“You should take it,” I repeat.
Again, he shakes his head and pockets his phone. He reaches up, his middle finger brushing my temple. He grabs my hand and says, low and certain, “It can wait.”
I study our joined hands, his larger one dwarfing mine, and it’s strangely perfect—I don’t want to let go.
Interlude
if you look at me like I’m broken,
it’s because i told you.
if you search my face and find pain,
it’s because i told you.
if i shake with relief,
it’s because i told you.
if i find comfort in your arms,
it’s because i told you.
if i told you,
it’s because …
—i told youby Lily Parker
Chapter 18
Noah
Brent’s calls don’t let up. Even as I pull up to the abandoned warehouse where we typically meet. I glance at the phone, and his contact name flashes on the screen along with a photo of us taken at a game of pickup basketball. He’s grinning wide, while I make a cross-eyed expression I’m not so sure I could replicate again.
When his truck comes into view, and I pull up behind him, the call stops. I sigh. This is the last place I want to be, and it’s the furthest thing from my mind right now.
Her hug.Lily’shug.
I was not expecting that, especially after the past few weeks. It hasn’t been tense, but more … average. Like the momentum we had before the heated conversation and almost crash halted. She’s worked three days a week for the past three weeks and I’ve picked her up and taken her home after each one of them. The conversations revolved around Max, my mom, Mitch attempting to cut even more of her hours. When I drop her off at work, I usually hang around town, take Max for a run, or handle some paperwork from my truck. I order food from the diner too, and even though I’m down the street in my truck, I have the orderdelivered. I don’t want her to know I’m hanging around waiting for her shift to end.
Most of my vacation time has been used up already, and I’m worried once I take these four days off for Thanksgiving, I’ll have little time left for Christmas. It might be my mother’s last, so I need that time.
It’s been worth it, though.
Tommy has mentioned her part should be here any day now and installation will take half a day, so her car will be ready soon and she’ll go back to driving herself to work, much to my dismay.
Were it not for this summoning by Brent, I’d be halfway to grab Max by now, and even closer to spending the next four days with Lily. Getting to know her has been like pulling teeth, but I’ve picked up on a few things here and there. She chews her fingernails when she’s nervous. Her ability to answerJeopardy!questions is unparalleled, and I’m pretty sure she’s paying my mother to eat and take her medicine.
There definitely isn’t enough in her paycheck to cover bribing my mother, so whenever I get the chance, I plant some cash—fives, tens, twenties—in the passenger seat. When she hops out to head to work, I pretend they’ve fallen out of her pocket. She’s so disorganized, she doesn’t keep a wallet, so having random cash float out of her pockets doesn’t raise her suspicion.
I chuckle, biting my lip.
The muffled sound of a door slamming brings me back to the present, and Brent shuffles along the side of this truck toward mine. He looks around, his attention flicking from me to the passenger side of his vehicle. He has that jittery look, his eyes glassy, as they dart from the window and back from where he came. He’s wearing his signature cap, pulled low, but I don’t miss the way his jaw works back and forth or the ever-present beads of sweat collecting on his upper lip despite the fall air. His dark wash jeans are covered in white splotches, like he’s spilledbleach, and his fingers fidget with his jacket zipper as if he can’t decide whether to draw it up or rip it off all together.
My hand hovers over the center console where my weapon lies loaded, waiting, and the envelope of cash I stopped at the bank for on the way here sits. Calmly, I roll down my window, wishing Max was here. He’s like my amiss detector. Able to sniff out uneasy situations a mile away.
“I’ve been calling,” Brent snaps when he reaches me. He rubs his hands together like they’ve been dipped in snow, but it’s notthatcold out.
