Page 48 of Fall From Grace

“Oh, we know who you are,” Lance informed me and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Okay, you had your fun,” Noah told them. “We’re heading up to the cabin, tell your dad I said thanks for letting me bring her up here.”

“We picked up what you asked for,” Lance said then winked at me. I gave Noah a strange look and he just shook his head.

“What was he talking about?” I asked once we started the opposite direction of them.

“You’ll see.” It only took a couple of minutes to get to the cabin. It was small and simple. I saw power lines so it had electric. “It’s not your treehouse but it’s close enough,” he told me as he unlocked the door and turned on the lights. Everything was all in one small room. A small gas stove and table with a bed at the far end on the left. There was also a small TV. The bathroom had to be the door on the right.

“This place is cute, I like it.”

He turned back and smiled. “I knew you’d like it.” He walked over to the TV. “I’ve spent a lot of weekends here with Lance and Jack.”

“They seem like decent guys despite giving me a heart attack earlier,” I told him.

“They are,” he agreed.

“I’m glad you were able to make friends… It seems like life has been good to you the last few years…”

“It has, but nothing was worth losing you for that time.”

I placed my hands together before he tossed something at me and I had to jump to catch it. I smiled when I saw what it was. “The Neverending Story.” We watched both one and two religiously during the winter months when we were stuck inside.

“That’s what I had them pick up for me.”

I blushed because I had thought they had been talking about something very different. “Oh.”

He smirked. “Yeah,oh.” He took off his jacket. “I don’t know what you’re thinking but I’m sure you shouldn’t with a boyfriend.”

“You don’t know anything,” I muttered and he turned around,don’t make eye contact Grace. “So, they’re okay with you staying overnight with friends and things?” I changed the subject.

He nodded. “Yeah, they trust me.” I took off my jacket and sat down on the small yellowish sofa. “What time do you have to be home?” he asked.

“Eleven.”

“So, we should probably leave around ten,” he thought about it. “That gives us a few hours.”

“Put in the movie,” I shooed him up when he was about to sit down next to me.

“Always the Priss.” But he put it in. “Popcorn?”

I shook my head. “No, just come sit down and let me see if you’re still as comfortable as you use to be.” I patted the spot next to me.

He plopped down and my shoes were already off when I put my feet on him. I leaned back. “Ah, yep. Nothing like the comfort of having you next to me.”

“Yeah,” his voice sounded weird.

Only as the movie played, we were oddly quiet and what was once comfortable was quickly becoming an outlet of energy that flowed between us. I found myself eyeing him instead of the movie, then he’d do the same to me. I couldn’t find any words to say that wouldn’t end with me admitting that I haven’t moved on from where we left off at thirteen. Noah was quiet too, but I didn’t know his reason like I did mine. He rubbed his fingers against the bottom of my feet through my sock and I’d snicker then get quiet again. Our eyes kept meeting across the glow of the low-lit room. Sparks were freaking flying was what it felt like to me, but I also tasted the fear as it rested at the end of my tongue, telling me that Noah might treasure me in a different way than I wanted him to—the way he used to.

By the end of the movie, I felt like I’d combust from all the sexual tension I created inside my head just being around him. I couldn’t even think of a conversation to have with him, I was so disrupted by it. This was what I wanted, what Noah so easily gave me, but I was afraid to act on them. I was afraid to tell him the truth about breaking it off with Dustin last weekend because being with Dustin when I had been pining over him had been futile from the very beginning.

And just like that, my night with Noah came to an end. The silence absorbed us even on the way home. Noah’s brows were pinched together and he kept gazing at me from the corner of his eyes but he wasn’t smiling. It made me anxious. I didn’t get his smile until I was stepping out of his Jeep.

“I had fun Noah,” I told him. “I’m a little sad that it’s over so quickly.”

That was when he smiled. “I know what you mean.”

He argued with me to go inside, but I protested and watched him go because I wanted him tostay.

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