I glanced over and nodded, but in that short second where I wasn’t watching my steps, I slipped and would have splatted on my face if Noah hadn’t grabbed my elbow to steady me.
He released it just as quickly—probably afraid I was going to bite his head off again.
Honestly, I didn’t blame him.
“Thanks,” I huffed. But right away I pointed at Roger, who had actually convinced Tay to pose for him. “I’ve been horrible about taking pictures.” I still wasn’t sure if my failure to document this trip was a good or a bad thing. “I don’t have any of the chapel. Or the hotel. I didn’t even try getting a shot of the orbs. I definitely should have tried to catch one in that closet.”
Noah didn’t laugh like I thought he would, and when I turned to look at him, he was rubbing the back of his neck. “About the ghosts in your closet…”
There was something in his voice I hadn’t heard before.
“Don’t tell me you lied and there really was something in there.” I laughed.
He didn’t.
“No. But...” He winced a little. “I have a confession to make.”
I blinked. “You have a confession to make?”
He stopped in the middle of the trail, his mouth pulling to the side like he was debating whether to actually say it.
“You did hear something that night. In your hotel room.”
I straightened. “I know I did.”
Noah sighed, staring into the distance. We really needed to keep moving before Tay came to hunt us down. But when his eyes landed on me again, they looked…guilty?
“It was me.”
“It was you?” What? Why? “You knocked against the wall to scare me?”
He winced. “Not…intentionally.”
He certainly didn’t seem like the sort of guy who’d try scaring a woman who was traveling alone.
Noah opened his mouth, closed it again. Then, “I have…” He took his sunglasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. When he looked like this—serious, distracted—the blue in his eyes stood out more than the gray. “I had a nightmare. Sometimes, I…thrash around a bit.”
That was not even close to what I expected.
“Oh.”
“I might have slammed my arm against the wall, and I should’ve told you that night, but…” He put his glasses back on, like this wasn’t a big deal. But I could tell it was.
And I had a feeling this wasn’t something he was eager to get into.
So I just nodded. “Was it because of the ghost stories?”
I expected a smirk. A smartass remark. Something cocky and insufferable.
I did not expect the haunted look—quick as a flash, gone before I could pin it down.
“Nah.” He jammed his hands into his pockets. “Work stuff.”
His face shuttered, and, yeah, I could’ve just let it go there, but it felt like this was something that maybe he needed to talk about.
He’d done listened to all my woes, after all.
“In the ER?” I asked.
