“Shit, Noah, I’m close,” I moan, closing my eyes.
“Good, I don’t think I can last much longer with your tight pussy clenching around me. Let go, Ollie, come all over my dick,” he says as he pinches my clit one final time sending me over the edge, taking him with me.
???
Lying in a pile of arms and legs on the floor with Noah was not on the agenda for today, and I’m supposed to be back in Milwaukee already. Caroline and Mason are going to be waiting for all the details. I can’t help but roll my eyes and smile thinking about my friends and how they’ll not only want the details but all the juicy bits after they question me why I'm at least six hours later than I originally planned.
I know I need to leave, but this feels right. It feels like the part of me that has been lost and shoved deep down inside me is finally at peace. I want more time with Noah, not knowing when I’ll get this time again.
“Ollie,” he says quietly. There’s something about the way he says it that tells me he’s going to say something I don’t want to hear.
“No,” I say quickly. “Noah, we don't have to talk about it. I'm going back to Milwaukee today and you’re going to be here. There’s no point in adding more to it,” I finish, my voice cracking a little at the end.
He just nods, not saying anything, and rolls to wrap me in a hug. A hug that feels empty, feels like goodbye.
I shiver, partly because it's chilly, but mostly because this sucks. The feeling of the walls closing in, trapping me, and taking out everyone I care about sitting like a black hole in my diaphragm. Noah notices my shiver, and thinking I'm cold quickly hands me my sweatshirt and leggings to warm me up.
Little does he know there’s a part of me that’s breaking all over again.
Looking out the window, the sun is shining bright and high in the sky. My stomach grumbles and I quickly place my hand over my abdomen, as if that’ll silence the noise. It has to be around lunchtime and I didn’t eat breakfast this morning in a rush to leave.
Noah, shimmying into his jeans, glances over at me, and I feel my face heat with a little embarrassment as he asks, “Ollie, did you eat breakfast today?”
“No, I rushed out of the house to see you,” I reply, with a hint of spice to my tone. Knowing full well he is about to call me out for not eating breakfast, because it's a well-known fact that I'm a monster when I don’t eat. Which is why I always have some sort of breakfast packed for when I arrive at the office in the morning.
“Ollie,” he says with that disapproving stern mom look he does so well.
“I know. I know. I …” I interrupt before he takes me by the arm and walks me back out into the kitchen. He places me on the counter next to the fridge. He opens it and he hands me my favorite flavor of seltzer water, strawberry lemon, and pulls out a throw-away tin with an aluminum foil cover on it.
“Mom gave me food this morning to bring over for today and tomorrow,” he says, continuing to pull out the dishes, utensil and quickly heats what looks like a five-layer homemade lasagna. I can feel my mouth begin to water just looking at it.
We eat in almost silence, except for the slight noise of forks clinking on the plates and the occasional chewing sound. I jump up to start cleaning once we finish, bringing the dishes over to the sink.
“You don’t need to do that,” he says as I turn on the water.
“You cook, I clean,” I say in response. “Plus, I really don’t mind. Let me finish this and then we’ll paint the bedroom to get you caught up for today’s renovations,” I finish with a smirk.
He just shakes his head back and forth and heads back down the long hallway toward the bedroom to get everything ready to start. The least I can do is help him by cleaning the dishes and painting the bedroom since he fed me and I distracted him from renovations for a few hours. Plus, I need more time. My heart needs a few more hours with Noah.
We paint the entire bedroom in just under two hours and it looks like an entirely different room in the best way. Once we clean up the plastic, wash the paint brushes, and do a final sweep of the floor in the room I know it’s time for me to head back to the city. Time to say goodbye for now.
Noah walks me outside to my car and the driveway is starting to get mushy from the high sun we have had all day. Turning to face him, I feel my eyes start to water as I fight my bottom lip from quivering. I will not cry. Not in front of him today.
I’ve had a great week at home with him but our lives are in different places. I have my life and my career in Milwaukee. He’s starting his life here in Fisher Creek. There’s too much distance, too much hurt, and too many what-ifs to start this again. It's not fair to Noah or myself, and therefore he doesn’t get to see how much this trip has affected me.
He takes me into a hug and kisses the top of my head and we stand in silence for a moment before I get into my car and pull out of the driveway. Looking in the rearview mirror, I see Noah standing there, hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground. The snow piles surrounding him slowly engulf him as I begin to cry.
And I cry the entire way to Milwaukee.
Chapter 26
Olivia
It’sbeentwoweekssince I left Fisher Creek. Two weeks since I had that final kiss with Noah and we painted his bedroom.
In those two weeks, I haven’t talked to him at all. I'm not naive enough to think he doesn’t want to talk to me, but I’m too stubborn to call him myself. That being said, there is not a single day that he doesn’t cross my mind, which is decidedly annoying.
The first week back, I was the only physical therapist in the office and we had a full schedule. I had a new patient who works with the Milwaukee EMS come in for an appointment following a job injury which typically would send me into a tizzy about Cole, but this time it was Noah. I understand being a firefighter is an intense occupation. I understand being in the Army is probably more intense and injuries happen but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
