Groaning, I slumped at my desk and glared at my phone. Too much time had probably passed. What if Noah still wanted nothing to do with me after I dragged my sorry carcass over there to apologize? Fear stabbed at me and I ignored it. Fucking Tucker and Antoine had been seeing him right along. I wanted to say it wasn’t fair. I’d done this to myself.Butit didn’t fucking feel fair. I looked at the studs that hadn’t even been built in with drywall yet and texted the fussy man in charge of that art gallery Noah had liked. I told the man to send every single Truth Duke painting he had to Noah’s address—today. No screwing around. No expense too much.
I spent the next two hours waiting for my phone to ring, but it didn’t. The gallery confirmed the deliveries had been made.
Huffing, I went back to the drawing board. I contacted Winter Janvier and cleaned out his entire collection. All of it. The delivery was confirmed by four o’clock. My fucking phone didn’t ring. I glared at it.
Fine, I’d fucked up a lot. Mama always said the bigger the problem, the bigger the effort needed to fix it. I huffed and called up my car guy. Noah liked that Charger of his, so he’d probably enjoy a brand-new one to go with it, right?
At six o’clock the car was confirmed delivered and my phone still didn’t ring. I frowned at it. The sounds of men working in the building were done and wouldn’t start again until Monday morning. I was alone at the tippy top of this hollow tower, and all I fucking wanted was for the phone to ring so I didn’t feel like the last man on earth.
By eight I was done waiting for the phone call that clearly wouldn’t happen, and I left work to try to track down Noah’s apartment. I drove slowly through the purpling dusk and put all the windows down to give myself time to clear my head.
It didn’t work.
When I found the apartment building I wasn’t very happy. He deserved better. Noah owned a fully functioning business now, thanks to me, and he should be getting deposits in his bank account every two weeks. He owned a house on Vert Island. He could live somewhere nicer. But... it was also very much Noah that he’d stuck with a small apartment, and that was sweet, too. I parked at the first empty spot I found in the lot and passed the new Charger on the way to the entrance. I sighed at the paintings stacked in back. There were white paper bags piled inside on the front seat and on the floor. I was no expert, but I didn’t think heat would be good for any of those items, and they might be destroyed in the sun tomorrow—not that I gave a shit, but normally Noah would. Had I ruined an artist for him? Didn’t he like the jewelry?
Worry unlike anything I’d felt since the first time I left the farm plagued me as I went inside and talked to the doorman. He called upstairs, and I wanted to ask him not to, but he wouldn’t let me go in the elevator without getting the okay from Noah. Finally the man waved me ahead and I went up to the sixth floor. When the elevator door opened, Noah was standing a bit down the hallway to my right, in front of a cracked-open door.
As I walked toward him, I took in his sharp cheekbones and dark eyelashes and beautiful lips. He still looked like he would fit just right in my arms, the way I knew he did, and I loved how the blue shorts he wore clung to his thighs. His white T-shirt made me want to peel it off him to get at the skin underneath. But... my heart squeezed at the hurt in his eyes when his gaze met mine.
I stopped in front of him and rubbed my clammy hands on my pants.
Noah’s lips thinned and he crossed his arms like I was a stallion coming to kick him over—and I hated it. Nothing about this was right. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted his lips under mine. I wanted his quiet questions about my day and the actual interest he had in the answers. Lots of people asked, not many listened like he did.
“I hate you being gone.”
His dark brows furrowed. “You were mean to me. You scared me. You said awful things.”
“Sure. There’s probably no way to fix all that.” I fiddled with my wedding ring. His was gone, but he still wore the diamond bracelet I’d gotten him. That had to mean something, maybe? “I don’t know any good reason you should give me a chance. I hate that you’re not at home. I liked having you around and spending time with you and having reasons to think about vacations.” My eyes burned and I sucked in a deep breath.
“Then why were you so....” He gestured vaguely with one hand, and my vision got blurry with tears that made me feel like I was losing control.
“You wanted to leave me.” I rubbed my chest and glanced down at the carpet separating us.
“I never told you I wanted to leave you!”
“You brought up the divorce.”
His mouth dropped open, and I felt silly when he pointed at me, the gems on his bracelet winking with the movement. “You arranged it and pushed everything too fast, like you always do. You push and push.”
“Yeah, I didn’t know what to say. I... the day you signed the paperwork, I wanted to talk to you.”
Noah stumbled back a step and pushed open the door to his apartment so he had one foot inside. My heart almost stopped. He was right here, and if I messed up he could go inside and lock the door. I wouldn’t have any more time to see him.
“If you wanted to talk to me, why didn’t you?”
“What could I say?” I was getting louder and knew that wasn’t all right, but I had trouble reining myself in. “Other than I want you with me, what the hell did I have to say to you that mattered? What would’ve happened?”
“If you’d told methatand apologized for being rude, demeaning, and nasty all day long, maybe you would have found out,” Noah said, cold as ever.
This train wreck in the making wasn’t what I wanted, either. I sucked in a breath, and my face felt too hot. “I’m sorry.”
“Say it again,” he demanded.
“I’m sorry.” I stepped forward and grabbed his shoulders. There was a low growl from off to the side of the door, and I blinked at Noah, then glanced that direction. He laughed and swung the door open.
A white dog with black spots sat there, about half the size of a horse, and I had to laugh. “Is it yours?” My chest squeezed. I loved dogs and I’d missed having one, but I didn’t have the time to take care of an animal the right way. His hurt eye had my heart turning over. Noah had saved him like Mama saved Buster.
“Yeah.” Noah smiled at the animal.
