“No,” I gather up my things, “You’ve made up your mind and I’ve made up mine.”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“My heart is safe, and I am safe with Noah.”
I say the words out loud before something in my mind flares in response. A warning. A hesitation that has a weight dropping into my stomach. I push it away.
Everything is fine.
This is all fine.
Me and Noah will be good, and it’ll all work out in the end.
I kiss my sister on the cheek and grab my keys as I leave, pulling out my cell to order an Uber to get home. She lives in the suburbs, in a perfect little house with a white picket fence on a quiet street. Instead of hangingout in front of the house, I start to walk down the sidewalk, watching the tracker on the app, waiting for my driver to arrive.
She’s wrong.
Or is she? Everything she said has crossed my mind as well. I keep denying it, but the truth is that it could lead to heartbreak. I’ve spent years at Noah’s side with all these secret feelings, and I’ve been okay, but this does add somethingmoreto who we are together. And what if she’s right? What if secretly I’m hoping this pushes us to be something we are not destined to be?
At the end of this I could get hurt.
I could lose him.
Chapter Eleven
Istare down at the ignored message, my knee shaking as I wait for her to respond. She hasn’t responded to any of them all evening, and I know she isn’t home because, like a damn stalker, I checked her door camera after the third message got ignored.
Shit.
Unable to sit still any longer, I stand and begin to pace in front of the window, my fingers curled tight around my cell. Why isn’t she replying? She’s read them.
Panic eats at me, making my skin feel too tight for my body.
Across the penthouse, I hear the handle for my front door go, and I snap my eyes up to see her walking in, her shoulders low, chin tilted down.
I don’t think, just move, getting to her in under a second and in my arms. She buries her face into my chest, body going soft against me.
“What happened?” I ask.
She just shakes her head, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Alarm bells start ringing in my head, “Did someone hurt you?” I growl, pulling back so I can get a good look at her. She appears unharmed, but that doesn’t mean anything.
“No, no, I’m fine.” She moves out of my reach and heads further into the apartment, collapsing down onto the couch with a heavy breath. “I just went to see my sister, that's all.”
“Is she okay?” I lower myself down beside her.
“She’s fine.”
“The baby?”
“He’s good, too.”
“Then why do you look like you’re about to cry?”
She gives me a fake smile. “I told her about what we are doing.”
“Right?”
