Page 70 of Before We Fell

That last thought rocked me in my gut so hard, my hand shook as I opened the door for him. He was smiling, gaze on my legs first, dragging up slowly until he reached the black, flared skirt of my dress. He stalled on my chest, a small line of cleavage visible from the deep V-cut.

I stood there, limbs trembling, gut churning with emotion of needing and wanting him and fearing I’d fallen in way over my head.

He lifted his head, narrowed, gorgeous brown eyes and thick slashes of eyebrows intent and showing mutual desire for me when he must have caught the look on my face.

Like I’d sucked on an onion.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, and stepped toward me, effectively pushing me back into my house and closing the door behind me.

“Nothing.” Maybe a lot. Or not. Things were good with us. My friends knew. Brooke most definitely did because once she sniffed out a hint of it at the party, all bets were off once Riley collapsed onto my body on the lawn. I feigned a brightness in complete contradiction to everything swirling so rapidly inside of me and stepped back. “Nothing’s wrong. Are you ready?”

“You look sick.”

I felt sick. I flipped my hand in the air. “It’s nothing. Family stuff I’m ignoring.” I turned and headed toward the living room, Noah’s shoes going thud thud thudbehind me. They were deeper than the click of my heels. And our footsteps alone tapped out a tense rhythm.

When I bent to pick up my weekend bag, he reached from behind me and covered my hand with his. Tugging the bag from me, I let it go easily, and closed my eyes.

“Now. Tell me what’s going on. You look like someone kicked you in the gut and that’s not a face I want you making this weekend, not when your body looks damn incredible in this dress.”

It took talent to tell me like I looked like shit and beautiful at the same time.

“It’s my mom. She’s been calling all day and I’m in full-on avoidance mode. Really, it can’t be anything good and I’d rather ignore it until Monday.”

My phone rang again from my purse in the kitchen, the ringtone muffled from it being in my purse and I wished I could have kicked myself. Why didn’t I just turn the stupid thing off?

“That them?” Noah asked. My face must have said it all. “I don’t really want to leave with this on your mind. What are the odds that if you don’t talk to her now, you’ll be able to ignore it like you said?”

He had a point. Shoulder slumping, I spun on my heels. “You know, it’s really not all that fun that you’re so smart sometimes.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

He was so darn cocky. Which I used to hate, but he was right. I was getting used to it. I also knew his arrogance was a part of his dry humor which meant when I answered the phone, my mom calling again, I did it smiling.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Finally,” she said, almost sounding out of breath. “I’ve been calling you all day.”

“Yes, I saw that. I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy for your mother?” Ugh. I didn’t have time to deal with her guilt trip. She kept talking. “Listen, we need to talk about the holidays.” Called it. I rolled my eyes and stopped when they landed on Noah. So handsome. Jaw jutted out, my bag was on the floor at his feet, and he had his arms crossed over his chest. His focus was on the phone in my hand like he could actually hear my mother.

“It’s not really a good time, and I hadn’t even considered this. Can we talk about it next week? I’ll look at my calendar—”

“Travis has been asking about you.”

I could practically see the smile in her lightened tone.

My voice went anything but light. “What?”

“I think…I think he’s finally ready to get help, Lauren. Real help this time. He called last week, and…”

And she kept talking. My floor tilted as she rambled on and on. The same song. The same damn dance. My eyes fluttered closed as I listened to her, head shaking.

How could they continue to be this ignorant when it came to him?

“So anyway, he said he wanted to see you. Says he misses his little sister.”

I couldn’t do this. Not then. Not ever. It amazed me how easily she could forget every rotten thing he’d done. “Mom, the last time he said that—”

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