Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
M aya woke up the next day with a stony heart and an empty bed. The charity ball and family meeting with Noah had all gone as well as it could have, but as soon as she'd confided in him about her real life, everything had fallen apart. At first, he’d been understandably upset by all the lies, but he had given her time to explain and not stormed out. Staying the night and talking things through hadn’t left her feeling much better, and they’d fallen into an exhausted sleep where she’d tossed and turned all night. After all the protestations from her friends and family and trusting a man again, finally bringing a new person into her circle left her raw, exposed, and uncertain. Noah had listened for hours while she'd told him everything, and he'd explained more about his own childhood and upbringing. It had brought them closer together, and she'd fallen asleep in the safety of his arms, but in the cold light of day the bed next to her was empty and as she glanced around for a note and listened out to hear if he was downstairs in the kitchen, the room was deathly quiet .
She pulled the duvet cover off and shivered, even though it was another gloriously bright day. Summer was almost over now and the colder nights were setting in, but there was still sunshine and blue skies to be found and today was one of those days. The brilliant blue made her eyes hurt, and she squinted as she peeked out of the windows around her thick white velvet bedroom curtains. Her eyes darted around in search of Noah, but she didn't know why, as it wasn't as if he'd be strolling beside the river with a coffee. He couldn't do that without being mobbed by fans, which was grating on her nerves a little and was another reason she’d shunned the limelight.
Had she done the right thing in confiding in him? She wondered. Maybe she should have discussed it with Matt and Leah, or her family, first, but she was a woman in love and had felt the time had come. She was fed up of the deceit and Noah had been right to be upset, but then he was the one who had wanted to lie to everyone about dating each other in the first place! Maya had hoped that Noah might be excited or impressed, but certain members of the press hounded him and he didn't want that for her when they found out, if they ever did.
‘I understand why you hid your identity from everyone else,’ Noah had said the night before with hurt in his voice. ‘But it leads me to believe that you don’t trust me, because you waited until now to let me know about your family and your business.’
‘I know. I’m sorry,’ she’d replied. ‘Hiding my business has become ingrained this year and Blake taught me not to trust anyone outside of my family.’
‘I’m not Blake,’ he ground out and gone to get them both a glass of water from the kitchen. That should have reassured her, she guessed, as Blake would only have considered himself, but she wasn't used to letting a man care for her because she'd never experienced it before. Where the hell was Noah?
She padded on the soft carpet over to her bedside table and checked her phone. There was no text from Noah, so she sighed and then scrolled down, which made her scowl. Tabitha had messaged her, asking to meet and saying that she only had an hour that day to do it, typical dictator style. Maya fleetingly thought that perhaps she'd leave her alone for good if they met, but she wasn’t changing her plans for anyone. She’d been lax in her drawing and painting time recently and needed to get back onto Bertha and create some new designs. Quickly sending a text to Tabitha, Maya said she'd meet her but that Tabitha would have to join the steamboat cruise, then cursed as she clearly hadn’t thought that through because it meant being stuck on a boat for an hour with Tabitha and the only way to get rid of her would be to throw her overboard. She shook off the annoyance because she finally had a good man in her life and if she'd learnt anything from last night; it was that he put her first – even if he’d left without saying goodbye or where he was going. She gulped as a knot of fear hit her stomach. Tabitha couldn't hurt them now…
Maya wrote a text to ask Noah where he was and then paused in indecision before deleting it. Noah deserved her trust. If he’d gone out, then it was probably a last-minute work call or a meeting he’d forgotten to mention. She'd shared her biggest secret with him, as well as her heart, and was taking a colossal risk.
She hastily threw on some washed out jeans and a fitted t-shirt with gold, silver and tones of blue zig-zagging across it at all angles. After putting her art supplies in her tote bag, wondering if she’d get a chance to use them that day, she saw a reply to her text ping back and Tabitha agree to board Bertha . If she got there a while before the ship departed from the dock, then maybe they would have a quick conversation and Maya could enjoy the journey in peace. What on earth could be so important she couldn’t fathom, but maybe Maya could jump off at the racecourse and grab a drink and jump back on Bertha when she returned with the next set of guests. That way her time with Tabitha was limited to twenty minutes maximum, she reasoned.
She called Leah and waited for her to pick up. ‘Have you recovered from last night?’ she teased immediately, and Maya’s mood finally lifted. Leah always could make Maya smile, even when she was being pushy.
‘It didn’t end as well as I’d have liked,’ Maya admitted solemnly.
‘What happened?’ Maya hated the alarm in her friends voice, but she really needed someone to confide in right now.
‘I told Noah about it being a family party. He took that pretty well considering…’
‘Well what then?’ asked Leah, never one to have much patience when waiting for information about Maya’s love life.
‘I decided the time was right to let him into my studio and showed him some of my designs.’ Maya heard Leah gasp and her heart sank. ‘Did I do the wrong thing?’
‘No… you definitely did the right thing,’ comforted her friend. ‘Matt and I are the biggest supporters of how you’ve built your brand up, because your crazy idea worked, but he agrees with me that you will have to trust others with it from time to time.’
‘I know,’ said Maya, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose.
‘How did Noah take it?’ asked Leah and Maya could imagine her twirling her long red hair around her fingers, as she did this when she was nervous and she’d already picked up on Maya’s tone.
‘He said I hadn’t trusted him and then he was gone when I woke up this morning,’ Maya dipped her eyes and closed them tight, refusing to let tears flow.
‘Maybe he left you a message? Have you looked?’
‘Of course I’ve looked. He’s never left without kissing me goodbye before.’
‘Maybe he didn’t want to wake you?’ soothed Leah. ‘Noah’s one of the good guys,’ she assured, but even she didn’t sound as convinced as she usually was. ‘Let’s meet up later for a debrief and we can dissect your conversation and hunt him down if he even thinks of letting you down,’ said Leah with steel in her voice that made Maya giggle at last.
‘I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation,’ she responded, biting her lip and hoping that was true. Work needed to take precedent that day and she’d just remembered that she’d said Tabitha could join her on a cruise, so she promised Leah that she’d meet her later and closed the front door behind her as she went to find out what Tabitha wanted from her now.