Page 76 of She Used to Be Nice
Morgan clapped her hands. “Yay! Finally!”
Noah kissed Blair’s temple. “It’s true. We can’t wait,” he said. “She’ll probably start volunteering with me, too. I’m here every Saturday.”
Avery glared at Noah from underneath her baseball cap as he fed more kibble to other dogs. He didn’t deserve this. He shouldn’t be allowed to be happy. It should be that the more evil you were, the less potential your life had for joy.
“I remember!” Morgan said, nodding. “I forgot it was at this park, though.”
“This park issonice,” Blair added. “I could see myself running here. I would’ve gone this morning if it wasn’t my time of the month.”
“Ah, so that’s why you’ve been snappy with me today,” Noah murmured. “You’re on your period. It all makes sense now.”
Blair gave him a lighthearted smack. “Oh, hush.”
Morgan had bent down a few feet away to pet a snappy Yorkie, who was now trotting way too close for comfort to Avery’s feet. Next to the Yorkie was a hefty black and white husky also prancing around dangerously close. Noah crouched down to give the husky a toy to wrestle with, and the dog yelped and jumped to Noah’s giggles and delight. Avery looked at Blair to see if Blair was stewing on her own about Noah’s period comment, but Blair was all smiles watching Noah happily play with the dogs. Avery felt like she was suspended over herself, watching with incredulity as the scene below her unfolded.
“Why don’t you pet Rex, Avery?” Morgan asked as she joined Noah in petting the husky. “He’s not barking. I know that’s what freaks you out.”
“Go on,” Noah said. “Don’t be shy. He won’t hurt you.”
Avery shot a suspicious glare at Rex while Morgan did her best to encourage Avery with nods. Avery looked like such an icy bitch next to Noah, with his dedication to animals and his volunteer work and his devoted relationship. Sometimes he was so good he could even trick Avery. And then she’d remember. She’d remember her unraveling into a shell of the person she once was, behaving in ways that made her almost lose Morgan and, now, lose Pete. She’d remember it all, because she was still living it. Because Noah was thriving while she was barely holding on.
“Do it! Do it! Do it!” Morgan chanted.
Backed into a corner, Avery grazed Rex’s fur with her fingers. She’d barely touched him when he whirled around and chomped a mouthful of her flesh with his teeth.
“Jesus!” she cried. Little bright specks dotted her vision. Her hand throbbed in agony.
“Oh no, are you all right?” Morgan asked.
Noah put a toy back in Rex’s mouth, and in response Rex growled and huffed and barked. “He’s just being playful,” Noah said. “It’s a playful bite. Does it to me all the time.”
Avery wrapped her fingers around her hand. The wound beat hard under her skin, like it had its own pulse. “No, he bit me because you riled him up.”
A dot of blood pooled on her finger. Noah winced. “Oh, shit, you’re bleeding,” he murmured. “Sorry. I’ll get a first aid kit.”
A moment later he approached Avery with a roll of gauze and a bandage, then gestured to look at her hand. But instead of showing him, she stared him down, a crackling fury catching fire inside of her.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed, because she knew that if he did, it would all come back. The helplessness as she stared into his eyes and tried to get away. The pressure on her wrists as he pinned them onto her back and made her bruise. The whirr of the ceiling fan as it tickled her bare skin. The moment he went from a nice guy in a button-down and pair of chinos to a cold-blooded rapist. Bearing his teeth, leaving his mark on her flesh.
22
NOAH’S FIVE-BEDROOM,WOOD-BEAMED MOUNTAINhouse was located on a gated five-acre property in Snowmass Village, a town fifteen minutes outside Aspen. The house had an indoor pool and diving board, an extravagant home theater complete with a popcorn machine, and three separate decks, each with a perfect view of the snowcapped Elk Mountain range. Inside every room were several floor-to-ceiling windows from which you could see even more of the mountains, somehow. Avery couldn’t believe how many windows there were, with the sun pouring into each one and casting beams of rainbow light onto the shiny hardwood floor. The sheer number of windows seemed to taunt her, reminding her how untouchable Noah was.
“This place is unreal,” Morgan said, her eyes misty with awe. She’d spent the first ten minutes of their arrival sitting on the cream couches on the front porch under the stone archway, staring off into the distance. Now she stood in the living room with the rest of the group as they admired the elaborate chandeliers hanging from the sky-high ceiling and the massive fireplace crackling across a couch draped in thick chenille blankets.
Avery kept her expression neutral. She didn’t want to give Noah any more satisfaction than he was already getting.
“You’re making me look so bad, Noah,” Charlie said with a laugh as he rolled his luggage up against the wall. “Now I’ve gotta get one of these for Morgan.”
“What’s with all the security cameras?” Parker asked, nodding toward a camera mounted in the corner of the foyer.
“Can’t be too careful,” Noah said. “This place was a multimillion-dollar investment. I’ve only had it for a couple of months. And I live too far away to keep an eye on it in person.”
“There’s one in literally every room,” Viraj called out from the kitchen. “You trying to spy on us?”
Noah gave a half-hearted, tight-lipped laugh, the kind that indicated he was not amused. Avery felt sick. Did this mean there were cameras everywhere, even in the bedrooms? She suspected Noah did lots of nonconsensual spying on women, if so.
“Hilarious,” he said, deadpan. “They’re mainly down here, and then upstairs in the hallway only. You guys are welcome to the footage anytime.”
