Page 54 of Before We Break

He glances at me, then back to Quinn. “Friend. I’m not opposed to a helping hand every now and then.” Then he fucking smirks, and my panties disintegrate.

If I’m not mistaken, we’re both thinking about what happened last night.

“Not that I need it,” he adds in a sultry tone that prickles against my skin.

The man is sex on a stick, and I want to take a bite out of him.

“Anyway…” The proximity is doing unholy things to my body, so I step away, putting several feet of distance, a coffee table, and an accent chair between us. “Did you need something?”

“Yes. I was hoping I could borrow Lexi tonight. I have to get back to work, and I need someone to watch Auggie. Emma got a last-minute booking, and she had to cancel on me.”

“Lex!” I holler down the hallway.

She pops out of her room with a Twizzler hanging out of her mouth and her gaze trained on her phone. “Yeah?”

“Are you busy tonight?”

“No.” She finally looks up and yanks the candy out of her mouth. “Hey, Noah.”

“Hey kid. Wanna make some easy money?”

She shrugs. “Sure. What do you need?”

“Mind babysitting Auggie for me tonight? I should be off around one. He’ll be asleep for most of it, so you can just watch TV or do homework or whatever.”

The three of us women lock eyes, pause, then burst into raucous laughter.

“You must be new here,” Callie says. “You don’t give teen girls carte blanche to ‘do whatever.’”

I point two fingers at my eyes, then direct them at Lexi. “No boys. That’s my one rule. I’ll know if you break it.”

I’ve never had to worry about much with her. She’s a theatre kid through and through. Her world revolves around it. Drugs, drinking, and sex have never been a concern, but I’d be naive to think it’s out of the realm of possibility that she might want to experiment. I sure did. It worked out for the best—it gave me Lexi—but it was a hard road to follow once I started down it.

“Give me ten minutes? I just need to grab a few things.”

Noah nods. “Meet us at my place, and I’ll show you where everything is.” He lifts his hand in a dismissive wave. “Ladies. It’s been… something.”

When the door closes behind him, I grab the pillow off the chair in front of me and toss it at Quinn’s head.

“Hey! What was that for?”

“Sex toys! You little menace.”

I pad into the kitchen wearing my favorite pink pajamas, towel drying my hair.

Refill my water bottle—check.

Take my meds—check.

Turn off the lights—check.

As I’m ticking off the last item on my imaginary nighttime routine, voices drift from the other side of the apartment door. At first, I assume it’s Noah checking on Auggie, but then I realize the voice sounds all wrong. That’s definitely not Noah, which means…

I pull open the door and plant my hands on my hips as Lexi’s attention shifts from Hayden to me. She’s standing in the doorway to Noah’s apartment, wide-eyed and guilty as fuck.

“You had one job,” I tell her.

Hayden turns, face ashen. He lifts his hand in a tentative wave. “Hi Miss… Mrs. Lexi’s mom.”