Page 23 of Resisting You
“No?”
“I just mean, this isyourday. There will be plenty of time to celebrate Noah and me some other time.”
Lex, her new husband, slid an arm around Ronnie’s waist. “That’s very thoughtful of Rosa, isn’t it, love?”
“Mmmm, yes. It is,” Ronnie agreed as her free hand fell to rest on her small, but swollen belly. Noah had told me she was expecting. Whatever stress she seemed to feel toward me melted away as she cradled her future baby.
“Oh, we will be celebrating your wedding,” Noah’s mom said, grinning from ear to ear. “Don’t think you two are getting away with a quiet elopement.” She hugged me, all smiles, without so much as a sharp edge to her voice.
It was something I could barely comprehend. My own mother was going to lose her shit when she learned about the elopement. But Marty Tripp seemed to take it in stride, despite Callie’s warnings.
As cliche as it sounded, maybe that was the difference between Noah being the youngest of five siblings… and me being an only child.
Noah slid his hand into mine with a natural ease that made me really appreciate how good an actor the man truly was. That angsty teen vampire show really didn’t do his acting chops justice. “I’m going to stay and help them clean up a bit,” Noah said with a squeeze of my hand. “But you should head to the hotel and get settled.”
He glanced back at his family over his shoulder. “She rushed right here to make it in time for the wedding.”
Everyone nodded, acknowledging his statement and Callie jumped right in, pulling me in for a big hug. “Of course! You must be exhausted! Why don’t we all meet up for brunch tomorrow?”
I smiled back at her, but mine was no doubt brittle. The acting gene did not pass down to me from my mother, unfortunately. “That would be great. I can’t wait to, um, get to know all of you better.”
I scanned Noah’s intimidatingly large family that I had only talked to in small bursts throughout the reception–his oldest brother, Cam, regarded me with a cool politeness. But Cam’s daughter, Maddie and fiance, Lydia were sweet as could be. Hugging me and trying to get to know me. Likewise, Steve’sfiance was also very kind. And while Steve was nice, he seemed more intent on pushing Noah’s buttons.
“I’ll walk you out,” Noah said, guiding me toward the driveway.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Noah said, “I have the presidential suite at the Maple Grove Inn. There’s an adjoining room that I didn’t reserve, but as of this morning, it was still available.”
Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his credit card and handed it to me. “Here. Reserve it using this. But ask them to put the room under the name Ted Wilkins. It’s the alias I sometimes use when I don’t want people to know I’m at a certain place.”
I pushed his credit card back to him. “I can pay for my own room.”
“I know youcan, but in order to get the adjoining presidential suite room, it’s going to be more than…”
“More thanwhat?”
Noah pressed his lips together and sighed. “Fine. I’m just going to say it. More than most people are used to spending in a town like this.”
His statement turned my belly. On one hand, it was clear Noah had no idea just how influential and famous my parents were… something that I’d made sure of. Sure, I had mentioned briefly to Noah that my dad was in politics, but I very specifically didn’t go into detail. And he definitely didn’t know about my mother’s fame. Only Hazel knew and she was sworn to secrecy. Even if she did tell her husband, Reid, she knew that it was a piece of myself I didn’t want to share.
Just like my trust fund.
It was there when I needed it.
And boy, did I need it.
Only, I was trying really, really hard not to touch it.
I already had such a huge advantage with the fact I didn’t have any student loans to worry about. I never wanted to take that for granted.
But I also didn’t love that Noah just assumed he needed to pay for me.
I ignored the credit card he held in his outstretched hand and turned, unlocking my rental car I had picked up at the bus station. “I’ve got it covered.”
“Okay,” he said. As I yanked open the car door, Noah cleared his throat behind me. Slowly, I turned back to face him.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he asked.
I had my wallet… my keys… my suitcase. The annulment papers were tucked in my purse. “Ummm…”
