Page 56 of Noah
Then I realized what this was. He was just trying to steal the show. He was using me as a way to get publicity for himself. Try to pretend he was a good guy so the labels would come flocking. God, no wonder all the reporters were here.
But when I looked at them, I saw that they were buying it. Their eyes were sympathetic, their fingers moving quickly on their phones as they took notes. They were looking at me like they’d never seen me before, and I could almost hear the bylines. Girl finds dad, thanks to her childhood best friend. Bad boy rocker Noah Michael helps his best friend locate her long-lost father.
Holy hell, the press would have a field day with this. And no one would remember that Noah and I had kissed in a bar, or that we’d been seen together too much. No one would believe we were messing around. They’d think we were on a mission to find my family.
Fuck, that was clever.
But it didn’t change the fact that it was all about him. He was rehabbing his own image, using my story. Sure, he was doing me a favor, because Janette would have to forgive me if the entire press gaggle was making me their darling, but still. Noah was the star of it all.
Angry and confused, I turned back to him, intent on asking him what the fuck he was getting out of all of this.
And I found him on his knees in front of me, staring up at me like I was the only thing he could see. The only thing in the world that mattered.
“What are you doing?” I breathed.
“I’m giving you my heart,” he said simply. “If you’ll take it. Bug, you took care of me when no one else would. You held me when I was frightened and let me hold you when you needed help. You let me save you time and again, and you never once told me you didn’t actually need a hero. I think you saw how much I liked playing one. And what I never realized, what I didn’t see, was that on the other side of the coin, you were playingmyhero. Because some girls don’t run when things get tough. They tell you what you don’t want to hear. They tow you out of the bar and up the stairs before you do anything stupid. They don’t just leave you to take care of yourself. They sell their own souls to pay for what you’ve been doing, because they love you. And I want to love you back. I know you don’t need anyone. You can take care of yourself and kick the whole world’s ass. But who’s going to tuck you in at night and make sure you wake up smiling? Who’s going to keep you from hurting yourself while you’re busy being independent?
“The truth is, you need a hero just as much as I do. And I want to apply for the job. If you’ll have me.”
Okay, this was too much. This was all too much. I didn’t know what had changed or when he’d realized the truth of the matter, but his eyes were wide and guileless, and I knew in my heart he was telling the truth.
This wasn’t only about him. It was aboutus.
“That was quite a speech,” I whispered.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “It better be. I stayed up all night rehearsing it, and I didn’t have my best brainstorming partner to help. What do you say?”
I felt myself starting to smile. “You didn’t do something as cliche as buying some big diamond ring, did you?”
Now he laughed. “I would have, but I didn’t have time. So I brought you the next best thing.”
He reached over, picked up his puppy, and held him up to me.
“You’re giving me your puppy?”
“I’m making you a promise,” he replied. “I know you think I’m the guy who doesn’t commit to anything or anyone. You think I don’t know how to love. You think I don’t trust anyone. But something’s changed in me, and I want to learn how to do all that stuff. You’re the thing I love most in the world, and Whiskey comes second. I figure maybe if you know that, and you’re holding the most important cards, you’ll trust that I’m not going anywhere. Maybe you’ll realize how much I love you.”
God, that was another really good speech.
We needed to get him in front of the press more often.
I knelt down with him, took the puppy, and held him against my chest as I leaned toward Noah. “Is that all?”
“That’s all. You game?”
“Yes,” I said simply. I didn’t need to say anything else, because Noah already knew how I felt. I was sure he could see it written all over my face. He knew he was giving me exactly what I wanted. He’d given me my job back, and managed to bring my father here. A press conference so the rags would know what was really going on between us, and a clean reputation.
A career.
A family.
And, as it turned, a hero.
Even though I still wasn’t sure I needed one.
EPILOGUE
MOLLY
