Page 53 of Because You Loved Me

“Noa.”

“Welcome, Noa.” Charli looped her arm through hers and, after blowing a kiss to Asher, led Noa out of the foyer and into the kitchen, where there were even more people to meet.

She was sure she wasn’t going to remember anyone’s names after meeting Annie and Chase, Craig’s fiancée Lucy, and Charli’s husband Symon, along with their new baby, Poppy.

At some point, Asher handed her a glass of wine and then, like magic, the men disappeared into the living room with the children, leaving the women in the kitchen to prepare dinner.

“Don’t worry,” Annie said to her. “I know it looks like gender roles are truly alive and well here, but the men do a killer job cleaning up while we relax.”

“Besides,” Charli chimed in. “We’re better cooks.”

The women laughed, and Noa found herself joining in with them easily.

“What about you, Noa?” Lucy asked. “Do you cook?”

“I have a few specialties.” She shrugged. “My fiancé did all the—” She stopped abruptly when she realized what she’d said out loud. “I mean…my…”

“It’s okay.” Charli put a hand on her shoulder. “We’re not going to judge you. And you don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“I was only kidding when I said you were the talk of the town earlier.” Kat frowned. “Honestly. No one is talking about you.”

“It’s okay.” Noa smiled. “I’m sure plenty of people are talking. Why wouldn’t they be? After all, I ran out of my wedding and jumped into Asher’s truck.”

Silence fell in the kitchen, as everyone stopped working to stare at her. She almost clammed up, but there didn’t seem to be much point.

“It wasn’t my finest moment.” She blew out a breath. “But I have chatted with Ryan about it all—that’s my…well, you know. And he’s not mad. We’re really great friends more than anything else and…well, now I’m just rambling.”

“It’s okay.” Charli offered her a kind smile. “I can’t imagine anything about the last few days has been easy.”

Noa bit her tongue before she could tell the woman just how easy it had been to be with her little brother. There had been nothing difficult about the time they’d spent together.

“Are you and Asher…”

“He’s been great about letting me stay at the cabin, and I just want you all to know, it’s not like…well, it’s not what you think. I didn’t run away from my wedding because of him. I’d only met him the day before and honestly, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. But I’m sure it must look like…”

“It doesn’t look like anything.” Lucy shrugged. “Noa, you should know that this family is pretty understanding of pretty much everything.” She glanced around at the other women, who all nodded in agreement.

“It’s true.” Annie stepped forward. “You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to.”

“But if you want to…”

Noa nodded in Charli’s direction. “Thank you.” She looked to the others. “All of you. It’s been a very weird time. I really appreciate all of you being so friendly and welcoming.”

“Well, if you can put up with Asher, you’ll have no problem getting along with the rest of us.” Kat laughed. “I’m teasing. We like to give him a hard time because he’s the most uptight of all of us. But we love him.”

“Uptight?”

“Oh, yeah.” Kat fell into the chair next to her and reached for her own glass of wine. “Asher is a total workaholic. Worse than Chase used to be. That has to be why Dad gave him the task of taking time off. To be totally honest with you, we were all pretty worried about how he was going to handle things but you’ve been a pretty good distraction for him.”

“He hasn’t said much about that situation,” Noa admitted. “Except for how he’s been forced to take six months off. I didn’t realize it was so difficult for him.” She felt a flash of guilt for not recognizing it when he’d been so understanding about her situation. She should have asked more questions to try to understand all of it better. Truthfully, she’d been more than a little wrapped up in her own issues.

“He’s not historically been much of a talker,” Charli said.

“But he’s also not historically been the type to kidnap runaway brides.” Kat wiggled her eyebrows. “So who knows, maybe this is a whole new side of Asher. I, for one, look forward to seeing what happens next.”

Me too.

Noa swallowed a mouthful of wine before she said anything more, or let herself go down a line of thought she shouldn’t.

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