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“Can I try it?”
“No.”
“Come on. Can I. Can I Can I!” I’m suddenly a five-year-old, bouncing on the balls of my feet.
Two big hands wrap around my waist and plant me astride the bull as if I weigh nothing. I squeak and laugh. Noah unleashes a broad smile that lights up his entire face and my female organs wake up, jump up and down, and squeal.
“It’s not plugged in yet.”
“Dream killer.” I pout and he smiles back and our eyes hold. And in the silence, the comfortable ease turns electric.
Snap, crackle, pop.
He’s always been handsome but now he’s breathtaking. A flush crawls up my neck and sweat beads on my forehead and it terrifies me that he may notice.
He has a girlfriend, dumbass!
I clear my throat and make a conscious effort to get back on track. “I found the bank records of the loan my grandfather took out.” His smile slowly falls as he runs a hand over the black leather of his new toy. It grazes my leg and moves away. “He was in serious debt when you took over.”
When he still doesn’t respond, I start to get a little annoyed. “He took these loans out for me, didn’t he? To pay for my travel expenses…when I was competing as a junior. Why didn’t he say anything? I would’ve paid him back.”
He looks at me then. “Too damn proud…it’s okay. We took care of it.”
“You took care of it. The bank would’ve foreclosed on the building if you didn’t take over and pay it off.”
Noah turns to face me, leaning a hip against the bull. So close I can smell him, feel his body heat.
“That means I don’t own half this club…it means it’s yours because you own the debt my grandfather made on my behalf.”
“This club is half yours.”
“I’m going to tell Tim. The loan means I sold my share to you a long time ago.”
His hand finds my thigh and squeezes. His eyes drift down to where we touch. It happens automatically, I reach out and stroke his hair. So soft…like silk…exactly as I remember. His eyes flutter shut. His lashes are stark, black spikes resting against his tan cheekbones.
This is so complicated. I don’t know what to do. It feels like we’re fighting a losing battle, that it’s only a matter of time before we start doing stupid shit we’ll both regret.
“Don’t…leave it be.” He looks up one last time before walking away.
Chapter Seventeen
Maren
The day of Noah’s car accident is preserved in my mind as if it happened yesterday. Each detail sharp, and every one marked by a corresponding emotion. Shock, fear, regret, pain, sympathy…love. Steadfast and endless.
It was a little past 10 p.m. when the call came in on the house phone. I’d spoken to Noah earlier in the day and he’d told me that he was going to the city with Doctor and Mrs. Callahan for dinner. Crystal wasn’t joining them, he’d told me. Despite the impression he’d given me that their relationship was strained, they were still a couple.
“Maren.” I instinctively knew something was wrong. Dane calling my house was the first indication, his voice being serious was the next.
“What’s wrong?”
“Noah was in an accident…car that hit them ran a red light. Noah was driving.”
The world ended with one simple sentence. For a split second the fear that Noah was not okay made the world end for me.
“Where is he?” My voice shook, my heart hammering hard enough to physically hurt.
“His parents––” Dane’s voice broke and there was a long period of silence. “They didn’t make it.”
“Where is he!”
“He’s at Mercy Hospital. He has a concussion and bruised kidneys. They’re checking for internal bleeding but so far they haven’t found anything.”
Annabelle was home. She was in between surgeries and required a lot of care. My parents were still at the stage where they never left her side if they could help it, too paranoid that something would happen in their absence.
I’d gotten my driver’s license by the time I was sixteen and a half. So when the call came in I immediately asked my father if I could take his car. He was worried I was too emotional to drive, which was absolutely true, and called my grandfather to come get me.
The car wasn’t even at a full stop when I jumped out and ran for the ER doors. “Doggone it!” my grandfather yelled after me. “You want to wind up in the ER too!”
They’d already moved him into a room. I reached his floor with the weight of the world sitting over my heart. How do you comfort someone you love more than the next breath of air when he’s hurting? How do you express sympathy to someone who’s lost the only family he had? The task seemed impossible at the time. Walking into Noah’s hospital room was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.
