Lucky in Love (22 page)

Still, if I was expecting some sort of a reaction resembling shock, I didn’t get it. Instead, he just nodded and said, “I know.”

“How do you know?” I frowned, and my eyebrows scrunched up displaying my dissatisfaction with his answer.

“I'm the one that made an offer on the house.” He was right in front of me now.

“What?  Why would you want to buy Grandma Pearl's house?” I exclaimed, clearly showing how flustered I was by this sudden turn in events.

“I don't want to buy Grandma Pearl's house,” Noah replied calmly.

“Then what are you doing?” I demanded in a voice that was starting to sound a little shrilly.

“Look, I just can't let you sell this house, but if you think you have to, then I'd rather be the one to buy it than let some stranger get it.” Then he added sheepishly, “And plus, I really wanted to see you, I figured this way you had to come.”

Feeling the nerves rise within me at the sound of his words, I forced myself to go on the offensive.

“What do you want Noah?” I asked, silently pleading with him not to make this any harder than it already was. Reading my mind had been something he was good at once upon a time, but not anymore.

“I want you,” he said quietly, but still sounding very firm in his position. Unable and unwilling to allow myself to believe the words coming out of his mouth, I began to ramble.

“No you don't.  You want things the way they were before.  It was comfortable for you and you want it back. I get that, but...” Before I could finish my argument, Noah cut me off.

“Would you shut up for like two seconds?  I have something I need to say to you.”

Both of his hands had reached up and grabbed onto my arms. He was standing less than a foot away from me. I could smell his cologne mixed in with his soap and the faint but distinct scent of cigarette smoke that followed him everywhere he went, thanks to all of the hours he spent at the bar. More than that, I could feel the energy his body was letting off. A kind of heat I found both comforting and unnerving because it was easily melting away all of my defenses.

“Ok,” I replied, seeing no other way out of his grasp than to allow him to say his piece.

Noah sighed. Then he took a deep breath in and as he exhaled all of the words he had been holding in for the last seven years began to pour out.

“Lucky...when I met you, it was like this instant feeling, like I knew you were going to be different than any other girl I'd ever met.  And I was right, but that's beside the point.  Anyway, I wanted to ask you out, but I was intimidated.”

“Oh, please.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. The mere suggestion that I had intimidated Noah, the womanizer, was laughable.

Only Noah wasn’t laughing. In fact, he looked rather sternly at me and snapped, “I'm not done!” Then, softening his tone again, he continued, “So, I thought that if we got to know each other, if we became friends, maybe it would give me some sort edge or something and I could get you that way - yes, at the time it was a conquest thing, but then the friendship plan, it backfired because you ended up with the edge, you saw through all my bullshit and you called me out on it and I knew you would never go out with me.  I mean, girls like you just don't date guys like me.”

And again I interrupted, “You mean Women like me? Self-respecting and smart Women like me?”

This time, Noah just smirked. “Sure, loudmouthed, always have something to say about everything, self-respecting and smart women like you.  They don't date guys like me, because, well it would be stupid.”

“What is your point to all of this?” I was getting impatient. Noah still hadn’t let me go and I had learned a long time ago never to stand too close to him for any long periods of time. I wasn’t cut out for it. I was a strong woman, but there was only so much, even I could resist.

“My point is...that night I told you I was in love with you, I meant it.” His voice was raspy, it was so low. He was looking me directly in the eyes. Looking back into his, I was surprised to see hurt and something I thought might be regret. And then I remembered.

“Then why did you act like such an ass after?”

Noah suddenly broke his hold on me. Looking down he turned away from me, taking his scent and energy with him. He looked angry, but this time it wasn’t with me.

“Because I felt like an idiot, after.  I hated the way I did it, and I pretty much hate everything I've done ever since...” and then his head lifted and he turned back to face me, “But I'm trying to make it right now.  I love you Lucky, I know you have feelings for me too.  So, please, just come back and give us a chance.”

Once again I felt the nerves rise within, this time bubbling over into sheer panic. How was it possible that the thing I had wanted most was the thing I was most afraid of? Unable to face my fears and frustrated by the uncontrollable ways Noah was making me feel, I spun the conversation completely off course.

“Is that what this is really all about? I can't just come back, Noah.  I have a life there, a new life. And I really like it...and I've met someone.” I had said it without even thinking. The moment the words passed my lips, I regretted the lie. Noah’s face fell. He hadn’t expected this turn in events.

“You have?”

Already having put it out there, I felt I had no choice but to commit to it, so I lied again.

“Yes, he's a teacher at my school.  His name is Josh and he's really nice and...” I was running out of things to say, but it didn’t matter. Noah didn’t want to hear any more.

“Yeah, I don't need to know the details.” He waved his hand at me, signaling me to stop.

“I'm sorry...” And I meant it. Although I wasn’t entirely sure what I was apologizing for. Lying to him or the fact that I was destroying the one moment that could have changed our entire relationship, possibly our entire lives?

“Don't be.  I'm happy you're happy,” Noah said, and he forced a small smile. Then he leaned forward to give me a hug before he turned to walk away.

As I watched him walk away, my heart began to race inside my chest. The voice in my head was talking a mile a minute, jumping all over the place from scolding me, to confirming that I had done the right thing, to yelling at me to stop Noah and plead with him to stay. Just as I felt my mouth open to say something, I saw him spin back around. He walked back much faster than he had walked away, with much more intent and destination.

Halfway back to me he said, “Actually, I wasn't done.”

Then before I knew what was happening, he was standing in front of me, pulling me close and placing his lips on mine. My eyes closed and I felt every last part of me surrender to the feelings I had fought for so long. After a moment that could have lasted three seconds or three hours, Noah pulled back.

“Now I'm done,” he said in that deep raspy voice again and without warning, he turned away and began walking back to his car. I stood there, vulnerable and exposed and above all, completely stunned.

“You're just going to walk away?” I called after him. Noah stopped and turned his head back in my direction.

“That's what you want, isn't?”

“Of course that's not what I want!” I shouted back at him, flustered by the fact that he was going to make me admit it not only to myself, but to him as well.

A smile spread across his face as Noah ran back to where I was still standing, frozen in place, and pulled me close, wrapping both of his arms around me and pressing my body up against his. Then he leaned in close.

“What
do
you want?”

“I think I just got it.”

I closed my eyes again and waited for his lips to touch mine. At last we had both fought our way around the obstacles we had so foolishly put onto our own paths. Nothing could undo now what we had done. There would be no waking up tomorrow and pretending this day hadn’t existed and these words hadn’t been said. This was it. We were in the same place at the same time and it was better than anything I could have ever imagined.

I was kissing the side of his neck and breathing in all of his scents when I heard him murmur in my ear, “So about this tattoo.”

I pulled my head back to look at him.

“What Tattoo?” I had no idea what he was talking about, but Noah didn’t buy it.

“Oh come on, Gabe told me about your tattoo.”

That’s when it all became clear to me. I grinned.

“Gabe was screwing with you.  I don't have a tattoo.” After all this time, Gabe had finally got one over on Noah. I made a mental note to remember to tell him how it played out.

“You don't?  That's too bad,” Noah whispered, as he began to pull me close again.

Right before he leaned in to kiss me I muttered, “I do have a piercing though...” and a mischievous grin spread across his face. Next thing I knew we had found our way inside the empty house and the world outside had simply disappeared.

Change In Reverse

Less than
two weeks later, I found myself making the same move I had made just a short while ago, only this time, I was making it in reverse. To make things a little less stressful, I enlisted the help of a moving service. That way, all I had to worry about was me and Grandma Pearl.

As Noah was helping the moving guys unload the truck, Tara and I were busy unpacking dishes and restoring my kitchen to its former glory. There were boxes piling up everywhere and in spite of the fact that it would only be the two of us this time around, somehow we had each accumulated more stuff in the short time we had lived apart. I had just finished emptying another box, when Noah passed by with three more. He set them down amongst the other cartons marked “kitchen” and then headed back out, pausing once to give me a kiss on the way by.

The moving guys were just about to unload the couch as Noah reached the back of the truck. After realizing what was about to happen, he reached into his back pocket to retrieve his wallet. A moment later he was waving a handful of cash at the guy closest to him.

“I'll give you a hundred bucks if you forget to unload that couch.”

The moving guy looked at Noah and then at the couch. Then a grin spread across his face as he reached out to grasp the money.

“You got it,” he said, as he shoved the cash into his shirt pocket and patted it for safe keeping. Satisfied, Noah reached for another stack of boxes and headed back into the house. He circled the living room twice looking for a suitable place to drop his load before heading up the stairs.

Unsure of where to head to next, he set down the boxes to check the labels. They were all marked “office”. Noah thought for a moment as he looked down the hall and at the various doorways. Finally he decided on his old bedroom. It was going to make the perfect office space.

Tara and I were still busy in the kitchen when he came back downstairs. Noah joined us and got started on putting away the pots and pans. A few minutes later the back door swung open and Gabe and Jason came piling through, hands full of pizza and drinks.

“Food's here!  Let's eat!” Jason announced, just in case the three of us hadn’t been aware of their entrance. Gabe set down his stack of pizzas on the nearest tower of boxes, while Tara and I tried to remember where we had seen the glasses. It took a little organizing, but before long we were all enjoying a pizza picnic amongst the chaos.

So, I moved back...Idaho wasn't for me anyway.  Did you know it snows there?!  Anyway, if Noah is the unwanted hair on my upper lip, I guess you could say that I've given in and I'm growing a beard...and I couldn't be happier.

It was dark out by the time the moving van was pulling away. Jason and Tara had left after pizza and Gabe had left shortly thereafter. Unable to kick out the renters in his townhouse at such short notice, Noah had been forced to sign a lease on a brand new condo after I had kicked him out. Now that he had decided to vacate said condo rather un-expectantly and needed someone to take over his lease, Gabe had jumped at the chance to get off of Jason and Tara’s sofa.

Noah had been outside watching the van disappear in the darkness. When he came back in, I had finally finished with the kitchen and was moving on to the living room.

“Truck's gone,” he said as he bent down to cut the tape on a box.

“Oh good. I don't think we have room for any more stuff!” I replied. The room was so full, there was hardly any room to walk around, but then the closer I looked I started to get the feeling that something was missing. I started taking mental inventory of everything that had once been in this room. That’s when it hit me.

“Wait, where's the couch?”

***

It was pitch black in the room. The only sign that anyone was there was a loud screeching and squeaking that seemed to come from the back corner of the room. Suddenly a woman’s voice cut through the noise.

“I can't do this.”

Moments later, a small table lamp came on and lit up the room. A half dressed woman and a nearly naked moving guy were tangled up on the ugliest couch ever made. Disgruntled, the woman sat up and pulled her bra strap back onto her shoulder.

“It's too noisy!” she spat as she stood up, collected the rest of her clothes and left the room.

Frustrated the moving guy pounded his fist on one of the couch cushions, causing it to release yet another loud screech.