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Norah quickly hugged Joel and Brooks and nodded to him. Colter made no move to get up and she seemed relieved by that. “We saved you a seat,” Savannah said, nodding to the only empty seat at the table which happened to be right next to him. Shit, they had planned this all along, and wanting to kill his friends right now was going to have to be put on the back burner so he could concentrate on what he needed to say to Norah.
He expected her to give them some pushback, but Norah walked around the table and took the seat next to him. He could tell that she seemed a bit nervous. Her hand shook as she picked up the water glass to take a sip. He wanted to lean in to tell her that she was going to be okay, but that wasn’t his place anymore.
“Colter,” she breathed as she put her water glass back onto the table. “How have you been?”
“Um, I’d say that I’ve been great, but that would be a lie. How about you?” he asked.
She gave him a sideways glance and sighed. “About the same as you,” she admitted. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved to hear that she was as miserable as him or sad by her admission.
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered. The other couples at the table were pretending to be talking, but he could tell that they were all trying to eavesdrop on his conversation with Norah.
“Honestly, I’ve missed you too, Colter,” she breathed. “I’m sorry for leaving the wedding the way that I did.” She looked around the table and seemed to realize that they had an audience. “Can we go someplace a little more private to talk?” she asked. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but it was all he seemed capable of doing.
“Yes,” he agreed, “I’d like that. We’ll be back in a few guys,” he said to their friends who weren’t even pretending not to listen to their private conversation anymore.
He pulled out Norah’s chair for her and she thanked him. Colter followed her out to the street, and he worried that if he blinked, she’d disappear. Finding out that this was all happening in his imagination would suck, so he stayed close on her heels as she stopped outside the front door of the restaurant.
“What do you want to talk about?” he asked. “Please don’t tell me that you’ve moved on and found someone else.” She was standing so close to him; he could smell her perfume. God, she was perfect and all he wanted to do was pull her against his body again and make her his. Knowing that he was the only man that she had ever been with made him want to claim her all over again.
“No,” she whispered, “I wouldn’t be able to do that, Colter. You see, I’ve realized over the past two weeks that I’m in love with you too. I guess I have been since New York, but I was too much of a chicken to admit it to you. I was scared that loving and being with you would ruin my plans at work, but that’s just not true. Being without you has made me so miserable, I haven’t been able to do much more than cry and think about you constantly.” He reached for her hand and when she let him take it, he almost wanted to take more from her—but that was what had gotten him into this situation. Asking Norah for more before she was willing to give it turned out to be his downfall. He could be patient if it meant winning her back in the end because that was all he wanted.
“I’m sorry that you’ve been miserable,” he lied.
“You’re really an awful liar,” she teased. “You’re not one bit sorry that I’ve been crying over you. I let my grandmother’s voice control my actions, when all I wanted to do was tell you that I’d love to move in with you. I should have listened to my heart instead of the voices in my head telling me that being with you was a bad idea. I’m sorry, Colter.” He didn’t want her to be sorry about leaving him. He wanted her to be willing to finally give him a chance.
“Are you still listening to those voices in your head or are you finally willing to listen to your heart?” he asked. She smiled up at him, and God, she took his breath away. For just that moment in time, she was his Norah again and he would never push her for more than she was willing to give him if she gave him another chance.
“I think that I’m ready to listen to my heart if you’re willing to give me another chance, Colter. I can’t promise that any of this will be easy. I know how difficult I can be, but I’m willing to try again if you are.”
“I’m willing,” he admitted. “I was going to come here tonight and beg you for another chance. I was even willing to do things your way and go back to the original deal of our relationship just being about sex.”
She squinched up her nose and he chuckled, “You were?” she asked. “Because I think I like the whole sex thing, but I’d also love more if you’re willing to do that too.”
“Define more,” he insisted. “I don’t want to push you for more than you’re willing to give right now, honey.” He couldn’t watch her walk away again if he made the mistake of pushing her for too much.
“I want everything, Colter,” she whispered. Norah stepped into his body and pressed herself up against him. Colter couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her.
“Everything,” he repeated. “Does that mean that you’ll move in with me?”
“No,” she breathed.
“Oh,” he said, feeling somewhat defeated. “I see.” He started to pull his arms from around her and she tugged him closer.
“I don’t think that you do see,” she said. “Let me explain.”
He nodded, “Go on,” he prompted, willing to hear her out.
“Do you remember me telling you about my wealthy grandmother and how our family got our money?” she asked.
“I do,” he said. They were in New York, getting to know each other when she told him about her family’s ammunition company and how her grandmother sold it to the US Government.
“Well, I didn’t tell you the part about inheriting the money and giving most of it away to orphanages in war torn countries,” she said.
“Your grandmother did that?” he asked.
“No, I did,” she admitted. “When I got the money from my grandmother’s estate, I couldn’t keep it. Well, not all of it. I gave most of it away and kept enough to pay for my college and put away a little nest egg for myself—you know as a backup plan in case college didn’t work out.”
“I think it worked out, honey,” he said. “You work for NASA, after all.”
