Page 23
Yeah he’s been helping me and Jake in the barn.
Why?
I pull my lip between my teeth, tugging on my piercing, debating whether I should tell Richard. I go with a half-truth.
Me
He stayed at mine last night and was gone by the time I woke up at six. Just wanted to know he was okay.
Ten minutes pass before my phone pings again.
Rich
I swear to God Rob, if you fucked him.
Me
No I didn’t fuck him! I didn’t even touch him!
Rich
Leave Noah alone, you have enough people to drag back to your cave without adding my little brother to the tally.
I bristle at that. It’s been months since I “dragged someone back to my cave”. He knows my flirting means nothing. I do it to him and Theo all the time too—not Isla, though. She told me off for it once when we were fifteen. She scares the shit out of me, so I behave with her. Besides, she could always tell when I was using it as a distraction to stop her from asking me if I was doing okay.
I have no intention of fucking Noah. I just want to know if he’s alright.
Me
It’s not like that, we were just hanging out and it got late. Gotta get back to work.
“Ready?” Luke asks from behind me.
I shove my phone back in my pocket. “Yeah.”
When work’s finished, I change into my gym clothes, then drive up to the farm and walk around to the barn. Richard, Isla, and Jake are huddled around a tablet. Isla’s pointing at it, grinning, and Richard’s laughing. I manage to sneak through the doors unseen and scan the open space for Noah.
I find him kneeling on the floor, hammering a nail. My shadow blankets him, and he sighs loudly before looking up at me. His eyes trail over my shorts, lingering there a moment before moving to my face.
“Can I have a word?”
“I’m busy,” he mutters, dismissing me as he goes back to hitting the nail.
“Then we can talk here.”
His gaze shutters, and he puts down the hammer. As he gets to his feet, he tips his chin up like a defiant little fucker. “I’m not talking about it. Whatever you’re thinking. Don’t. Nothing happened, I’m fine. End of discussion.”
I frown at him. “That’s not at all reass—”
“Hey! Look at that, you got more than a word out of me.” He pats my chest and I look down at his hand. I’m one mouthy comment away from dragging him out of the barn and putting him over my knee.
“Have you come to help?” Isla nudges me with her shoulder, breaking the tension.
“No. I need to go to the gym.” I walk away, trying to ignore the voice in the back of my head telling me to stay.
It was just a bad dream.
I try to push away the memory of Noah’s body shaking the whole bed, and the way he sounded like he couldn’t breathe.
