Page 86 of Fall From Grace

“As roommates,” I told him as I pulled out a picture of Dustin and Rachel on my phone. “Here’s his girlfriend.” I showed him and waited for him to look better or something.

He just arched an eyebrow. “I have Facebook, remember?” Whew, he was being an asshole. I deserved it, but I couldn’t help but want to make it better. I couldn’t stand him being so not Noah with me.

When we were quiet again, he finally turned his head back to me. “Are you going back?” My stomach swam with butterflies.

“Noah Phillips,” a nurse called his name.

He got up and I did too. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going with you,” I replied. “I don’t want to sit out here and wait,” I added so he wouldn’t object.

He sighed, and I followed behind him again. The nurse checked his weight and things and we were placed into a room to wait for the doctor. “So, you’re only here right now because you thought I was hurt?” he asked. And before I could answer he said, “You don’t have to answer, I can tell by the way you look, like you rushed here without any thought… How fucking sweet of you to come back only when you think I might be laid up in the hospital.”

“I think I should go,” I said quickly as I stood up.

“Yeah, please,” he dared to say.

I took a deep breath and sat back down. “I’m staying.”

“You do whatever the hell you want anyway,” he muttered seconds before the doctor walked in. The awful mood between us was thick as they x-rayed his hand and diagnosed his finger broken. He was sent on his way with a finger cast.

Even the way he walked ahead of me looked angry, like he was pissed at the world or just me. I tagged along behind him in silence admiring the shape of his butt in those jeans and the way my body felt despite the fact that he was angry as hell.

He stopped and I bumped into him. I backed up as he turned around and glared at me, his eyebrows in angry slants. “Are you with anyone?”

“What? No.” I shook my head. “Are you?” He didn’t answer, instead, he turned around and started walking away from me. I watched him go before I started running. “Noah.” I grabbed his arms but he kept walking out of the hospital door. “Fine, whatever. I don’t care.”

My insides were crying out.

I spotted Janet sitting on a bench feeding Gus ice cream. She saw us and smiled then frowned as she spotted Noah hauling his butt into the parking lot and leaving me behind. I didn’t know what else to do other than to go grab my dog and leave.

“This didn’t go like I hoped,” she told me with a frown as I picked up Gus. “I’m sorry for what I did, if that counts for anything. I just wanted you to see where he is in life. You’d be surprised at how far he’s gotten. He’s doing good for himself.”

“It’s okay, really… I just didn’t think about what might happen if I had to lose him even as a friend one day.”

“Noah’s feelings for you are beautiful, something so precious and big that I hate to see it ruined because you think that you don’t deserve to be happy. You do, believe me, moms want their children to be happy, yours is probably crying as she watches over you.”

I blinked away tears as I nodded and walked away.

“Come to the house tomorrow,” she told me.

I looked back and shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Nonsense… It’s a good chance to make peace with Noah, besides there’s something I want to show you.” She winked as she got up. “I better go check on Dean.”

36

She’s so fucking good at it… showing up unannounced or unexpected, sending my heart, mind, and body into a state of panic. With no call or text—nothing, she pops up where I can see her before I can go get her.

Whether she’s sixteen or twenty-two, she has a knack for making me act a fool. I lost a touchdown, now I broke a finger.

I’m angry. I’m so damn angry because I was so happy to see her standing there, rosy-cheeked and cuter than she was the months she left me in sleeping clothes with Gus in her hand… only she didn’t come back to me, she came back for the fear of losing me. I’m happy that she cares, but I’m pissed that it takes her thinking I’m hurt to get her to finally come back, right when I was days away from going to get her.

So typically… Grace wouldn’t be Grace if she didn’t corrupt my well thought out plan to seduce her into coming back home with me.

Regardless that I stormed off on her, I already knew I’d make my way to her.

She wasn’t going anywhere, at least, not without me.