Page 178 of I Never Stopped Loving You

I have to think about that for a moment. I’m not big on reality TV. I love shows like Supernatural and Haunting of Hill House, but I think some of those episodes are like an hour long.

“Have you seen Friends?” I finally ask.

“Are you kidding me? I think I’ve seen that series at least fifteen times.”

“Fifteen?” I jokingly act shocked. “Welp, you’ve got my eleven times beat.”

“You’ve watched it eleven times?”

“I’m currently on my twelfth run through the series.”

“Well, that’s another thing we have in common,” she says as she starts cracking eggs into a bowl.

“I have a feeling there will be many more things that we have in common, Little Rabbit.”

Many more things.

CHAPTER 78

NOAH

OCTOBER FLASHBACK

Ilet myself soak in the scalding hot water for hours until it turned ice cold last night. I felt numb. Not only was I still no closer to finding Willow, but I also didn’t satiate my demons. The kill was over too fast, and I couldn’t even say it was by my own hands because the fucker impaled himself on my knife. He took that from me. He didn’t suffer for what he did, not like he should have.

I didn’t sleep, only laid in bed staring at the ceiling, until I couldn’t sit still any longer. I finally rolled out of bed shortly after noon. My phone's been going off for hours. Jeremy, my dad, and a few clients have been texting me nonstop, but I couldn’t even muster up the energy to read their texts, let alone text them back. It’s Sunday. They can wait.

The sound of tires skidding on the gravel causes me to lift my head off the kitchen island. Glancing at the clock above the stove, I realize I’ve been sitting here for over an hour staring into the same cup of coffee I made when I first came downstairs.

“Goddamnit! You better not be dead, motherfucker!”

I can hear the sound of my cousin barreling through the front door cursing me as he comes inside.

“In here,” I yell before laying my head back down onto the countertop.

“What the fuck, Noah? Do you not understand how a fucking cell phone works? When it rings, you answer it. If it lets out that fucking annoying chirp sound, you pick it up and type a goddamn response,” he snaps as he walks around the other side of the island to stare at me.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry?” he mimics. “That’s all you have to say?”

“Yeah.”

“Noah, what the fuck happened last night? You look like shit. It’s nearly two in the afternoon…”

“I know.”

“Why weren’t you answering your phone? Your father called me and cussed me out thinking I was with you.”

I glance around the kitchen searching for the damn phone, but I must have left it upstairs.

“I don’t know where it is. It might be upstairs,” I finally answer, only lifting my head to take a sip of the ice-cold coffee then returning my head to the counter.

“Jesus Christ,” Jeremy mutters before taking off out of the kitchen.

I can hear his steps as he stomps up to the third floor where my bedroom is.

“What the fuck?!” he screams, and that’s when I remember the current condition of my bedroom and bathroom.