What was this all about? Noah shifted in his chair, crossing his arms again, which did not make him more comfortable. “We went on a date. Is that what you were fishing for? I like her. Is this really what you want to talk about when we have a Jane D—”
“Be careful, Noah,” his brother interjected quietly. “You have a tendency to make a fool of yourself over a woman. I like Sabrina too. But you have to see how this is going to end.”
“Happily?” he threw out, because come on. No one had a crystal ball. Was there something wrong with hope? With thinking positive and assuming the best possible outcome of a relationship instead of the worst?
“It’s going to end with a jagged scar where your heart used to be,” his brother said flatly.
Noah scowled, fingering the area in question as if he could already feel the phantom beating. “Are you sure this isn’t more about you than me?”
His brother cracked his neck and rubbed at it as if Noah might be causing him pain. “Don’t be obtuse when I’m trying to look out for you. You have a tendency to take a flying leap into everything, and I’m just saying maybe check the water before you do a cannonball.”
The genuine concern in Jacob’s voice deflated some of his bluster. Because yeah, that was not wrong.
But still, Noah wasn’t a teenager anymore, mooning around over a succession of girls in his class. That was the last time his brother had witnessed Noah’s feelings splattered all over the floor when said girls inevitably shoved off—some with a great deal of drama.
No, he hadn’t gotten any better at protecting himself, but so what? What was the point of life but to experience it? Highs and lows.
“What if I have checked the water and Sabrina seems on board with cannonballs?” he asked with only a tiny curl of smugness to his smile. “We talked for hours last night.”
The wedding joke sat fresh on his mind. A woman didn’t laugh at a subject she had a fundamental aversion to, right?
“Great. I hope it works out, I really do. I’ll repeat, I like Sabrina.” There was a qualifier coming, no doubt. “She does her job well and she’s generally considered competent. But you have to know she has a…reputation.”
“Watch it.” Noah was half out of his seat in Sabrina’s defense before Jacob could throw his hands up in protest.
“Notthatkind of reputation. The opposite. She eats men for breakfast and stomps their bones into dust on her way out the door. You don’t mess with her. Everyone knows that.” His brother ran a hand through his hair, but it didn’t settle the simmer in Noah’s blood thatthiswas the conversation they were having. “Some of the guys call her Mantis. You know, because the females eat the males?”
“I know what you meant,” Noah said. Spit out, more like, and if he could have punctuated the phrase with a shiv, he would have. “And that’s about the biggest load of horse manure I’ve ever heard you repeat. You know better than that. She’s a living, breathing human being who has to fight for her place in her chosen profession every day. Anyone who wants to take a shot at her methods can come talk to me.”
Jacob managed to look slightly chagrined. “I don’t disagree that sometimes people exaggerate, and obviously, I’ve never had a problem with her. All I’m saying is be careful. Make sure you’re on the same page before you offer up your heart still beating. Just in case there’s a tiny smidge of truth.”
As if. Sabrina was warm, engaging. Sexy. A fabulous kisser. And she had brains for miles. Her text messages amused him. Her strength inspired him. And sure, they hadn’t known each other that long, but he did not get a praying-mantis vibe from her. At all.
Toward Bonner, yes. She’d sever his head in a New York second and feed it to him if he so much as looked at her wrong, but after seeing the tool in action, Noah would not only help her dismember Bonner, he’d volunteer to drive there and back.
Sabrina and Noah, on the other hand, had aconnection.
“What do you know about it?” Noah challenged and gave Jacob’s bare left hand a pointed glance. “I must have missed the part where you’re half of a successful couple, which gives you the right to slap a Relationship Expert label on your forehead.”
“Not me.” Jacob’s expression shifted so fast that Noah blinked. “Dad.”
The topic whiplash caught Noah crossways. “What about Dad?”
“Exhibit A on what happens when you let someone in. Give them the power to hurt you.”
Jacob’s point crashed over Noah’s head like a fifteen-foot wave at the height of a tropical storm. Noah had learned everything about how to approach life from his dad. They both jumped in wholeheartedly, and his dad had been wrecked when his wife died.
They all had been.
What Jacob was not so subtly telling him was to think about how soul crushing it could be to lose someone—for any reason.
Was that what he wanted to sign up for?
Sure, that was taking the negative approach, the one he’d literally just told himself he wasn’t going to believe, but stuff did happen in relationships. Feelings died—or people did.
As strongly as Noah felt about Sabrina, he could see the wisdom in stepping back for a minute and doing exactly as Jacob suggested. Take time to evaluate. Make sure Sabrina really was on board before letting his thoughts stray toward something more permanent.
Which sucked.
