Page 114 of Just My Type
“Let’s throw a party!” Jo says, grinning maniacally. “You can renew your vows or whatever, and we can throw a rager.”
“I like the way you think, Jo Jo,” Pam says, pointing at Jo.
“I think it’s only fair,” Hallie says. “I’m all pregnant and stuff and couldn’t drink today. Petition to throw your wedding party after I have this baby so I can drink everything.”
Ben presses a kiss to her head, murmuring something that sounds a lot like,who’s to say you won’t be pregnant again?but I’m too far away to know for sure and honestly, bless, because if my mild-mannered, cinnamon roll of a brother-in-law has a breeding kink, that’s just something I’d rather not know about. Except I make a mental note to ask Hallie, because actually, yes, I want to know everything.
“Well hold on there,” Cece says, looking between Noah and me. “Just because you’ve stayed married for the past couple of months doesn’t mean you’re going to stay married forever. Maybe they haven’t gotten it annulled yet because it’s an administrative pain in the ass and they haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
“Please,” Elliot says. “Look at them. They’re so in love they practically have hearts shooting out of their eyes. There’s no way they’re getting this marriage annulled.”
Cooper studies us. “Besides, I don’t think you even could if you wanted to. I know what you two get up to in private, and I’m pretty sure that voids all the potential grounds for annulment. I guess you could get divorced if you really wanted to but ugh. Talk about a hassle.”
“Hold the fuck on,” Noah says, a wild sort of look crossing his eyes at the worddivorcethat has laughter bubbling up in my chest. He plunges his free hand into his pocket, and I know he’sflipping his wedding ring around his fingers. A kind of security blanket. “No one—not one single person—is getting divorced.”
“So, what’s going to happen?” Cece asks, a gleam in her eyes when she looks at us like she is confident she already knows the answer to her own question.
Noah glances down at me, grin on his face, and my entire future in his eyes. “I guess that’s still under consideration.”
I lean over and kiss his cheek, feeling contentment down to my toes, because I know exactly what comes next.
CHAPTER FORTY
NOAH
“Come on guys. Hannah’s waiting for me,” I complain as I trudge down Comm Ave. I’ve tried to speed up this little walk my brothers insisted on taking, but for some ridiculous reason, they’re meandering through Back Bay like old ladies on an afternoon stroll. We never stroll. We run, so I have no idea what the fuck this is, and I’m grumpy about it.
I didn’t even want to take this walk with them, but they practically manhandled me out of my own apartment. My apartment. Where I should be right now. Preferably with my head between Hannah’s legs.
“Jesus, you’re so irritable today,” Cooper says, hooking an arm around my neck.
“Yeah, what’s your deal? It’s not like you,” Elliot says.
Jordan just smirks at me, and I swear he deliberately slows down his pace. Fucker.
“My deal is that I miss my girl.”
Elliot rolls his eyes. “You literally just saw her, like, four hours ago.”
“Four hours that feels like forever,” I mutter.
“Wait.” Jordan lifts a finger and looks at me. “I know what this is about. You haven’t told her you love her yet.”
“Fuck off,” I mumble.
“Wait, seriously?” Elliot gives me ayou’re so patheticlook, and I can’t even blame him because I am.
“Well, what the fuck are you waiting for?” Cooper asks, letting go of my neck.
Fuck if I know. After Jordan and Jo’s wedding. Hannah’s run in with Brett, and then telling our family about our accidental marriage, it felt like the wrong time. Like I would be telling her in the wake of some really intense events and maybe she would think that I was just saying the words because of that, even though nothing could have been further from the truth.
Then we came back to Boston last week and I got all up in my head about making it perfect. But of course, nothing could possibly come close to perfect when it comes to telling the woman you love more than life that you love her and want to spend the rest of your life with her.
I considered telling her on the roof. At midnight on the Common. I considered yelling it in a primal scream. Spelling it out in Twizzlers. Writing her a book. Okay, maybe not a book, but a letter or something. Nothing felt good enough. So here I am, on an endless fucking walk with my brothers while Hannah has a conference call with her agent and her new publisher about release timelines for her books, and I still haven’t told her I love her even though the words are right on the tip of my damn tongue.
“I don’t know,” I say impatiently, throwing up my hands in exasperation. “I want it to be perfect, but nothing feels good enough for her. Not when she’s everything. And since I haven’t told her I love her, I also haven’t told her that I want her to stay here in Boston forever and move in with me and be mine until the end of time and maybe even after that because that’s how much I love her.”
Cooper looks at me, his face going soft. “It doesn’t have to beperfect, dude. For reasons passing understanding, Hannah looks at you like you hung the damn moon. What the two of you have is so fucking special, and when you tell her you love her, it’ll be perfect because it’s you and her. It doesn’t have to be a whole production, Noah. You don’t need to write it in the sky or in fireworks or whatever else I’m sure your brain conjured up. It just has to be real.”
