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“Noah,” Amanda said to the man, stunned, but she smiled.
The smile turned into shock when the man hugged her tightly. Gene’s frown was immediate.
Who the hell is this guy?
He glanced at Patrick with the unspoken question. His friend answered with a small shrug.
Amanda pulled back from the hug and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I heard you were in an accident,” Noah said. “When you didn’t reply to my text, I thought you’d blown me off. But I didn’t know you were in an accident right after our date, or I would’ve come sooner.”
Their date?
As if sensing Gene’s growing unease, Jo came to stand next to him. “Um, that must be Amanda’s date from last Sunday.”
“She’s been seeing this guy?” Gene asked.
“They’ve only gone on two dates. I haven’t even met him.”
“But you’ve heard of him.”
“Amanda told me a bit about him after the first date, yeah,” Jo answered hesitantly. “He lives in Cumming, so I don’t know him. He owns a gym there, a single dad. Sounds nice.”
“Right.” Gene watched Amanda’s interaction with the man. “Amanda never mentioned him.”
“Well, Amanda hasn’t mentioned him once since you came home,” Jo added awkwardly, but Gene’s focus was on the flustered Amanda.
“I’m sorry,” Amanda said. “I wasn’t…”
“Don’t worry about it. You were injured.” Noah smiled and rubbed Amanda’s arm too intimately to Gene’s liking. “I understand texting me back probably wasn’t your top priority after an accident.”
“I appreciate that.” Amanda stepped back, putting a bit of space between her and Noah. “I’ve been preoccupied. How did you hear about my accident?”
“From friends. We read about the shooting in Gainesville, and we heard something big went down. But the rumor is it all started with a car accident on Browns Bridge,” Noah said. “When we looked it up, your accident popped up. Did you really see the woman in the blue dress?”
Gene scoffed at that. The rumor mill made it all the way to Cumming? But he supposed the part where they gossiped about Amanda and him didn’t make it to Noah’s ears.
Amanda turned her gaze back and realized she had an audience. Her cheeks pinked as her eyes locked with Gene. Was that guilt in them? The whole week as they were searching for the kids, bonding with each other, screwing each other’s brains out, not once had she said she was dating another man.
She didn’t have to, you asshole. It’s not like you had any claim on her.
“Are you gonna introduce us?” Gene asked, his voice level, not betraying the uncertainty he was feeling.
Amanda’s jaw tightened with discomfort. Heads in the store swiveled around, but she introduced them.
“Noah, these are my friends: Jo, Gene, and Patrick.”
Friends. Right. Gene noted the classification bitterly.
“Hi, Noah. Nice to meet you.”
Jo came forward first, intercepting Gene’s advance toward the other guy, giving Gene enough time to check himself.
With a big inhale, Gene reminded himself, he had no right to Amanda more than what she was willing to give him. Besides, technically, Noah was in her life first.
Patrick elbowed Gene lightly on his side. “You need backup?” he whispered.
Gene looked at his friend, appreciative of his loyalty.
