“Noah,” I say softly, squeezing his hand. “Can you tell me what happened? With Rick?”
Noah takes a shaky breath, then another.
“He—” His voice breaks, and he swallows hard before trying again. “He said he still loves me.” He sounds like he still can’t believe it. “That he made a huge mistake. That he wants me back.”
There it is. The confirmation of what I’ve been dreading since that first text message. My chest feels hollow, but I keep my face neutral, even though I’m crumbling inside.
“He said he won’t marry Cassidy,” Noah continues, his words coming faster now. “Said he’ll come out to his parents, to everyone. And that he’ll do anything if I give him another chance.”
Another sob escapes him, his shoulders shaking.
“Three years I waited for him to say those words. Three years of hiding, of being his secret. And now he finally says it, and I just—”
He breaks off, fresh tears spilling down his cheeks.
I grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turn white, trying to process what I’m hearing.
This is exactly what Noah wanted, isn’t it? Rick jealous, Rick crawling back, Rick willing to finally acknowledge their relationship publicly. This was the whole point of our fake relationship—to make Rick realize what he lost.
And it worked.
It worked fucking perfectly.
So why is Noah falling apart?
“Noah,” I say, my voice sounding strange and distant to my own ears. “If that’s what you wanted…”
I can’t finish the sentence. Can’t bring myself to give him permission to go back to Rick, to end whatever this thing between us has become.
But I have to know.
Have to hear him say it.
I swallow hard, glancing over at him. “Why are you crying?” I ask instead, reaching out to wipe a tear from his cheek.My touch is gentle, tender, even as my heart is being shredded inside my chest. “If Rick is giving you what you wanted…”
Noah shakes his head frantically. “You don’t understand,” he says, his breathing ragged. “There’s more. He—he dropped to his knees, Connor. Right there on the beach. He told me he loved me and begged me to marry him.”
I blink, my whole body going still.
Marry him?
Jesus.
The idea of Noah marrying not just that asshole, but anyone at all, makes me sick.
Fuck. What the hell do I do?
“And then,” Noah continues, “Cassidy showed up. She’d been looking for Rick, and she found us there, with him on his knees in front of me.”
“Jesus,” I breathe.
This is getting worse by the second.
“She heard everything,” Noah says, his voice breaking. “She just stood there, staring at us, and then Rick—he told her, Connor. That he’s gay, that he loves me, that he can’t marry her. He just…said it all. Right there. And she started crying and ran off into the woods, and Rick went after her to try to calm her down.”
He draws a shaky breath.
“That’s why I was gone so long. I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat on the beach, trying to process it all, and then Rick and Cassidy came back and he and I talked more, and I just—”
