Page 163 of Masters of Secrets

She was here, too, which meant she might not be able to talk right away and then he’d just be sitting at home waiting, and not doing that was the entire reason he’d come out tonight in the first place.

“Five bucks Law couldn’t keep his mouth to himself,” Asad said, catching Connor’s drift.

“You’re on,” Q replied, reaching out to shake his hand and seal the deal. “He knows not to get involved in another couple’s business.”

Asad snorted, releasing Q’s hand.

“Yeah, but it’s Connor. Law’s gone all uber protective because he’s worried about Connor’s balls. And also the fact that he’s a people pleaser.” Asad glanced at Connor. “Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes you go a little far with it and ignore what you need.”

“I…” Connor cut off what he was going to say, frowning. It was hard to argue with facts. He knew he liked to make people happy. He knew that sometimes he felt like he’d been taken advantage of. Or he’d get resentful when people didn’t appreciate the fact that he’d bent over backward for them.

That had been part of the problem yesterday.

He’d had that feeling of ‘but look at everything I did for you.’ He’d been thinking about that today. He’d been feeling resentful that Julie hadn’t appreciated everything he’d done for her yesterday… but the inescapable fact that she hadn’t asked him to do those things kept popping into his head.

That was something his mom had tried to help drill into him when he was younger, and mostly, he managed to remember it.

You need to ask before you try to help someone.

Connor not only hadn’t asked, but he’d ignored what Julie had said she wanted—he’d been so determined to impress her family. Then he’d gotten mad at her for not being grateful, which was why he’d been so pushy at the end. But she’d already been pushed too far, and he’d been so far up his own ass about what he’d done ‘for her’, he hadn’t been able to see it, and he hadn’t backed off.

In hindsight, he could see a hundred places where he wished he’d made a different choice yesterday. All he could do today was hope she’d be willing to give him another chance to get it done right.

“I can’t believe you’re choosing her over me!”

The words weren’t shouted, but they were loud enough to be heard over the rest of the conversation happening in the bar.

“Noelle, we’re not.” That was Sam. Connor recognized her voice even though he couldn’t see her face from where she was sitting in the booth. She and Morgan were on one side with Noelle and Amy across from them, and Morgan and Noelle were sitting on the outside of the booth.

“You are!” Noelle’s voice was bordering on hysterical. He could see her face perfectly clearly and Amy’s, who was now flushed pink as she put her hand on Noelle’s shoulder, trying to soothe her. “All of you are! You don’t care about me, you don’t care about my feelings, or you wouldn’t be taking her side! Did she put you up to this? Did she tell you that you have to choose?”

“The only person who has made me feel like I have to choose is you, Noelle,” Sam said sharply. Even though she wasn’t as upset as Noelle, her voice carried, especially as conversation around the bar dropped, eyes and ears being drawn in by the drama. “And any friend who tries to make me choose between them and another friend is going to be sorely disappointed. Iris, on the other hand, has never asked me to choose. She never has anything to say about you, period. The only one badmouthing anyone is you.”

“Oh, yes, because Iris is just perfect. I see how it is. Well, I’m not going to stay here where I’m not wanted.” Noelle ran toward the door, covering her face with her hands.

Giving Sam and Morgan a resigned look, Amy scooted out of the booth and followed her.

“And there goes another people pleaser,” Asad murmured, watching Amy go. He sighed, shaking his head.

Realizing he’d had his own urge to chase after Noelle and make sure she was okay—or at the very least that she got home alright, even though he didn’t particularly even like her, and she’d definitely brought that upon herself—made Connor realize that his people-pleasing was maybe a little more out of control than he’d initially thought. He wasn’t even sure that she was actually upset or if she was faking it, but he’d still felt the urge to go check on her… and relief that Amy was handling it.

Would he have followed her and risked Julie coming down to find him gone?

The hesitation he felt about answering was a little disconcerting. Noelle was definitely not as important to him as Julie, so it should have been an immediate and easy answer, yet he hesitated. Yeah, he needed to work on getting his priorities in order.

That was pretty bad and not a particularly comfortable realization to have about himself.

“What on earth is going on?” The familiar voice made him sit straight up, spinning around in his seat, but Julie wasn’t looking at him—she was watching Amy chase Noelle out the door. Connor drank in the sight of her.

She looked as tired as he felt, with darkish circles under her eyes. Still dressed for work, she was wearing a pair of beige slacks with a white button-down shirt that had a lacy collar and black jewel buttons. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, but several long strands had come loose and were hanging down over her shoulders, giving her a slightly disheveled look.

She was fucking beautiful.

“Noelle,” he said, and apparently didn’t need to explain further because Julie snorted and nodded, finally turning her gaze to him. There was worry in that gaze, along with a softness that hadn’t been there yesterday, and a bit of the same happiness he felt just looking at her. Her lips curved slightly into a rueful smile.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey.”