by Hart, Emma
“Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” I stepped outside.
“No idea. But I’ll follow you anyway.”
“So cheesy.”
“Like those tater tots your mom served. Can I hire her to cook for me?” He closed the door behind him and took my hand, slipping his fingers between mine.
I groaned. “Don’t. She loves cooking. Couldn’t you tell by the banquet she served you?”
“You mean your dinners aren’t normally like that?”
“Oh, no, they are, but there was at least two extra casseroles there tonight.” I nudged him with my elbow. “She likes you.”
“I am pretty likable.”
“Here we go.” I sighed. “Mr. I Saved Your Life is back again.”
Noah laughed, nudging me right back. “Stop it. You know I’m messing with you.”
“I know. But I like messing with you, too.” I grinned. “Sorry about Aunt Bethel. She’s temperamental.”
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter. It was a great dinner, and your family is pretty normal compared to when you get all mine together.”
“What’s your family like?”
“My family?” There was a note of surprise in his voice. “Insane. Completely fucking insane, but they’re the best at the same time. My parents have been married since they were nineteen, and that’s pretty much the benchmark for most of my family.”
“Except you?”
“Pretty much. I think my parents knew I wasn’t the person who’d settle down at home, though. They knew I hated my hometown, and they weren’t surprised when I said I was moving here permanently.”
“You hate your hometown?”
He looked down at me. “You sound equal parts relieved and surprised about that.”
“I just—I am surprised, that’s all.” I shrugged in my attempt to be nonchalant about it. “I love my hometown.”
“I love it here, too.”
“So you’re not going to leave?”
“Whoa.” Noah stopped us on the sidewalk, pulling me to the side beneath some trees so someone walking their dog could go past us. “Where did that come from?”
A lump formed in my throat. “Nowhere.”
“Reagan.” He dropped my hand and trailed his fingers along the side of my face, pushing my hair away. “What do you mean?”
My stomach was in a knot. “My mom said something in the kitchen. About me being afraid that you’d leave. And… she was right.”
“You think I’d leave Creek Falls?”
“I don’t know. You admitted that you don’t really know anyone here. I had this, like, theory inside my head that it was my job to make sure you knew more people. That this felt like home for you.”
“Okay. Stop right there.” He cupped the side of my face. His eyes were warm on me, but there was a spark of amusement buried there, too. “Let me tell you this right now: Creek Falls feels like home to me. And you know why? It’s because of you. You make this town home, Reagan.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
My lips parted, but nothing came out. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Home isn’t always a place,” he said softly. “Sometimes home is a feeling, and that’s how you make me feel every single day. Whether you’re texting me shit about my favorite TV show or you’re sitting on my counter in one of my old t-shirts with a hangover. Even when you’re drunk and trying to dance on a bar. You feel like home to me.”
I fell into him, wrapping my arms around his waist. It was such a stupid thing, validation. But that was how I felt right now—validated. Like I mattered, like I was something to him. Really something.
Because I knew. I understood. I freaking well got it.
I felt the same.
Noah felt like home to me, too. And I didn’t even have one right now, but none of that mattered when I was with him. He was like an alternate universe where everything was okay just because he’d smiled.
And as he hugged me tightly, the thought struck me with the suddenness of a lightning bolt.
I was falling in love with Noah.
Out of nowhere, I was falling headfirst in love with him.
And I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to keep falling and spiraling and descending into the chaos of love until I was dizzy and breathless.
“Noah?” I whispered, turning my face so I wasn’t smooshed into his chest anymore.
“Yeah?”
“I think I’m falling in love with you.”
“Good,” he whispered back, lowering his mouth to my ears. “Because I know I’m falling in love with you.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
* * *
REAGAN
Home
Two Weeks Later
I looked around the open-plan space of the apartment.
It was hell.
The cupboards were rotting and the laminate in the living area was pulling up. I was no builder extraordinaire, but even I could tell this place was falling apart.
There was no way this was listed for my budget.
“It looks nothing like the pictures,” I said, looking at the real estate agent.
She grimaced. “Sometimes they’re not accurate.”
“Not accurate? Oh, my God, Dana. The pictures show a new apartment—this place looks like it was new fifty years ago.”
She sighed, tucking her short hair behind her ear. “Shall we move onto the next?”
“Yes. Please.” I followed her out of the apartment and headed downstairs while she locked up. She joined me minutes later and gave me the address for what I knew for a fact was a new building.
Thank God.
I got into my car and tossed the information pack for that apartment onto the passenger side of the car. I’d had a bad feeling about it before I’d even gotten here.
The fire report had come back as being caused from some faulty wiring on the ground floor. It’d shocked all of us, but the good news was that my insurance company had finally agreed to pay up.
It’d be at a snail’s pace, of course, but my dad had talked me into letting him put down my security deposit and I could pay him back.
My parents had money, but that didn’t mean I’d take it. They’d raised us both to work for what we wanted, and it was hard enough borrowing the money from them. It wouldn’t even dent the bank account, but it didn’t matter to me.
If I wasn’t so desperate for my own space again, I’d be waiting until the insurance paid out.
I tapped my fingers against my steering wheel as I drove across town. This new building was close to Noah’s house—within walking distance—and it was a real contender because of that.
As long as the inside matched the pictures.
That last place might have scarred me for life, and I’d barely set foot inside it.
I pulled up outside the apartment block. Dana was already waiting outside the main door, so I grabbed my purse and got out of my car.
“I think this one will be much better, Reagan!” She beamed at me, but there was pain in her eyes. She was desperate to lease me an apartment, that much was obvious.
“I hope so. I don’t think there are many more apartments available, and this is a good location for me.” I looked around the lobby. It was already a lot more modern than the other building.
It was a good sign.
“Oh?” Dana glanced back as she hit the button at the elevator. “Don’t you work on Main Street?”
She was nosy, this one. “It’s close to my boyfriend’s house,” I replied. “It looks better than the last building.”
She blinked as if my quick shutdown had shocked her. “Yes. It’s very new—less than a year old. High specifications throughout, and the owner of the building is more than happy for you to decorate throughout, as long as it’s returned to the white walls before you leave at the end of the tenancy.”
“Good to know.”
We stepped into the elevator and she hit the button for the
fourth floor. “It’s on the fourth floor with a lovely view out over the park,” she went on, still giving me her sales pitch. “Two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a large open-plan kitchen and living area. There are large windows in the living room and main bedroom providing a lot of natural light to the apartment…”
I trailed off as she carried on. It was quite remarkable how much she could talk, but I’d withhold my judgment until I’d been inside.
She’d told me the last place was clean, after all.
I quietly blew out a long breath as she guided me down a hallway. It was definitely looking clean and a lot better than the last one.
She stopped at apartment 4C and put the key in the door. “Come on in.”
I stepped into an apartment that was exactly as she’d described. Sleek, white, glossy cupboards took up one half of the room as the kitchen, with gorgeous black counters and a breakfast bar that jutted out with enough room for three stools. To the other side of me was a wall made of windows, letting the sunlight come streaming into the apartment. It glinted off the dark gray laminate floors, and I looked around appreciatively.
“Very nice,” I said. “Can I see the bedrooms?”
“Sure can. Come on through.” Dana showed me down a small hallway that led to the bedrooms and the bathroom.
The master bedroom had a small walk-in closet and was right next to the bright white bathroom that had the most beautiful corner bath I’d ever seen. The second bedroom was a good enough size, too—perfect for an office-slash-guest room.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the apartment.
Yet, somehow, I still wasn’t sold. Maybe it was all the white. I didn’t know, but even though I could see myself living here, I wasn’t excited about it. It probably didn’t help that I didn’t have any of my old furniture.
I couldn’t picture my stuff in this space, because I didn’t have any.
Still, I didn’t tell Dana any of that. I gave the appropriate compliments and when we’d reached the bottom of the building, I told her I’d let her know if I was going to apply for it.
With a sigh, I got in my car and headed back to the store to work the rest of my shift.
***
“They can’t all have been bad.” Noah handed me a glass of wine across the island.
We were standing in his kitchen, both of us fresh off work, and I was offloading about my morning of apartment-hunting while he was a good boyfriend who listened and fed me wine.
“They weren’t. That’s the thing!” I held out my hands and the wine sloshed in my glass. “The last apartment was gorgeous. It was a blank slate and fully up to date with modernization. I’m not even sure anyone’s lived there before. Plus I could pay extra for a pet deposit so that Poosh could come if you stayed over or had to work extra overtime.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“It was cold!”
His lips quirked to the side. “That’s what a little thing called the heating is for.”
I took a big mouthful of wine and swilled it before I swallowed. “No. I mean it’s cold. There was no life there. I couldn’t picture any furniture there, and I realized it’s because I don’t have any!”
His smile turned sympathetic. “You can buy some of your old stuff again. You found your sofa and your bed on Ikea, plus your dresser and some other stuff.”
I slumped onto one of the stools. “I know. But it’s not mine. The bed won’t have a scratch on the side and the sofa won’t be a little lumpy in the corner. This is so much harder than I thought it would be.”
Noah walked around and wrapped me in his arms, holding me against his chest. I turned my head and hugged him back around the waist, letting a deep breath sigh out of me.
I didn’t just want any apartment.
I wanted my apartment. But I couldn’t have it, because rumor had it that the building wouldn’t be rebuilt. And even if it were built again, it wouldn’t be the same.
I was being a huge whiny baby about this, and it was a classic case of first world problems, but I wanted my own space again.
Somewhere that was really, really my own.
“You’ll find somewhere, babe. I know you want to get out of your parents’, but it’s only been a few weeks. You can come here anytime you want. I did come home from work at two a.m. to find you in my bed the other day.”
I sniffed. “Mom and Aunt Bethel were fighting, and I couldn’t sleep. Besides, that’s your fault for not asking for your key back.”
He snorted. “What was I going to do? Tell you that I’m in love with you and then ask for my key back?”
“Do you want your key back?”
“No. I came home from a ten-hour shift and got to grab your ass while I fell asleep. You can keep the key.”
I laughed, pulling back a little. “True. Okay. I feel better. I guess I’m just fed up.”
Noah smiled, then dipped his head and kissed me. He pulled back to say something when his newly installed doorbell rang and Poosh went bananas. She had no issues if you knocked, but the doorbell?
Nope. Poosh was not a fan.
I jumped down to scoop her up. She instantly settled in my arms and snuggled in close to me.
“Hey, is Reagan here?” came my brother’s voice from the doorway.
I frowned. What the hell was Preston doing here?
“Hey, yeah, she’s in the kitchen. Come on in. Oh, hey, Halley,” was Noah’s reply.
I frowned even harder. Seriously. I gave myself a headache.
“Hey,” I said when they all came in. “Are you looking for me?”
Halley nodded. “We need to talk to you about something.”
“Are you pregnant?”
“No! Oh, my God. I have enough raccoons without having a miniature human, too,” she huffed.
“Not pregnant,” Preston repeated. “Okay? Not even close.”
Noah laughed.
“What do you want, then? Can’t you see I’m snuggling and drowning my sorrows?”
Preston and Halley shared a look. “Actually, the sorrows are why we’re here,” Halley said. “You’ve seen a bunch of apartments now, and none of them work. I know how desperate you are to get out of your parents’, so I met Preston for lunch and we had a talk.”
I eyed them both as Noah came and stood behind me. “What are you talking about?”
Preston glanced at Halley, who nodded. “I’m going to move in with Halley,” he said.
I blinked. “What?”
“I’m moving in with Halley.” His lips tugged to the side. “We’ve been dating for a few months, and I spend most of my time at her house anyway. It makes sense for both of us.”
I ran my tongue over my bottom lip. “Okay?”
“Reagan,” Halley said, taking a step forward. “Preston owns his apartment. He’s going to lease it to you.”
“If you want it,” he said quickly. “We’ve mentioned living together a few times anyway, but now felt like the right time. It’s yours if you want it. You’ll just pay the mortgage and that’s it. It’s less than your old place.”
I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say. All that stress I’d felt, the desperation to have my own independence again, and my brother and best friend were the ones who were handing it back to me.
“You won’t need to buy furniture,” Preston continued. “New mattress and stuff, but I’ll rent it to you fully furnished with all the major appliances.”
I still couldn’t speak, so I did the only thing I could. I shoved Poosh at Noah and threw myself at my brother. Tears stung my eyes as I hugged him tighter than I’d ever hugged anyone in my life.
“Thank you,” I whispered in his ear.
“Of course.” He stroked the back of my head. “You’re my sister. I want you to be happy.”
I pressed my face into his shoulder in an attempt to stem the flow of tears. It was a really bad idea because it didn’t work. Instead, I cried tears of happiness for a solid minute before I got my shit togethe
r and pulled back before I suffocated Preston.
“Thank you.”
Halley smiled. “We all win. I get my live-in raccoon feeder, and you get some privacy.”
Noah wrapped an arm around me with a grin.
“You knew about this!” I shoved him. “Oh, my God!”
He nodded. “He came by the fire station earlier and told me. I didn’t know Halley was coming, but we decided to kill two birds with one stone. Or three, in this case. I already ordered pizza for us all.”
I pursed my lips. “You’re so sly.”
Halley helped herself to my glass of wine. “You’re welcome, asshole.”
“Oh, shut up.” I took the new glass Noah handed me. I won. It had more wine in it than my old one. “I can’t believe you were all scheming behind my back.”
“Scheming is a strong word,” Noah said slowly. “I prefer to think of it more as planning.”
Preston handed Noah a beer and they clinked bottles. “Amen to that.” They both walked through to the living room, leaving me alone with Halley for a minute.
“You’re really going to live with my brother?”
She laughed, adjusting her glasses. “Yep. He was right. He’s always at my house, and you need somewhere comfortable to call home. You’re not ready to move in with Noah, and your parents’ house isn’t it. Plus, he’s your brother, so you can do what the hell you like to the place and he won’t be mad. Win, win.”
“Thank God,” I said, getting up. “Because his kitchen is old.”
“Yeah, I already told him that. There are links saved on my laptop for you.” She grinned. “Let’s go get the remote, or we’ll end up watching some kind of sports again.”
I shuddered. “I’ll be there in a second. I’m just going to let Poosh out.”
“’Kay.”
I put down my glass and patted my leg for Poosh to follow me. I opened the back door to Noah’s spacious yard, and she darted out between my legs. It was a warm evening, so I stepped out after her.
The sun was fading, painting the sky in beautiful shades of blue and orange, and the fresh, clear air wrapped around me like a blanket.
It’d been the craziest several weeks. From the moment Noah texted me that dick pic to right now. I’d lost almost everything in the fire, but ever since then, I’d gained so much more.
