Noah (5th Street series)

Chapter 21 - Part 1

A test is what this felt like, and Noah always sucked at tests. She'd let him kiss her, and then she dropped this on him. His mind raced to try to figure this out. He searched for the perfect answer, but there were no two ways around it. Rita was exactly as Roni had once put it—his drive-by one-night stand. But in Rita's case, it'd been far more than one time.

He stood his ground, trying to stay cool as Roni's eyes sought something in his. "She's just someone I hang with—well, hung with," he amended quickly, "not anymore, in the past." He shrugged, trying to make as little of it as possible. "We were both single, and neither of us was looking for anything deep."

"Why not anymore?"

The fact that she'd even ask that pissed him off a little. "Because it doesn't feel right anymore."

"But it did the day after Thanksgiving?"

God, he could kill Hector. "That wasn't planned, Roni. Actually nothing with her ever was. For the last few years, me and her—"

"Years?"

Shit! She nudged away from him. but he refused to let her out of his hold. "Yeah, but she only comes down a few times a year."

She lifted her purse over her shoulder in a move to put some distance between them. "So you just sleep with her, no strings attached? That's the extent of your relationship?"

"It used to be, not anymore. And yes, that was the extent of it."

Roni's eyes bounced around, obviously not wanting to make contact with his any longer. She shivered now that his body wasn't keeping her warm. "But she's Gio's cousin; you never talk to her or stay in touch when she's gone?"

"Let's get you inside, Roni," he said, reaching for her hand. "It's freezing out here."

They started toward the back door of her house. "You know what? Never mind," she said as they reached her back door, "it's none of my business anyway."

"Yes, it is," Noah said, feeling a little panicked about the sudden shift in mood.

"No, it's not. What you do in your personal life—"

"You are my personal life now." Noah stepped in front of her. "I told you I'm in love with you, and I meant it. I'll go along with whatever you say—follow your rules. I'll go as slow as you need me to, and if you wanna know about my personal life, I'll tell you whatever you wanna know." He wanted to make this perfectly clear because he sure as hell wanted to know about hers. He couldn't demand anything yet, but he'd set the example right now. "Rita was convenient, okay? That's all she's ever been. We never made any plans. She never even calls to tell me she's in town. Like the day after Thanksgiving, I didn't know she was going to be there."

"Why wouldn't you know? She's here every holiday, right?"

"But she usually leaves right away, so I was caught off guard, and what happened that day ..." He was saying too much, and he knew it, but her accusatory tone made him panic. "That's not why I went to Gio's if that's what you're implying, but I will say, in all fairness, back then I had no reason to even hope for anything between you and me. You made it seem so impossible. Things are different now. Everything changed after New Year's. Shit, my feelings had changed weeks before that. That's why I spent the entire holidays with you. But even the day after Thanksgiving, Roni, after I saw her there, I wasn't shooting for anything to happen, I swear. But it just did."

She shook her head and walked around the kitchen island, setting her bag and keys down on the counter. "Boggles the mind," she muttered.

"What does?" he asked, following her like a puppy dog.