He had been coming here, to the store, looking for me?
Something swelled in my chest, my heart felt like it was about burst.
So, he did miss me just as I had missed him then?
"I just want to make sure she is okay, please" Noah's voice cracked, he was in pain, my fingers itched to touch him, but my feet stayed planted exactly where they were. "At least give her my number and tell her to call me, hell, tell her to text me, anything. Please"
"Leave" Eduardo was becoming impatient, without a doubt worried I would come out of the backroom and hear this little conversation. Just like I currently was doing.
"At least tell me that she is okay?"
Stepping fully into the store needing to be closer to him, I could feel the electricity begin to surge. As if sensing me, Noah turned slightly, and as soon as our eyes connected, I couldn't stop my feet from moving as fast as possible without breaking into a run. Before I knew it, my body collided with his, my arms anchoring around his broad back.
He was here.
My eyes filled with tears as his own arms finally wrapped tightly around me, pulling me as close to him as possible. For the first time in weeks, I felt like everything was right in the world.
"You're here?" I whispered into his chest, and the tears began to fall.
"Where else was I going to find you, Sneaks?" Feeling his head drop down onto mine, it gave me the comfort I had been craving without him. For the first time in what I felt like forever, I could finally breathe again.
Eduardo cleared his throat in the background, clearly uncomfortable.
Loosening my grip and stepping out of Noah's warmth, I turned my eyes onto my brother, who at least had the decency to look a little ashamed for what he had been caught doing.
"What have you done?" Anger seeped from every pore. He had been keeping us apart. This whole time I could have had Noah to lean on. He would have stopped the bad dreams. I'd needed him.
"V, you don't need him around." He had both fists clenched, as if he was ready to start throwing some punches.
"No!" My voice sounded firm. "You don't get to make decisions for me, not before all of this and definitely not now" he was losing his god dammed mind if he thought any differently. "This is my life, Ed, mine, and mine alone. You can't decide things for me, and you really shouldn't have done this"
Did he not realize how unhappy I was?
How much I was in need if this man, my Diablo?
His eyes hardened as he looked up at Noah behind me, who was half a foot taller than my brother, easily.
"How long have you been turning him away?" When he stayed silent, my voice roared, "HOW LONG?" Not caring at who was in the store, the sadness I had felt the previous hour had erupted into our anger. And it was directed to one person, my idiot of a brother.
"Sneaks?" A warm hand touched my back, instantly putting the fire in me out. How did he do that? One-touch and he calmed me down more than anyone else in my entire life?
Turning to face him, I couldn't stop the smile that was playing on my lips, "Diablo."
A soon as the word left my mouth, his face broke out into the most prominent, dimple giving smile I had ever seen him grace me with.
"I have come every other day, pretty much, since the cops released me from questioning.” He admitted, taking one and then two steps towards me, closing the distance once again. The only way we could be closer was if we were actually touching. I wanted to wrap my arms around him again. I was itching to do so.
"You moved"
"You've been to the apartment?" His eyes crinkled at the edges as a warm hand enclosed one side of my face.
"I was looking for you." Closing my eyes, I just enjoyed being in his presence, his touch.
"I'm staying with Jack" at that, I opened my eyes. After what had happened in his apartment, I was glad he had his brother to lean on. Hopefully, they would have a good relationship going forwards.
Smiling, he wrapped those big arms around me again.
"You're here?" A small smile played on my lips as the door to the store opened, the little bell telling us someone had arrived. Eduardo gave us one last look before turning his attention to one of our regular customers, who was undoubtedly coming to collect a particular item we had ordered in for him. We were lucky enough to have some great contacts that could get us items that you could not get at any regular record shop. It’s what made us popular with the real music heads, why people came to us when they were in town. Why people paid us to acquire items have had them shipped out to them all over the country. Once, we even had something sent to Canada.
"I came to claim my date, Sneaks," Noah pulled my attention back to him. What was he talking about? And then it hit me like a train, I had offered to play him a vinyl when he claimed it was easier to just download something to listen too. Well, I was going to show him.
"It was never a date." Trying to hide the smile threatening to take over my face, I told him.
"Really, this again?" He rolled his eyes in a way that sent flames through my veins. "You clearly offered to play me a vinyl, and I distinctly remember clarifying at the time that it would be a date."
"You been hitting that head again?" Tapping a finger on his temple, I added, "I'm serious. Maybe you need to get a cat scan or something, Noah. Brain damage is no joke".
"Date" was all he said, the blue sparkling in his eyes, trying to break through all of that gray in them.
"You're hearing all kinds of things like this doofus telling you I didn't want to see you, and now you're back on this date bull."
"Why do you think I came back almost every day?"
"Every day?" Why had Eduardo told him to go away, that I didn't want to see him? Was it just him, or were they all on it? My parents, Allie?
"Yeah, I knew you would come back soon enough. I knew I could get this date."
"It is not a date." Playfully slapping both of my palms against his firm chest, I laughed as he flinched a little.
"Yeah, it is," his eyes sparkled even more. Dropping his mouth down to my ear, he whispered, "I missed you, I even miss you calling me the fucking devil. Maybe you're right. Maybe I have got brain damage."
Slapping him playfully once more, my eyes zeroed in on his lips. The urge to kiss him consumed me, but there were customers in the store. My brother was less than two feet away from us, no doubt watching us like a hawk. Now was not the time.
"Lay this date on me Sneaks," he smirked down at me. "I like the hair, by the way," moving his hand, he ran two fingers through the bubble gum pink color.
"Thanks," I smiled. I had to bleach it a lot to dye it, but it was still in good condition, much to my surprise, "Yours is shorter" his hair was almost back to its natural warm blond color.
"You don't miss the beard?" He rubbed his chin.
"God, no," I laughed. It did look good on him, but this was how he looked best with slight stubble, and that jaw so sharp it looked like the edge of a knife. Like it could cut glass and not just my heart.
"So, this date?" His smile grew, knowing he was pushing my buttons. Just as he always did, "Do I get to pick the album at least?"
Pushing my hands into his hard chest to put some distance between us, biting into my bottom lip trying to fight the smile threatening to break out.
"Plus," he went to lift his t-shirt up. I had to stop him. Unfortunately.
"What are you doing? There are people in here" he couldn't just go around ripping his chest out whenever he wanted. Plus, I wasn't sure if I even had the willpower to stop myself from having him right in the store. Be damned anyone in it, including my brother.
"But I have something to show you."
"Now is not the time, Diablo."
Groaning but giving me a smile at the same time, he dropped the hem of his t-shirt.
"Date" was all he said, nodding his head.
How was he so annoying?
One minute this man was trying to strip off, and the next, he is going back to this date bullshit
train he has been on for the past few minutes.
"Remind me why I missed you again?"
"You missed me?" At that, the dimples came out.
Did he have some kind of button that turned them on? Where was it, and could I have access to it?
"Don't even, you know I did. I haven't been able to sleep properly."
"Me either," looking up into his stormy gray eyes, I found myself sighing and stepping away from him.
Turning on my heal, I looked at him over my shoulder, shouting, "It is not a date!" As I walked to the back of the store, knowing he would follow me.
He did, and everything in me hoped that he always would.
Epilogue
Valentina
Ten Years Later
"I married the devil," why does he do this? My kitchen counter was always the same when Noah made anything to eat. Condiments smeared all over the counter, breadcrumbs on the floor, and cutlery besides the sink. I mean, how hard is it to put it in actual the sink? It's literally right there next to where he put it. Freaking Diablo.
"You love me," his laugh echoed around the house as he grabbed shoes for the boys, and at that exact moment, a duo of screams came from the back yard, which only made me groan. What could possibly be going on outside now?
"And I gave birth to his little demon babies." Dumping the cutlery into the sink, I felt more than saw my husband come into the kitchen.
"And you love them" rolling my eyes I didn't respond to that. Those kids were my life, even if they ransacked my house on a daily basis. Sometimes it looked like a tornado had ripped its way through it, leaving nothing but destruction in its path.
Dropping down onto one of the breakfast bar stools, he just winked, those stupid dimples staring right at me. Those things got him out of a lot of arguments over the years, and somehow, we always ended up in bed too. Go figure.
"Seriously, Noah?" pointing the dishcloth at him. "Now is not the time to be flashing those things at me," which of course, only made them more prominent. Asshole.
"Sneaks, just chill, it's not that big of a deal." There he sat, half-dressed in just a pair of shorts.
"Not that big of a deal, he says," my grumble only made him laugh. This man could rile me up in a way no other could. I freaking loved it, and he knew it too.
"We're going to be late" my entire family would already be at the beach setting up, and as always, we would be the last to arrive. "I bet even Jack will be there before us."
"They'll survive" he paused as a crashing sound came from outside, but when there was no screaming or cries for 'Mom or Dad' just laughter, he added, "Plus we have five kids, Sneaks, we are never going to be on time, it is physically impossible."
"There's running late, and then there is just plain rude when you're hours late Noah" it was going to take us a good hour, if not more, to get to the beach from our house, and I was not in the mood for my Mom's raised eyebrows when we finally did arrive.
"You have met my parents, right?" Mom had already been mad that we had paid for them to stay in a hotel, again. There was no way, even if we'd had the room, with the seven of us living in this house that I would have coped with them staying with us. My brain hurt at the thought of that. No, thank you.
"They love me," he had me there. My husband and the giant pain in my ass could do no wrong in my parent's eyes. They looked at him being my knight in shining armor after what had happened so many years ago, the events that had thrown us together. I mean, even when he knocked their only daughter up, less than two months after we started officially dating, they still loved him.
If Jack was his family's golden child, then Noah had hustled his way into being the golden child in the Borroni household, and he wasn't even a blood relative. In fact, when we told them we were moving to California, they had been upset with me but not with him in the slightest. It may have been my dream like I had told him many years ago when we had been sat around a campfire while hiding out in the woods to live in California. But it was for his business, and mine too, I guess.
We had expanded our music store. Eduardo has stayed in New York to manage the local branches. Yes, you heard me correctly, branches. We had three across New York and two in California. Noah kept telling me we should expand into more states, but with five kids, there was no way I was going to sacrifice any of the time I could spend with them. They were the most important people in my life, aside from my husband, of course. Said husband who's streaming company was rivaling Netflix in subscribers’ month on month.
Our daughter and eldest, Emilia, stood with her hands on her hips as she surveyed the damage her four brothers were currently causing throughout the yard. Four boys. We were going to be eaten out of house and home when they were teenagers. I would be spending my entire days cooking and shopping on repeat, like freaking Groundhog Day.
"What is wrong with you all" she shouted, "such little terrors."
A hand running down my back made me jump. "She is so like you, it isn't even funny, Sneaks," leaning my body back into his chest, I sighed into him as those big, tattooed arms wrapped around me.
"You say that like it’s a bad thing," my eyes narrowed, warning him that the next word out of his mouth could be the very thing that could put my pink Chuck Taylors on my feet right between his legs. "Try me, Diablo."
"Never" was all he said before pressing his lips to my forehead.
Turning around so that my chest was pressed against his bare one, I couldn't help but run my fingers over the Chuck Taylors tattoo over his heart, only two inches big, but it meant everything to me. It was something he had gotten in the time when we had been separated, back when my brother thought he could control my life.
A sudden flash of a wild Nico running past us by grabbed both of our attention, his little steps pounding on the stairs. What is he up to now?
"If we don't leave soon, my Mom is going to be on the phone." And she would be. My love for her was like no other, but that woman was never happy. I mean, it might have been justified when I kind of ruined dinner one night. Noah had come over for the first time for Sunday night dinner, and she made the God damned evil thing she called mushroom pasta. My mouth would not except it entering my body again, never ever again.
The infamous Valentina Borroni temper may have gotten the best of me, and I don't think she has ever quite forgiven me for saying that her cooking sucked, and I would rather eat anything cold out of a tin than eat that crap again. Yeah, I sucked that day. Even if it was true. Noah and I had ended up eating Taco Bell in the car that night, not long after.
"KIDS, WE NEED TO GO BEFORE YOUR MOM LOSES HER SHH…STUFF before she loses her stuff," he corrected himself before I had to. We tried not to swear around the kids, but it was a god damned near impossible.
Those little demons could make anyone slip. But god did I love them with everything I had.
"Nice save" I chuckled, throwing a couple of extra juice boxes into the cooler. One thing I had learnt as a mom, there is no such thing as too many juice boxes, especially when a long car journey was on the schedule.
"DAD!!"" Nico's voice screamed from upstairs. I knew what was coming, hell Noah knew what was coming.
"I don't know why you're smiling Sneaks; this is just going to make us even later"
"Worth it" one hundred percent worth it.
"DAD, I'VE BLOCKED THE TOILET, AGAIN"
Both Emilia and I groaned. Her is disgust, and me in glee watching my husband grab the washing up gloves that would be going straight in the trash afterward and then trudging up the stairs.
"Dad duty time" my laugh sounded a little evil even to my own ears.
"I think we need to have some changes to these mom and dad duties" his voice floated down the stairs.
"No, I'm good, thank you" I could almost see him flipping me off through the ceiling.
As we finally piled into the car, I couldn't stop my eyes from falling back to my husband as he put his seatbelt on.
Noah Hartman, the love of my life, th
e father to my marvelous demon children, who I loved more than I thought it was possible to love another human being. Even if they did wreck my house, among other things.
We may have been thrown into chaos when we first met, and he may have been a giant asshole, and sometimes he still was.
But he was my asshole, he was my Diablo, and I would forever be his Sneaks.
The End.
Playlist
Devil In The Elevator: A Hartman Romance Page 21
