Page 29 of Born a Queen

Chapter Seventeen

"So, you and Cass," Raina said casually while she was dancing with Noah.

Raina was having an awesome night. She and her two best friends spent hours talking and dancing, talking and drinking, Raina mostly drinking pop and flirting with the local cowboys. Though Noah didn’t join in, he was totally fine with the girls objectifying the boys. He knew it was all in good fun.

Raina’s gunshot wound gave her the occasional bolt of pain, but it seemed to be healing quickly. As long as she didn’t dance too energetically, she felt fine. Good enough for the occasional two-step.

Cass had gone to the bathroom. Before leaving Raina and Noah on the dance floor, she said she was going to order more drinks and have them waiting at the table. Raina decided to take this opportunity to grill Noah about his intentions toward her friend. Of course, he was equally Raina’s friend, all three of them having grown up together, gone to high school together and then off to college together. They had been inseparable until the day Raina was kidnapped.

Now, dancing to the beat of Old Town Road, Raina confronted Noah about this new development in their trio.

To his credit, Noah didn't miss a beat, and he didn't pretend he didn't know what Raina was talking about. "I love her," he said simply, his gaze straying toward the table.

When he didn't immediately see Cass, he swept the bar with a hawk-like gaze until he spotted her ordering their drinks. He visibly relaxed when he set eyes on his girlfriend. She was leaning over the bar, her ass stuck out. It was clear exactly where his gaze had zeroed in on.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Raina said, rolling her eyes at him. "You've been in love with Cass since kindergarten. I think the whole town knows that's why you’ve been hanging out with a couple of girls through your entire educational career. What I'm asking is, when did she sit up and finally notice?"

Noah grinned, his pride in their relationship clear. "A few months after you disappeared. I started dating this girl, kind of a goth punk chick. She was pretty cool, into literature and art, but way too intense for me."

Raina wasn't surprised at this assessment. It's why she had never considered him romantically, not even in her fantasies. Dude was so laid-back he was practically in a coma. "Cass took it hard, me dating other girls. She got mean all of a sudden, picked apart everything about them, and about me. I couldn't figure out why she suddenly did this about-face. She was always such a sweet person, never had a bad word to say about anyone. And then all of a sudden, BAM! She wouldn't stop talking smack."

Raina giggled. Noah had a way with words. He always had; he was the clown in school.

"So she finally came around to your way of thinking. And now? Is it all rainbows and happily ever after?"

Noah shook his head. "It wasn’t that easy. We sort of stopped being friends while we were figuring ourselves out, but because you were missing, we still had to see each other. We had to organize searches and everything. It was this weird time in our lives, where we couldn't stop arguing, but we still wanted to be together."

Raina grinned and bounced an extra bounce to the beat of the music. "And then fighting turned into kissing… and kissing turned into fuck—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pretty much exactly what happened. We’re predictable."

"No." Raina poked him in the chest. "It's a classic relationship starter. You need to read a romance novel or watch a romcom. You'll see what I mean. Boy meets girl in some kind of meet-cute, boy and girl fight, fight, fight, then they kiss, kiss, kiss, then…"

"You're finding this way too amusing," Noah said dryly.

Raina laughed out loud, throwing her head back and enjoying the carefree moment. Yeah, she was amused. This was the most fun she'd had in years. She’d gone globetrotting, she'd gone to incredible places in the world, explored new cultures, new people, new countries. But it really came down to this. The people that she knew and that knew her. Their love for each other transcended all that. Places were cool, but they couldn't care about a person's well-being. Raina loved Noah and Cass and hoped the best for them. She knew that they felt the same about her.

"So, have you proposed to her?" Raina was dying of curiosity.

The song ended and they stopped dancing, though they continued to stand on the dance floor.

"No, I haven't asked her yet," he said quietly, his eyes on the woman now sitting across the room one leg crossed over the other, a dreamy expression on her face as she waited for her companions to come back. "I have the ring though. I'm just waiting for the right moment."

A lump formed in Raina's throat and she had to swallow it before she could speak. Thinking about her relationship, or non-relationship with Mateo, she put her hand on Noah's sleeve. "Every moment is the perfect moment. If you wait too long or try too hard to capture a certain moment, you'll waste time waiting for something intangible. My advice if you want it, is don’t miss out on one minute of the joy in knowing you're going to spend the rest of your life with the person you love."

Noah nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe you're right. Every time I try to settle on a day and time, I change my mind. Nothing seems right. People keep telling me the right moment will present itself, but it hasn't and I'm starting to think it never will."

Raina smiled at him. "It's not about the perfect moment, it's about the perfect person. If you think you found her, then don't waste a single second, create the moment."

The way Mateo kept creating moments for them. He was patient, he was relentless, he never gave up. Raina didn't know if Mateo loved her, though she suspected he might. What she did know is that she could rely on him. He would come for her. He would always come for her. He was the master of making his moments.

Noah and Raina weaved through the tables making their way back to where Cass was sitting. Before they made it to the table though, they were intercepted by a couple of cowboys.

"Well aren’t you looking fine tonight, little Miss Raina." One of them stepped up to Raina his arms outstretched.

"Darcy! I heard you might be out tonight." Raina opened her arms to him and allowed him to envelop her in a bear hug.

He stood close to her his arm slung over her shoulders, a section of her hair between his fingers where he played with it. Darcy was a good guy, but he loved to get into a woman’s space. Raina didn't mind tonight though. Some light flirtation was good for her.

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