Page 74 of Falling for Fury

“Yeah, you know, all the swoony words and sweet nothings. It’s very Romeo.” She winks at me and my heart reaches for her. I want to pull her to me and never let her go. Let nothing hurt her or touch her. Pause these moments. I finally got her to a point of trusting me, knowing everything I do about her trust issues, her judgement of people. She will never forgive me for this. “You didn’t answer me?”

“Uhh, yeah. I’m good, just… tired.” I give her a soft smile, kiss her on the cheek, and turn my back to her as I enter the shower. She says nothing, but I hear the bathroom door close quietly behind her as she leaves the bathroom. My heart sinks, and this feeling of everything falling away from me settles deep within me. Everything I worked for, everything I love, is about to come crashing down.

Addison

Noah has been acting weird all morning. Since he left to go have a shower, I have no idea what changed. I went over our conversations with a fine-toothed comb and came up empty. Other than the fact he only kissed one of my cheeks. I didn’t realize how much I adored those kisses until I realized I was waiting for the second when he turned his back on me.

Unless it was about last night, everything we talked about? But it just didn’t make sense. All the sweet things he said to me after, he couldn’t be affected by any of those things if he was able to say all that he said after.

I think it was always meant to be you.

Unless he had sex goggles on. I mean, I am no stranger to them. I was pretty much wearing them from the moment I met him, clouding my judgment until he finally wormed his way through my defenses against him. I’ve spent weeks looping my positive thoughts to drown out the panic, ignoring the sadness in the corner so I don’t self-sabotage, and now I feel stupid. Noah helped lower my walls, between holding me through my panic attack and teaching me how to love baths again. It feels like he quite literally held my hand through all the chaos, bringing me out the other end. But did I hide from my own intuition? Is something up and I’ve just ignored it for so long?

You know what? No, it’s fine. I won’t be in my head about it. Everyone is entitled to their bad days. If anyone knows that, it’s me. He is allowed to have his day, his feelings, and I will show him I’m not going anywhere. He says my emotions don’t scare him, well, I will be that for him, too. I’m not going anywhere, Romeo.

“Do I really need to make the trip out? Can’t you just give me the news now?”

“And what makes you think I have any idea what this family meeting is about?” Ava has always been such a terrible liar, also horrific at keeping secrets. I roll my eyes despite knowing she can’t see me.

“Because you’re insisting, and you literally said in your message, and I quote, ‘you’re going to want to hear this in person’. How would you know I needed to hear it in person if you didn’t already know what it is? Look, if it’s a divorce, I couldn’t care less. In fact, you know what, email me the details and I’ll host a fucking celebration.”

“Jesus, Addison. You could show a little sympathy. Why are you so blunt about the prospect of our parents getting a divorce? You know, just because you’ve given up on love doesn’t mean everyone else has.” She hangs up the phone, and I get slammed with instant guilt. Anger is there, too, rearing her ugly head. Anger at the situation, at Ava for not growing a vagina and telling me what it is, anger at myself for being such an asshole to my sister when all she does is love me. I haven’t told anyone in my family about how serious Noah and I are yet. I don’t know why. They already knew something was up given the whole graduation thing, but I guess I just wanted this little piece of joy for myself before it was tainted. Guilt always settles in my belly when Noah asks about them, not having any idea they don’t know about us. I’m sure they know, just maybe not the extent.

I let out a huge grunt as I flop myself face first on to his bed and muffle a louder groan, unable to shut off my head or give the growing anger an outlet. The bathroom door opens and the masculine scent of Noah envelops me, along with the minty soap and steam.

“Hey grumpy gills. Life just isn’t that bad.” I can hear his shit-eating grin in his tone as he fails to hold in his chuckle at my five-year-old tantrum. I sit up and face him, my face pulled into a familiar scowl I haven’t felt in a while.

“Ava knows what’s going on and she is refusing to tell me. This is why I have trust issues. Honestly, I’d rather just find out now than traveling to Virginia just to be told I’m right.”

“Virginia? Wait, right about what? What is going on?” Noah drops his amused expression, and his towel, while pulling on a pair of boxers and a T and taking a seat next to me on the bed.

“Apparently, they need me to come home for this stupid family meeting.”

“Now?”

I nod, and Noah pulls his lips into a tight sympathetic smile, and I can tell he is disappointed. Not in me, just in how this is ruining a nice week with his family. I lean in and give him a soft kiss on the lips.

“Don’t worry about me. It doesn’t look like I’m getting out of this. Ava isn’t going to budge now that I bitched her out. I’ll book a flight from here, see if I can get one in the evening so that we can still have the morning together.” I pat his leg and make for the bathroom to give myself a shower when Noah grabs my elbow and pulls me to him.

“Wait, you’re going?”

“Didn’t you hear everything I just said?” I giggle, but it dies when I see the seriousness on Noah’s face tying me in knots. The rage at my family comes back, and the guilt eats me alive.

“Okay, I’ll come with you.”

“Noah, I can’t ask you to do that.” My heart grows a few sizes, honestly the thought of having Noah there, supporting me and being in my corner, grounding me and keeping me from blowing my lid at my parents, sounds really fucking awesome, but he misses his mom, and his sister, even if he refuses to admit it. I can’t let him leave with me. “You never get to spend time with your family. I’m not taking you away from them. I am sure Iris would murder me for stealing her baby boy.” That panty-melting gorgeous smile grows across his face. His deep chuckle alerts me to how quickly this man can pivot from worried, to cheeky, to loving, to the Greek sex-god I love. He pulls me closer to him.

“Please, let me come with you.”

“It’s just a family meeting, Noah. There won’t be anything interesting, and I can promise you there is no reason for you to come.” His face flashes with an expression that is gone too quickly for me to place before he continues to insist, changing tactics.

“If you keep saying no, I am just going to hold you here…” He nuzzles my neck and places soft teasing kisses along my neck. “Between the sheets. Making you moan my name, and… what was it you call me… Romeo? Oh yeah, I’ll have you screaming it when I’m done. I’ll keep you locked up in here, sated and compliant, until your sister has to come all the way to Chicago to pull you from my bed.” Where did this man come from? “Please, Ads.” His deep chocolate eyes meet mine, and the lust is replaced with sincerity and something that feels like pain. His big brown eyes melt my heart and crash through all my defenses, and I nod at him before he places a desperate kiss to my lips, pulling me tight to his body.

“Okay, you can get in there and shower now.” He smacks my ass and I giggle as I watch him walk towards his suitcase, admiring his imposing form, all olive skin and muscle. Yum.

We managed to score a flight, landing us in VA around 6pm, so we head into town to collect Iris and E to spend the day in the city for lunch. The weather is perfect for an early afternoon stroll, sun shining and the late spring breeze flowing through my hair. The streets are busy as we make our way down casually to the cafe, Noah ahead with his mother’s arm looped in his. He had decided not to do work today, made a quick phone call to Matt and Caleb and said he’d rather just spend the last day with his family before we left. He had assured me he was perfectly happy to leave and said I didn’t need to feel guilty, that he wanted to be there for me. I believed him, but it didn’t stop me from still feeling bad.

He and Iris are engaged in conversation. They look tense, but Iris beams with pride at her son. Evie struts next to me, her arm looped in mine. “So, what is it that you see in that málaka?” E says from next to me, very matter-of-factly, as I choke on my tongue.

---