Page 53 of Catching My Dreams

She watched him leave the living room, smiling when he paused to give Archie, who was lying on the carpet, a tummy scratch. He’d become a mystery in the last twenty-four hours, and Ella still had no idea what to think of him. All she knew was that she liked this new version of him far too much.

Too bad she didn’t know if it was real.

One movie turned into two, and two turned into five, and before Ella knew it, they’d finished two cups of coffee each, eaten dinner, and Noah had warmed up her heat pack no less than seven times.

“Okay, I’m calling it,” Ella said through a yawn as the credits of Sense and Sensibility rolled. “I’m exhausted.”

“Oh,” Noah murmured, sounding disappointed. “Do you need help with anything before I leave?”

Ella knew she should say no and walk him out the door, but she felt oddly disappointed as well. Her mind scrambled to think of something she needed help with, but she couldn’t come up with anything. “I don’t think so.”

“I guess I better head out then.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

The two of them stood up and walked to the front door in silence. Neither of them moved to open it once they’d reached it.

Ella shifted on her feet, her mind still working on finding an excuse for him to stay. “Thank you for everything. I’m sure you had better things to be doing today.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Just when she thought he was done surprising her, he went and said something like that. Ella swallowed and finally found the courage to ask the question that had been on her mind since he’d arrived at her house in a storm of desperation and worry.

“Why are you here, Noah?”

“Because you needed me,” he whispered, his eyes lowering to her lips. “And because I want to be.”

“I heard you that day, you know.”

His gaze snapped up to meet hers, and his brows furrowed in confusion. “What day?”

“The day you told Asher and Chris that I was just some annoying tag-along, running after all of you like a stray puppy.” Ella had never thought she’d admit what she’d overheard him saying to Asher and Chris, but she knew it needed to be said.

His eyes widened, flaring with surprise.

“It was why I stopped talking to you and why I threw away that card.”

“Shit, Ella, what you heard…” He shook his head. “I didn’t mean a single word.”

Her throat tightened, the familiar sting of tears prickling at her eyes. “Why did you say it then?”

“Because Asher and Chris wouldn’t stop teasing me about the crush I had on you, and I—” His words cut off, and he shook his head. “I just wanted them to stop.”

Ella’s lips parted, but she wasn’t sure if she could believe him.

“So you told them I was just a nuisance to you?”

His eyes closed with shame. “Yes, even though that was the furthest thing from the truth.”

“I really liked you, Noah, and when I overheard you say that…”

He lifted his hands to cup her cheeks, and he moved forward so that only inches remained between them. “I’m so sorry. I wish I’d been brave enough to tell them the truth. I wish I hadn’t given a shit about what they thought.”

“I loved you, you know,” she admitted quietly. “Even after that, which is why it hurt so much when you started to be so cruel to me.”

He flinched. “I know it’s not an excuse, but I thought you’d abandoned me, and I just wanted to hurt you as much as you hurt me.”

“I know,” she replied in a hoarse whisper. She’d figured out that much after what he’d told her the previous day. “I understand that now, and I’m sorry I never told you the truth. If I’d just told you what I overheard, things never would have gotten so bad between us.”

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