Page 71 of Noah's Reckoning
I ended the call and turned off the ringer. Not that I thought he would call back. He’d said everything with his silence. I loved him. I hadn’t been able to stop it. I certainly couldn’t control it.
In the end, I hadn’t been able to hide it.
Or maybe I just got tired of trying.
18
Two weekslater
Ark
“Yo, Ark. Did you want a beer?”
I blinked and saw Eli standing next to our table, his hands on his hips. Had he said something?
He shook his head. “I’m getting you one whether you like it or not. Maybe it will loosen your tongue and you’ll tell me what the fuck is going through your head.”
I glanced around Bud’s. It was the middle of the week, a quiet night. It had been a last-minute suggestion from Eli to come for a drink.
I’d agreed, not necessarily for the company, but because I sure as hell hadn’t wanted to stay in my room thinking. Always thinking. At least tonight it was just Eli, Shelby and me.
It was getting harder and harder for Cal to come to Bud’s with Vivienne spending more time waitressing. Those two felt like they were on some weird emotional collision course and if I didn’t have my own head up my ass, I might have been more worried about Cal.
Jackson was in Nome with Kate this week.
I wasn’t sure where Jenny was, but I knew where Olivia was.
She wasn’t here.
Olivia. I hadn’t spoken to her since she’d told me she loved me. Hadn’t known what the hell to say. Then after I didn’t call her the following night, it got harder and harder to make that call. Now, it had been close to two weeks since I’d heard her voice. Two weeks since I’d heard her laugh. Two weeks since she’d snapped at me.
Two fucking weeks. And every single day was my fault. Because when she told me she loved me, I knew the only response was to tell her that I loved her, too. And if I had done that, then it would be real. A committed, loving relationship.
It had scared the ever-living fuck out of me.
She hadn’t called me, either, but that wasn’t fair. Of course she wouldn’t. She was entirely too proud.
I felt Shelby patting my hand.
“You know Eli and I are here for you,” Shelby said with pity in her eyes.
Why was she pitying me? I didn’t need pity. This was just a problem to solve. Like a complicated math equation.
How to get Liv and I back to normal?
Back to when it was normal for us to talk every night. Back to when she could piss me off just by breathing. Back to when we were fucking or at least talking about fucking.
“Why are you looking at me like my dog died?” I asked Shelby.
“I know it must be hard, but I don’t want you to think that you’re never going to fall in love again someday. Don’t be like Cal, who is just flat-out sad and stubborn, in my opinion. Heck, I told Eli, I saidBaby, we might have to do another contest just for Ark and if we have to bring a hundred women here to Hope’s Point, then that is just what we’ll do.”
I was struggling to make sense of what Shelby was saying.
“Shelby, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Olivia, of course.”
“What about Olivia?” Wait a minute. Did Shelby say fall in loveagain?
