Page 37 of Strong Side
I texted her when I got home, and she’s on her way over now. It’s my turn to go to the grocery store, so I asked if she would come with me.
I’m waiting by the window for her to pull up. I close out the picture of her and my sister and pull up Instagram. I go to mystory and post the picture of them with the caption,My two favorite girls. I tag them both and share it.
Noelle’s car stops at the curb in front of the house, and I don’t wait for her to get out before I’m out the door to her car.
When I get into the passenger side, I lean in to kiss her. “Hi, pretty girl.”
“Hi,” she says softly against my lips and then angles herself back into her seat. “I’m glad you’re back. You were awesome yesterday.” She pulls away from the curb and starts driving.
“Thank you, and me too. I like sleeping in my own bed.” I laugh. “So, you came over and watched the game here with the girls, huh? How did that go?” I ask because I’m curious if my sister said anything to her about us since I told her what was going on. But also, she hasn’t spent much time with friends since school started, and as much as I want to monopolize her every free second, she needs to have genuine girl time.
“Yep. We had fun. Charlie and I were the only ones who really watched the game. Chelsea came with me and seemed to get along well with Lily and Arbor, so that was good. I think she’s worse than I am about keeping herself busy. She’s always working, so it was fun to hang out.” She quickly glances over at me and smiles.
“That’s awesome. She’s welcome to come over anytime you come over. I like her, and she seems to be pretty drama-free.”
Noelle only has one hand on the wheel, so I take her free hand in mine.
“Yeah, I really like living with her. It’s just easy, you know?” She nods.
“So, you guys just sat around and talked, and you and Charlie watched the game, and then you went home?” I know I already asked, but she’s not giving me much.
“Mmhmm. Well, your sister told them about us.” She pulls into a parking spot and turns off the car, then turns to face me.
“She did, did she? What did she tell them?” I reach over and tuck a loose hair behind her ear, and she leans into my hand.
Her cheeks flush, and she shrugs. “She just told them that we were together. Not that it was fake.”
Fake. The word feels wrong in my head. I don’t want what we have to be an act, something temporary to toss away when it’s served its purpose. I want it to be real—every look, every touch.
“And what did they say about us being together?” I brush my thumb over the top of her hand.
She laughs lightly. “Well, they said it was about time, then asked if we’ve had sex.” She turns her head away from me when she says it.
“Sounds about right. Let me guess. Lily asked?” I chuckle.
“She sure did. But your sister didn’t really want to hear about it, so the conversation was cut pretty short.” She looks down. “Your sister had a lot of questions though when it came to our intentions. What exactly did you tell Charlie about us?”
I could go two ways with this. I could tell her that I told my sister that I’m head over ass in love with her and I’m gonna take this opportunity to make her realize we’re good together. Or I could tell her what I think she’s ready to hear right now.
When I search her face, I go with what I think she’s ready for.
“I told her that Trey was bothering you and that you told him I was your boyfriend.” Which is also the truth, just not all of it.
“And that’s it?” She raises her brows.
“That’s it. Why? Did she say something else to make you uncomfortable?” Because now I’m curious about what my sister told her. “I didn’t tell her about the sex lessons. Is that what you mean?”
“No, I was just curious.” She raises her voice slightly, like you do when you’ve been caught doing something you shouldn’t have been and you’re trying to deny it.
I search her face again, trying to figure out if I’m missing something. “Okaaay. Let’s go get this done. I’m hungry, and then I want to crash.”
I let go of her hand and get out of the car. When she rounds the hood, I take her hand in mine again, and we walk into the store.
We make our way through produce. A bulk of my list for the house is here so the cart is already getting full. Then we go to the butcher and grab a bunch of chicken breasts, some ground turkey, and a few steaks.
“I need to get my sister some more coffee, so let’s go down this aisle.” I steer the buggy down the row toward the coffee, but Noelle stops me.
“Case! Look, they have the cereal with the Christmas marshmallows already, but I only see one box.” She’s not that short, but she jumps up to try to reach it. When she does, she knocks the box to the back of the shelf. “Shit!”
