But it didn’t sound like conviction.
It sounded like someone who’d already asked himself that question a thousand times.
His fingers fidgeted slightly with the seam of his jeans.
I shifted in my seat. And then I remembered something my gran did whenever I complained about school—not that this was even close to being the same, but…
“What do you love about it, though?” I asked. “There has to be something.”
Noah’s lips twitched faintly. “Yeah.” A breath escaped him. “There’s a moment, when it’s just chaos—blood, shouting, monitors—and everyone’s looking around, needing someone to do something.” He glanced over, his voice low. Steady. “And I’m that person. I know what to do.”
I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
“All the training, the rotations, the hours I went without sleeping, they just…come together. I can put a line in someone’s neck, order the right meds, shock a heart back into rhythm. Sometimes I walk out of the trauma bay, and when everything actually works, I think: I brought someone back.”
His expression didn’t change much. But the weight in his voice did.
“I don’t think most people ever get to know what that feels like.”
I swallowed.
No flippant comeback sprang to mind.
Only awe.
“So…it is worth it?” I asked quietly. Because, of course, I realized, everything doesn’t work all the time.
A beat passed. Then he gave the faintest nod.
“Yeah,” he said. “That part is.”
But then, holding my gaze, he tilted his head. “What about you? Have you been thinking about what you’ll do when you get home?”
I blinked at the sudden change of subject. Was he asking about the breakup? My job?
My life?
“Working on it, you know?” I said, swallowing around something thick in my throat. “Still figuring things out.”
There, safe enough, right?
“You will.” The confidence in his voice kind of shook me.
“How can you know that?”
“How can you not?”
I couldn’t stop looking at him—his eyes, his mouth, the slope of his jaw.
Did I mention his mouth?
He hesitated. Then, softer: “I mean, look at you.”
My breath caught.
“Damn, Luna. You’re filled with more warmth than you know what to do with. And your honesty, it’s just raw. Genuine. That’s rare.” His voice dropped slightly. “And brave. And yeah...”
His eyes didn’t waver.
