Page 64 of Fractured Trust

He chuckled tiredly. “But I didn’t.”

She exhaled. “Where are you now?”

A door opened and closed on the other end of the phone. “Just getting back to my room.”

“Do you want me to read to you?”

“I’d probably be asleep before you’d read a couple of sentences. I’m just going to crash, but”—he laughed quietly—“I’m too used to hearing your voice before I go to sleep when I’m not on the bus now.”

Summer bit the tip of her thumb, the scared, vulnerable part of her urging her to ask the question. To ask about the actress. But she closed her eyes and took a breath and tried to listen instead to the newly discovered part of her. The part that told her to focus on the things she knew to be true. That it was none of her business if he’d been with her in the past. That he obviously hadn’t been with her tonight. Because if she knew one thing about Noah, it was that he wasn’t a liar—if he said he’d been busy with promos, then that’s what he’d been doing. She and Noah weren’t a couple; she’d left him. Again. He had no obligation to call her, and yet he had. Even though he was exhausted.

Summer swallowed past the painful lump in her throat. “I’m glad you called.” It was all she could get out.

“Well, I know it’s late; I should let you go,” Noah said.

“Yeah, I’m about to go to sleep, too.”

“Goodnight, then, Sunshine.”

“Goodnight, Noah.”

Summer hung up and put her phone back on the nightstand. She turned on her side and closed her eyes, although there was no way she was going to fall asleep anytime soon, with the way her heart was pounding in her chest.

She couldn’t keep going on like this. She’d started making changes in her life, trying to make things right. But this thing she and Noah had going on—this strange non-relationship—it wasn’t right. He deserved better. And so did she.

There was only one thing she could do, she just hoped she had the strength to do it.

Chapter 33

Noah’s eyes roamed over the crowd, his entire body throbbing with the cascading beat as he let his drumsticks roll over the toms, the explosive crash of his cymbals ringing in his ears. But he wasn’t feeling the same joy he normally did when he was playing in front of a sell-out crowd. Summer hadn’t responded to his last two messages. He’d sent one a couple of hours before the concert started, and then another fifteen minutes before they went on stage. But there had been no response.

He knew he shouldn’t worry. There could be any number of reasons she hadn’t gotten back to him. But he couldn’t shake the feeling something had changed, and anxiety crawled up his spine.

Was this how Summer had felt when he was on tour? Constantly on edge like this, waiting for everything to fall apart? Was he wrong to put her through it? Was he being selfish? Should he just let her go, the way she’d wanted him to?

No. He had to believe there was a future for them. Because there was no future for him with anyone else. He’d said he was going to fight for her, and he was. He had been. Starting with that first innocuous text message he’d sent her five weeks ago; gripping the phone so hard while he waited for her reply, he was surprised he hadn’t crushed it in his hand.

It wasn’t a lot. But there wasn’t much else he could do while he was still on tour except to show her she was always on his mind. Show her he wasn’t going to walk away that easily.

Keeping it platonic had been hard. Especially after he’d started calling her. Every time he heard her voice, he’d imagine her, curled up on the couch, or stretched out on the bed, and he’d want to push her, to lower his voice and tell her all the things he wanted to do to her. All the things he wanted her to do to him. He’d imagine what she was wearing. Imagine telling her to strip it off and touch herself while he whispered in her ear all the wayshewanted to touch her.

But he hadn’t. He’d made sure to keep it friendly, giving her what she really needed from him. Anything else and he risked scaring her off when he wasn’t there to work through it with her.

So, he was going to keep up the messages and the phone calls until he got home. But guaranteed, his first stop after he got off the bus would be her apartment. Then he was going to make sure she knew that no matter how long it took for her to trust him, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Noah’s gaze swept over the crowd again, his eyes landing on Lexie in front of the pit. They swept past her, then jerked back. What was Eden doing here tonight? She’d only visited last weekend. He hadn’t thought she was planning to visit again before the end of the tour. Then a flash of color caught his attention, and for a second, he thought his eyes were deceiving him. That his desire to see Summer was so strong he’d imagined her into existence, the way he’d used to do after seeing her in Chicago. But itwasher, standing there next to Eden, a flicker of a nervous smile on her face.

It was only years of practice that stopped him from dropping a beat when his eyes met hers. His heart stuttered and skipped in his chest, completely out of rhythm. But that didn’t stop the grin spreading across his face as he drank her in. It’d been seven weeks since he’d seen her. Seven weeks of longing for her and wondering if she’d be there when he got back.

But now she was here. Only thirty feet away. And fuck, he couldn’t wait for this damn concert to be over, so he could take her into his arms, so he could tell her he loved her with every inch of his being. He kept his eyes fixed on her for the rest of the set. And as soon as he hit the last beat of the last song, he threw his sticks down, vaulted from the riser, strode to the front of the stage, and leaped down into the secure area in front of the pit—much to the excitement of the crowd and the dismay of the security guards doing their best to hold people back.

He reached her in two long strides and yanked her to him. Without stopping to ask what her being there meant for them, not caring in that moment, he crashed his lips down on hers, his tongue stroking into her mouth, getting drunk on the taste of her. Everything else fell away as his lips moved over hers, as their tongues tangled. She was kissing him back, her hands clutching at his shirt, pulling him closer.

When they finally broke apart, breathless and panting, Noah clasped her shoulders. “Summer, please tell me the fact you’re here means something. Please fucking tell me you want to give us another chance. Because I need you, Sunshine. I’ve always needed you. I’m not whole when you’re not with me. I love you. I loved you when we were teenagers. I love you now, and I will love you when I’m old and fucking gray.”

Summer laughed. “I do want another chance, Noah. I don’t want to keep running away anymore. I love you too; every part of you. And I’m not going to let you go again. I’m going to hold on this time. I promise.”

He kissed her again; the screams, the camera flashes all fading away, until there was nothing but her.

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