Page 61 of Catching My Dreams

“How’s your neck feeling?” he asked once he’d joined her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

“It’s manageable.”

In other words, she was smiling through the pain. “If it gets really bad, just tell me, and we’ll go.”

“Okay,” she replied, pausing before they reached the front door and turning to him. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For taking care of me.” She bit her lip and shrugged. “For caring about me.”

Noah stepped closer and brushed a strand of her brunette hair behind her ear. “Always. You look beautiful, by the way.”

Ella’s cheeks went pink, and a pleased smile lit up her face. “You clean up nicely as well.”

Noah chuckled and led her the rest of the way to the door. He didn’t bother knocking before walking in. Ella looked like a deer caught in headlights as he closed the door behind them, but nobody attacked them in the space that served as a small entrance hall.

“They’re probably all in the kitchen,” Noah explained.

He took her hand in his and squeezed it in what he hoped was a reassuring grip.

“We’re here,” he called out.

He pulled a reluctant Ella with him toward the archway that led into the kitchen. Noah could see his dad stirring something on the stove, but nobody else was in plain sight.

“Who’s we?” he heard his stepsister ask, which meant that his dad had kept his mouth shut, as promised.

“This should be good,” Noah whispered to Ella just before they walked into the room, and all pandemonium broke out.

“What the hell?” Asher spat when he saw who Noah was holding hands with.

“Montgomery?” Chris asked at the same time, his wide eyes flitting between Noah and Ella.

“I see you two finally worked your shit out,” Riley said approvingly from where she stood next to her boyfriend. She had a wide grin on her face when she stepped out of Asher’s arms and enveloped Ella in a hug. “So happy you’re here, Ella.”

“What? No,” Asher sputtered, his narrowed gaze pinned on Noah. “Is this some kind of elaborate joke? Because there is no way in hell Ella would date you.”

“Gee, thanks, buddy.”

“You hate her,” he argued.

Noah gritted his teeth and gave Ella’s hand another reassuring squeeze. Maybe he should have spoken to his friend separately about this. “I really don’t.”

“I’m so confused.” Asher shook his head, his gaze bouncing between his two friends, who’d admittedly seemed to abhor each other and were now arriving at a family dinner hand-in-hand.

“We talked it out,” Ella told her friend.

“You talked it out?”

“Yes,” she replied. “He gave me a lift to and from college yesterday, and we cleared everything up.”

“Noah gave you a lift.”

“She needed a lift, so I gave her one,” Noah explained, his patience waning.

“Asher, it’s really okay,” Ella said softly. “We worked everything out.”

The ice in Asher’s eyes thawed slightly, but when he set his gaze on Noah again, his expression was cold and hard. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

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