Page 20 of Noah

I walked by him a few times. He made the cutest humming sounds as he enjoyed his wings. It endeared him to me. The next night was the same. I was waiting for him. This time I clutched my chest above my heart when he smiled at me, making Brody smile even wider.

I could get used to seeing that every day.

Brody happy.

"What are our topics for this evening?" I asked him once he had his drink.

"My job."

"Ah … I was wondering about that. You know so much about mine."

"I'm a lawyer for BC's Crown Counsel."

I stepped back, eyebrows raised. "Wow. That's impressive. I bet you're good at it."

"It's on me to make sure the trial is fair. I do my best."

"What made you study law?"

"I like the truth."

"Is the truth ever really known in a trial?"

"I try to suss it out."

"Your mom must be proud of you."

Brody nodded. "She always told me I could be anything I wanted to be. Even when the school told her it wouldn't be possible for me to succeed as an adult, she never gave up."

I balled up a bar cloth and pitched it at the sink. "Why the hell did they say that?"

"I didn't speak much as a kid. Until I started having assignments and tests in school, they thought I was academically challenged. The kids used to harass me something terrible."

"You have no trouble speaking now."

"It took me a long time to get here. It doesn't come naturally to me."

I leaned on the bar top until our eyes were level. "I like the sound of your voice." Brody's gaze flitted away and then came back to me. He hummed a little as he watched me.

"Thank you. Yours is low and lovely."

"Mm." God, I wanted to lean closer to him and lick his lips. I stepped back before I did something that might mess this all up. I liked the slow speed that Brody and I were moving.

"I won't see you again until Monday," Brody said. "I cook for myself on the weekend."

That would be why he hadn't shown up last weekend. And here I thought I'd put him off by not sleeping with him. Turns out, the guy just had a life. I felt like an idiot.

"My friends and I meet here every Sunday."

"Every Sunday?"

I smiled. "We've been meeting for almost twenty years … every Sunday."

Brody's eyebrows almost infiltrated his hairline. "Twenty years?"

"There are four of us. We met in junior high school." I hooked a thumb in Liam's direction. "That beautiful man is one of them."

"Did I hear my name?" Liam shouted over his shoulder.

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