“Nick,” Noelle hushes at my side, trying to pull her hand away. I deny her request and only pull her tighter to my side. “Nick, stop it. We can’t do this now. We need to come up with a plan.”
“This is the plan, sugar.Yourplan, might I remind you.” When we reach the edge of the town square, I quickly pull her in and press my lips to the corner of her temple. A handful of people gawk at us as they see us embrace. When I look at her,her cheeks are flushed a bright pink. “It’s showtime, better play along.”
She gives me a stern look before taking a deep breath. Then, to my surprise, she loops her arm around my waist and hugs me. I place an arm around her shoulder and continue to walk across the square. Winter is working to settle in for the season so having her close is a bonus because she’s keeping me warm. If I’m being honest, my skin feels a little warmer than it should purely by her being this close. She brushes a piece of hair out of her face and smiles up at me as we pass more people, completely fooling them into believing we’re a real couple.
“Oh my gosh, I’d never thought I’d see the day,” an older voice comes from behind us. We spin in unison to see who it is. “Nick and Noelle, is that you? When did you two get back together?”
“Hey, Ms. Joy,” Noelle says, standing upright. I take her hand into mine once more and she stares at it for a second before going back to look at our observer. “Uhhh, when Nick came back into town, actually.”
I pull her back into my side and hold her around the waist. “We had coffee one day and old feelings came back like they never left.”
The older woman’s eyes glimmer as she looks between us. “Ugh, I always knew you were meant to be. It broke my heart when you two ended things so long ago. I know it’s a little shameful to say, but I hoped you’d get married and raise a family here in Evergreen when you were old enough.”
I feel Noelle stiffen at the mention of our breakup. Holding onto her a little tighter, I look down at her and wink. “Well, Ms. Joy, we’re actually happy to share that we got married this past weekend. It’s sudden, sure, but something we both felt was meant to be too. Isn’t that right, sugar?”
“Uh huh,” she agrees half-heartidly with a nod.
The woman gasps and brings her hands to cover her mouth. “Oh my goodness, that’s wonderful! I can’t wait to tell the girls at bridge club. Everyone is going to be so happy for you two.”
“Not as happy as I am,” I say easily. My eyes fall back to Noelle who’s looking up at me. “I never really stopped loving this one. I’m lucky to be able to call her my wife.” Then, I press my lips to her forehead and pull her into a hug.
“How sweet.” The woman sighs again. “Well, I’ll let you two get on your way. I’m sure you have somequality timeto spend together, if you know what I mean.” She waggles her eyebrows at us before waving a hand at us and waddling down the sidewalk.
Once she’s gone, Noelle shoves me away and glares at me.
“What the hell was that?” she whisper shouts.
“A ten out of ten performance if you ask me,” I reply. I carry on through town and she has no choice but to follow me if she wants to keep lecturing me. She quickens her feet to close the gap between us and smiles at people as we pass. Being in close proximity to other people around town, she pauses her lecture to carry on with our performance of being a happily married couple. I take her hand in mine once more which earns me a quick scowl and the silent treatment the rest of our walk. When we reach the tree farm and my cabin, she comes inside and crosses her arms at me.
“Okay, now that we’re alone, I’m going to ask again. What the hell was that?” Her eyes are pinned on me and I can see the tiny vein that grows when she’s pissed starting to pop out in her forehead.
“And like I said before, it was a ten out of ten performance.” I stand behind her and help her out of her coat, hanging it on the hook on the wall for her.
“I really don’t think we need to play it up that much though. I mean, what was that line? ‘I never really stoppedloving this one’? You really think it was necessary to lie like that?”
Who said I was lying?
I walk back into the kitchen and start to pull things out of the fridge. It’s almost seven o’clock and I’m sure she’s starving by now.
“Noelle, we need to get the town on board with us being a couple. And that includesactinglike a couple. I don’t know why you’re so upset; running into Ms. Joy is a major win. She has the biggest mouth in townandshe’s going to bridge club tonight which means all her little bitty friends will be talking about us tomorrow. It won’t be long till the entire town knows about us.”
She glares at me from across the room but I see the thoughts swirling around in her head. Finally, she drops her arms and seems to see my point.
“I guess you’re right.”
“I know I’m right.”
“Okay well you don’t need to be smart about it,” she shoots back, making a face at me. When I smile at her, I see a smile of her own crack on her face. “I will admit, it was a pretty good performance. This all seems so easy for you.”
That’s because I’m not performing at all and every word I say is true.
“I guess I should have gone into acting instead of architecture,” I joke. I’ve started to slice up some vegetables and have turned the oven on to preheat.
She pauses, looking at what I’m doing and glances at her coat on the wall.
“Well, I guess I should be going now. It looks like you’re starting dinner anyway. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Whoa,” I call out as she reaches for her coat. “Where do you think you’re going?”
