Page 26 of Love Out Loud

Lark’s mouth spreads into a fake smile. Judging by that expression, she was definitely not trying to be funny.

I clear my throat and glance warily at Noah, who is hanging back. He’s covering his mouth with his hand, and his brown eyes are twinkling. That asshole is amused by this.

“And this is Noah Baker, producer for Luminaudio.” I gesture for him to join this motley crew.

He quickly gains control of his laughter and firmly shakes Lark’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lark. Thank you for coming. And for taking this on at the last minute.”

“You’re a life saver,” Jessica breathes, her eyes wide.

“Of course. I’m excited, and I’m ready to get started.” The smile she gives Noah is genuine, though more reserved than the ones she saves for me. I’m not surprised he makes her feel more at ease than the others. Noah is an extremely casual guy; he’s dressed in chino shorts and a T-shirt like I am, and his hair and beard that are starting to edge more toward salt than pepper are well-maintained but not over-styled.

He nods once and surveys the group. “Great. Let’s get some tacos, shall we?” His eyes land on me as he shoves his hands into his pockets. “Lennon, want to come inside and help me order?”

I scan over Jessica, Silas, and Lark. I don’t want to leave her here with two people she just met, but Noah is probably asking me inside for a reason. Hopefully, it’s to explain why Silas decided to show up.

“You okay here?” I ask Lark.

Her shoulders shake, but she doesn’t break into a full out laugh. “Yeah, I think I can handle it,” she says sarcastically.

“Okay.” I nod. “We’ll be right back, then,” I say as I follow Noah into the restaurant.

Noah doesn’t even let me say it. The second the door closes, he turns to me with his hands up. “He wanted to meet her. He heard her audition and was really impressed. We all were.”

“Why was he listening to her audition?” I fight it, but a protectiveness edges my voice.

Noah scoffs. “Come on, Len. You know how this works. They have to sound good together. He was listening to see if he’d need to make any adjustments to his part, and that’s when he decided meeting her would be a good idea. Since the opportunity presented itself.”

I glance behind me at the closed door. “I just wish you would have texted me or something so I could have prepared her. She’s nervous.” And I won’t admit it out loud, but I’m nervous, too. This whole situation is stoking some anxiety I haven’t felt in a really long time.

“She has no reason to be. She’s got the job. And probably more if she wants them,” Noah says reassuringly.

“I know that.” I run a hand through my hair. “I told her that, too, but she’s…” I trail off and press my lip together in a tight line. I won’t speak for her. I’ve already pulled enough weird-ass alpha moves today. “Just tread lightly, okay? She’s only here for a few weeks to do this project, and then she’s back to her professor gig in Michigan.”

Even as I say it, a pang of regret hits me straight in the chest. I rub at it, as if that would make it go away. I’m on the verge of too many emotions today, and I suddenly wish I still saw my therapist regularly to work through some of this shit.

Noah tugs at his beard as he glances down to where my fingers are moving over my heart, then back to meet my gaze. “And to see you.”

“What?”

“She’s here to see you,” he insists as we take a step forward in the line to order. When I frown at him, he continues. “I more or less watched you stitch your own heart back together after the last time you saw her. You think she didn’t feel the same way?”

It had honestly never occurred to me. I thought I had hidden it better than that, but apparently not.

It doesn’t matter. She might be here because we’re friends, too, but so what? That’s not what this meeting is about.

“Twenty-five years of friendship will do that, I suppose,” I mutter, but it’s nice that he saw it. It makes me feel better about how long we’ve been apart, that we’ve been able to mostly pick up where we left off. It gives me hope that whatever this weird tension or attraction is between us is just giddiness at our proximity. It’ll wear off, and we can go back to being the way we’ve always been.

Noah studies me, his eyes narrowed. “Right,” he says, then steps up to the counter to order.

The lunch starts surprisingly well, despite the awkward introductions. Lark is an absolute dream. In between bites of fish tacos and reassurances that they are, in fact, better than the ones she had in Michigan, she tells them story after story about her daughter, her job, her life back home. She talks about Devin, of course, but doesn’t dwell on her. It’s clear that wound is still raw. Then, she moves on to her boss, perfectly imitating his nasally voice and miming pushing glasses up her nose as she speaks. She affects her students uncannily as well, overexaggerating the know-it-all and the kid who she says did the absolute least he could do to get a C.

The whole table is in stiches. Her eyes practically glow with joy as she recounts event after event, feeding off their energy to make each story more ridiculous than the last.

I eat and watch silently, soaking up her light. This is her show. I want to let her be center stage.

“You can’t make this shit up!” Jessica exclaims at the end of a story about how Lark’s friend, Hannah, had asked Lark to be present during office hours and act as a timer for a student who made a habit of staying an entire hour just to talk about comic books.

“You really can’t,” Lark agrees.