AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How could I miss fireworks and marshmallows with my bestest girls?”
“It’s the only time of year I make rum balls. You had a 103 degree fever one summer and still made sure you showed up. Oh! That guy you were dating then, what was his name? The one before Noah?”
“Charles.”
“Yes! He snuck off with an entire stack of boxed cookies that were for a party order too!” Back in the early beginnings of their startup when Mia could only bake in smaller batches and things took twice as long. Even with an infant on her hip.
Lexi laughed at the memory. “Oh fuck, I had forgot about that. We were dipping peanut butter balls three hours before I had to deliver.”
“We forgot the almonds in half of them. It was a fucking disaster,” Mia agreed, laughing. “Speaking of disasters that will soon be my backyard . Zander insists on perfecting his cannonball flip and showing it off to Noah at the party.”
At the mention of his name, Lexi averted her eyes and studied the doodles on the pad Mia had on the counter. Her time of dodging was done.
Lexi slumped into her seat and struggled to put words together. “I think Noah…” She couldn’t finish her thought; it would lead to a deep discussion she wasn’t ready for yet, one that would make her emotions more real. “I think he wants me to move in,” Lexi finally continued.
“You already stay there half the time, if you’re not with me or at work, you're usually with him. That means two sets of bills.”
“Mia, why would he want me around?”
“Because he loves you, even when you're being difficult.”
“He's like a walking Hozier song. Every little thing he does… It's enough to make me swoon. But how can I be enough?”
“Why wouldn't you be? ”
Beneath the brave and bold attitude was a girl who never fully healed. Losing her parents at nineteen , the same night her own life was nearly taken was a scar that furrowed deep into her core, past any physical ones she hid behind her tattoos. “I don’t know if I will ever be ready for that kind of commitment.”
“Don’t shut him out just yet. Give yourself a chance.”
Lexi pressed her lips together in a thin line and let out a deep sigh. She knew Mia was right. Noah had been patient with her from the very beginning. Even when she tried to push him away, he always found a way to break through her walls. He had become a constant presence in her life, someone she couldn't imagin e living without but she still didn’t know how she was suppose to be the best thing for him. She considered herself haunted, beyond any chance of a prayer.
Four
Pulling out of the print shop parking lot with the corrected set of prints in the seat at her side, Lexi hit the button on her phone, connecting it to the car and letting her voice messages play, deleting and saving as needed with the connected controls on the wheel.
Three were various vendors confirming her appointments with the bride she was working with. There were two that were twelve seconds of dead air and a rough slam as it disconnected; she deleted them without another thought.
The final message was from Noah, and his voice echoed the interior as she pulled into the parking spot at the back door of Ella’s for her last-minute meet-up to go over the finalized menu.
‘ Good morning, beautiful. Don’t forget our date today, the colors came in that we’ve been waiting on. See you at the shop at 11, sweet pea. Oh, and I have lunch handled, so make sure that sexy ass of yours hurries up. I miss you.’
Lexi picked up her phone from the console, hitting replay on his message, making sure she’d heard him correctly.
It had been three days since their date and the longest they’d gone without real communication in the two years they’d been dating. Including when either of them went out of town for business.
To his credit, even in the forced silence, he never wavered in his ‘good morning’ and ‘good night’ messages. She’d left those unanswered as well.
L - I got your message. Are you serious?
N - Yes, you’d know that if you answered when I called. I was giving you the room you need.
L - What do you mean by that?
N - I pushed a limit and you needed a second to find your footing again.
The nerve he had of understanding her…
Bubbles danced in their chat, matching the ones in her belly, and he replied before she could gather the words to respond.
