Page 28 of Before We Fell

“You were thinking something,” Noah said, joining me in the living room. The doll dangled from his hand at his side and his beer was in the other. “Your eyes said it even when you didn’t.”

“Well, aren’t you presumptuous.”

“It’s my job to read people and I’m damn good at it.”

I peered at him while I kept my head down, digging through the bag even though I had everything I needed already out. “Sit.”

“Not until you tell me what you were thinking.”

He smirked, that irritating lift of his brow making another heated flush creep to my throat. “It’s impressive,” I muttered and dropped the combs and brushes onto the coffee table. “Typically, from what I’ve experienced, men who spend their days working in offices aren’t that talented with building or working with their hands.”

His smirk went darker. Seductive. Taking a sip of his beer as I spoke, he pulled back the bottle. “I’m a man of many talents, Miss Frazier.”

Another tremble I tried to fight and failed. There was no mistaking the look in his eyes, the thick drawl in his voice. But he couldn’t be flirting with me. Teasing me more likely and I did show up at his house to play dolls with him, so it was deserved.

I cleared my throat and pointed to a cushion near me. “Sit and learn.”

He sat down on the cushion next to me. It made sense so he could see what I was doing, but it was too close. His broad shoulder almost brushed against mine and I scooted farther into the corner, tugging my leg beneath me to put more space between us.

“Playing with dolls on a Friday night,” he muttered, the hint of a tease in his voice. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

I took a comb and started brushing the ends of the doll’s hair. “Yeah, well, you’re in charge of a little girl now. Get used to it.”

His grip on his doll tightened. Knuckles turned white and I cringed. Damn it. He’d mentioned he felt like he was failing. Making it worse when I had this idea hadn’t been my intention.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “That was out of line.”

He took another swig of his beer and set it on the coffee table. “I have no idea why you think this will help, but at this point, I’m willing to try anything. So, how do I start?”

His voice was coiled tight. I’d upset him. It hadn’t been my intention, but he was pushing past it instead of kicking me out, so I did the same. I grabbed the spray bottle of water and squirted it on the ends of the hair.

“First of all, you have to learn how to brush hair correctly.”

“There’s a right way to brush hair?” He sounded so aghast I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Yeah.”

“Shit. No wonder why Riley won’t let me near her with a brush.”

I grinned up at him, found him staring at the doll with mass confusion stamped on his features. He held the thing like a foreign object. Noah Wilkes probably hadn’t touched a doll a day in his life.

“Hey,” I said, my voice softening. “I’ll teach you.”

His shoulders fell. I hadn’t even realized how strung tight he’d been until he melted into the cushions of the chair and exhaled. “Jesus, Lauren. Hair brushing. It’s like a foreign language. What the hell else have I been doing wrong?”

A crack ripped at my heart the size of the Grand Canyon and I leaned in, setting my hand on his thigh without thinking. “You’ve got this, Noah. It’s okay.”

Ten

Noah

Dolls.Brushes. Spray bottles and hair-ties.

They were all scattered across the top of my coffee table. Somehow, through the entire night, Lauren held my focus as she gave me a lesson on hair-brushing. Apparently starting at the top of the head and cramming the brush through Riley’s long hair made tangles worse and pulled on her roots.

They didn’t teach this shit in law school or undergrad school. They sure as hell didn’t teach it at the frat house I was a member of. And I’d had to think about, but since I’d never actually woken up with a woman next to me, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d ever seen a woman brush her hair to know any different.

This small thing stung. I thought I did a good job of meeting Riley’s basic needs. She ate a balanced diet. She was allowed to use electronics on weekends and during the week, she did a lot of reading. She played with toys. Got an hour of television a day after school and when she wasn’t at my mom’s baking and riding horses, I took her to parks and out shopping.

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