s Blair?” Emma asked, looking around.
“Her plane was delayed.” Noah rubbed his hands together excitedly, his mood switching like a light. “Okay, gang! We’ve got a dinner reservation at Venga Venga! Let’s head out!”
Avery scoffed . Gang? What did he think he was, a fucking camp counselor?
After a twenty-minute Uber ride, they arrived at the restaurant, where Noah didn’t even need to tell the hostess his name for her to know who he was and that he’d made a reservation.
It reminded Avery that she’d made no reservations this weekend, for anywhere, and had never called Noah back about any of the plans.
She could barely grapple with the reality of spending an entire weekend in his house, let alone contribute to planning said weekend.
Another part of her believed that if she didn’t call him back, she could convince herself this weekend wasn’t happening.
But watching Noah give a breezy, confident hello to the restaurant owners like he was the town mayor smacked the reality of it all across Avery’s face: She was here and this was happening.
She was about to spend the weekend at her rapist’s house.
“That car ride was gorgeous,” Morgan swooned as they sat down at their table. “I’ve never seen so many mountains in my life.”
“Wait until you see the views on the hike tomorrow,” Noah said with a smile. “You’ll lose your mind.”
Morgan loaded guacamole on a chip. “I looked it up! It looks so beautiful.”
Avery turned to Morgan. “Did it say the hike was difficult?” Avery watched Noah give a waiter a friendly pat on the back and enthusiastically shake his hand. She could not be more disgusted by the whole display. “I’m severely out of shape.”
“The website said moderate,” Morgan replied.
“No, don’t worry, it’ll be easy,” Noah added as the waiter left.
Avery scowled at him. She hadn’t asked for his input, but of course he was giving it anyway. Of course he would only care about himself and be oblivious to what Avery wanted.
“Great,” she said flatly.
“Yeah, it’s the least strenuous hike that also offers the best views.” Noah put his arm around Blair, who’d taken a cab from the airport and met them at the restaurant. “Blair can vouch for me. She helped me choose the best one.”
Blair replied by shifting her eyes in his direction and saying nothing, then leaning away from him and sipping her margarita.
Avery raised an eyebrow. That was odd.
Noah unwrapped his arm from around Blair’s shoulders and took a sip of his beer. Blair still didn’t look at him. Avery removed a taquito from a platter and bit it in half, observing Noah and Blair from across the table.
“I’m pumped to work out outside in the fresh air,” Charlie said. “I hate the gym. I need to breathe actual oxygen, not some old dude’s sweaty socks.”
“You’re welcome to use the gym at the house, too, if you want,” Noah said. “No old dudes.”
Charlie laughed in shock. “You have a private gym? Damn, that Shark Tank money’s doing you good.”
Pride oozed from Noah like unidentified liquid from hot city garbage. “I don’t want to share too much yet, but.…” He dipped a chip in salsa and smiled. “Yeah. It’s pretty good.”
“I still can’t believe you got Mark Cuban to invest!” Morgan squealed.
“Believe it. You’ll see how my pitch went down when the episode airs this week.”
Everyone around the table murmured their excitement, but Avery was focused on Blair and the fact that she wasn’t reacting, which was incredibly out of character.
Normally she would’ve been the first one to brag about Noah’s appearance on Shark Tank .
But all she did was stare down at her plate and push her food around in silence.
Avery leaned over to whisper in Morgan’s ear. “Is Blair okay?”
“I think she and Noah are fighting,” Morgan whispered back.
Avery blinked. “Oh.”
“Well, cheers to you, man,” Charlie bellowed. He lifted his beer in Noah’s direction, and everyone else followed suit. “Congratulations on making a deal with a shark.”
“Hear, hear!” Viraj shouted.
Avery shot her eyes to the corner of the table, where Noah had started murmuring something in Blair’s ear.
Blair’s eyes bulged as her lips moved rapidly in response, her brows furrowed like she was pissed.
Avery couldn’t stop staring at the two of them, overwhelmed by her need to know what was going on.
She tapped Morgan on the shoulder. “Do you know what they’re fighting about?”
Morgan shrugged. “I’m not sure. She didn’t tell me. You know Blair, so prim about her business.”
Avery and Blair made eye contact for a beat before Blair went back to pushing around her food.
Back at the house later that night, Avery heard Blair washing up in the bathroom upstairs. Noah was in the bathroom, too, watching Blair dab eye cream under her eyes with her ring fingers. The door was cracked open. Avery pressed her body against the wall around the corner, listening hard.
“Can we talk?” Noah whispered.
“I’m not in the mood to talk,” Blair replied.
“Don’t ruin the weekend over this.”
“Go away.”
He sighed and left, leaving the door cracked open.
Avery watched him disappear into a bedroom before poking her head into the bathroom.
She winced at how much it smelled like Noah in here.
His grooming products, organized in the corner of the sink, released his scent like a carbon monoxide leak poisoning Avery’s lungs.
“Hey, Blair,” she said.
Blair glanced at Avery, then flicked her gaze back to the mirror. “Hey.” She rubbed lotion on her elbows, filling the room with the smell of coconut.
“You okay?” Avery spoke carefully, as kindly as she could. “Sorry, I just, um … the door was open.”
Blair twisted the cap on her lotion and put it back in her toiletry bag. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
She brushed past Avery and out the door.
Everyone woke up at the most ungodly hour the next morning for the hike. Avery pulled her matted hair into a low messy bun and threw on a pair of leggings and an oversized T-shirt. Charlie reacted to her trudging down the stairs all disheveled and exhausted with a good-natured laugh.
“ Someone’s happy to be alive,” he said.
Avery gave him a pained smile. She’d stayed awake all last night tossing and turning, trying to figure out what was going on between Blair and Noah.
She didn’t even know why she cared. Couples fought all the time, so it was probably nothing, and it wasn’t like she and Blair were friends anymore.
But she couldn’t forget about it. She had to know what was going on.
She’d understand whatever Blair was going through.
Avery knew more than anyone how awful Noah was.
It was certainly possible that Blair was in the wrong in their argument, because she was awful in her own right, but Avery hoped that wasn’t the case.
She hoped it was Noah who’d started it, giving her confirmation that he was the bad guy she’d finally admitted to herself that he was. Using the word.
“I’m not a morning person,” she replied. “Or an outdoors person.”
Morgan appeared beside Charlie in a matching white leggings and crop top set. Her shiny ponytail sticking out of her white baseball cap swung as she bent down to lace up her hiking boots.
“Oh, stop,” she said. “It’ll be fun!”
Noah jogged down the stairs in shorts and a muscle tank, with Blair sulking behind him. Noah put his hand out to her, but she refused him.
Avery narrowed her eyes.