Then, he called backup.
When the phone rang a second time, Noah answered.
“Hey, Alex. You good?” Noah Jackson asked, from across the country. “If you’re looking for the boss, she caught a flight back. She checked in, and she’s good.”
That wasn’t it.
This was a personal mess.
So, Alex kept his voice down.
“I think I fucked up,” he said, knowing this wouldn’t be the first time he’d said those words to his best friend.
He was a serial offender.
As soon as Noah heard that, he expected the worst.
Oh, boy.
He looked over at his husband, and Lawless just shook his head like he wanted nothing to do with this.
Yep.
It was clear that Noah was handling this one alone. Lawless knew this was a bestie emergency, and the naked games they were going to play while locked down in their house was going to have to wait.
“What happened?” he asked.
Alex told him everything, and how he’d slept alone to buy rings to propose to Corbin when he could. Then, he told him how the man picked up on it and clocked it as distance, not planning a good surprise.
Noah considered it, and honestly, out of all of the times that Alex had called him when he’d screwed up, this was absolutely the best kind of mess.
No one was in jail.
No one was being held at gunpoint.
Oh, and no one was crying.
Noah would call this a victory that his bestie was on the way to finding his forever person.
“What do I do?” he whispered. “It’s the opposite. I’m stupid in love, and I want to get married. If we could leave lockdown, I’d drag his ass to the judge. He’s been hinting all week, but I’ve had to play it cool so I could surprise him. Now, I think I just lost him.”
There was only one solution.
“You’re going to have to just tell him,” he said. “He’s been hurt before and has trust issues. In fact, so have you. Forget surprising him. Just go show him what you’ve done, make up, and have some really fantastic sex. This is minor. It’s just miscommunication.”
Alex was worried.
He was the king of miscommunication.
“I’m scared, No. When I say he’s perfect, he makes Lawless look flawed. He made me French toast, and drew a heart on it with whipped cream. He made me the perfect cup of coffee, and carried it into the room I slept in. He’s always protecting me, and trying to woo me. I’m stupid over him.”
Noah was happy for his friend, if he managed to figure this out.
“You can’t‘plan’things if your strategy is to be sneaky, Alex. You’re making him paranoid. You’re both Feds, and he was a homicide cop. He’s smelling a lie a mile away.”
Well, yeah, clearly.
Noah was to the point.
