Come Together by Marie Force

Chapter Seventeen

“Pain is what we’re in most of the time.

And I think the bigger the pain,

the more gods we need.”

—John Lennon

Noah held the door to Izzy’s room and sent Brianna in ahead of him. “Izzy, this is Brianna. Bri, meet Izzy. I apologize in advance for anything she might have to say.”

“Come closer so I can see you,” Izzy said.

“She can see you just fine.” Noah hadn’t thoroughly thought out the consequences of bringing Brianna to the hospital or the conclusions his family would leap to if they saw them together two days in a row. He was jumping to some significant conclusions where she was concerned all on his own.

“I’m so glad you’re doing better,” Brianna said.

“Everything still hurts, but it’s a tad bit better than it was yesterday.”

“That’s good.”

“So, I hear you’re one hell of a cook.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“You’ve got my whole family talking about your lasagna.”

“I’ll make some for you when you get out of the hospital.”

“I’ll look forward to that.”

“I’ve seen some of your work. There’s a book about you at the house I’m renting. It’s so impressive.”

“Thanks. That’s nice of you to say.”

“I felt like I’d had a tour of Vermont after flipping through that book.”

“Vermont is the gift that keeps on giving.”

“It’s beautiful. Especially the fall colors.”

“You’ll have to come back to visit next fall so you can see it for yourself.”

“I’d love that.”

“What’s a nice girl like you doing hanging out with a degenerate like my brother?”

Brianna laughed at the face Noah made at her.

“She thinks she can get away with that crap because she almost died,” Noah said, “but when she gets out of here, it’s business as usual.”

“They want to send me to a rehab place,” Izzy said, frowning. “I can’t be home alone.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Cabot said from the doorway. “You don’t need to go to rehab.”

“Oh, um…”

Noah hadn’t seen Izzy flustered very often. She was the most self-assured, confident woman he knew. “Someone has a boyfriend,” he said in a soft singsong voice.

“Someone else has a girlfriend,” Izzy said under her breath.

“Cabot, this is Brianna,” Noah said. “Brianna, meet Cabot.”

He shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, Brianna.”

“You, too. There’re so many of you. I’m going to need a cheat sheet.”

“He’s not technically part of the Coleman family,” Noah said. “He’s our cousin Wade’s father-in-law.”

“That’s helpful,” Brianna said.

“My daughter, Mia, is married to their cousin Wade,” Cabot said. “I met Izzy and the other Colemans at Mia and Wade’s wedding last June.”

“Ah, I see.”

“There’s no need for you to go to rehab,” Cabot said to Izzy. “I can take care of you at home.”

“You have work. And stuff.”

“Nothing I can’t do from here.”

Noah found it interesting that Izzy seemed extremely flummoxed by Cabot’s offer. If only he knew Cabot a little better. Noah might’ve given her a taste of her own ridiculous medicine. But he didn’t want to embarrass Cabot, even though it would be fun to tease his sister. She deserved it after the crap she threw at him before.

“We ought to go,” Noah said. “We’ll let you guys talk.”

“You don’t have to go,” Izzy said, seeming almost frantic to keep them there.

What was that about?

His mother came in, carrying a coffee cup. “Oh hey, Noah. I heard you were here with Brianna. Nice to see you again, Brianna.”

“You, too, Hannah.”

“We were just going to head out.” Noah leaned over to kiss his sister’s cheek. “I’ll come by tomorrow.”

“But things are just getting interesting,” Izzy said. “You brought a date to visit me at the hospital. This is huge news.”

“We’re not on a date, you nitwit. We were taking care of some other business and came here after. Tell her, Bri. It’s not a date.”

“I thought it was a date.”

Noah stared at her, shocked, which was how he saw her crack up laughing.

“Oh my God, your face,” Brianna said, wiping laughter tears from her eyes.

His mother snorted with laughter. “Well played, Brianna.”

“I really, really like this woman,” Izzy said. “I like her a whole lot.”

He liked her, too, even if she was busting his balls. “Now that you ladies have had your fun at my expense, we’ll be leaving.”

“Come see me again soon, Brianna,” Izzy said.

“I’ll do that.”

“I will, too,” Noah said.

“Only if you bring her. Otherwise, don’t bother.”

Brianna was still laughing when they left the room. “I wish I’d had a picture of your face when I said we were on a date. Not that I’ll ever forget your expression. Priceless. And PS, your family is awesome.”

“I can’t stand them.”

“Can’t stand who?” Ally asked when she approached them from the direction of the vending area, holding a bottle of Diet Coke.

“You and your sisters and most of your brothers, too. Gray is okay. The rest of you are a pain in my ass.”

“I take it Izzy gave you shit about coming here with Brianna?”

“Yes, and Brianna was mean to me.”

“I was not! I was joking!”

Noah shrugged and pretended to be hurt, when really, her immediate groove with Izzy and the others pleased him. The Colemans could be a tough crowd. Brianna fit right in. Her delicious lasagna had helped pave the way, but she’d held her own, and he admired that.

Ally took Brianna by the arm. “You have to tell me what you said.”

Noah steered her out of his sister’s clutches and walked them toward the elevator. “We’re leaving now. Get the dirt from Izzy.”

“Oh, we will. See you at home, Noah!”

“Freaking pains in my ass,” he muttered on the ride to the lobby.

“You love them.”

“Sometimes.”

“All the time.”

“If you say so.”

“I say so.” She glanced over at him. “I’m sorry if I took your sister’s side against you.”

“You are so not sorry!”

“I’m really not,” she said, laughing again. “Your face… Hysterical.”

He held the passenger door for her. “Get in the truck and shut it.”

“Hey, Noah?”

He held on to the doorframe. “Yes, Brianna?”

“Thanks for making me laugh. A few hours ago, I never would’ve believed it was possible to laugh tonight.”

“I’m happy to have been the victim of your little joke if it took your mind off other things.”

“It did.”

“Good.”

Giving him a cute side-eye, she said, “So the little joke was funny, right?”

She was adorable, and he liked her more with every passing minute. “Nope.”

“Yes!”

“Not even kinda.”

“Oh, come on!”

Grinning, he said, “That’s my final answer.” He shut the door to make his point and walked around the truck to get into the driver’s side, dismayed to realize it was snowing a lot harder than he’d thought when they first came outside. He’d have to take it slow going home, which was fine. That gave him more time with her.

And that was what he wanted—more time with her. As much time with her as he could get. Soon enough, she’d be done at the inn and would head back to her life in Boston. The thought of her leaving and him going back to the austere existence he’d been leading before he met her made him feel panicked.

He held the wheel a little tighter, mindful of the slippery roads, not to mention the slippery path he was heading down as his feelings for her blossomed into something completely unexpected. A few days ago, he would’ve said he didn’t even like her, but that wasn’t true even then. He hadn’t liked how she made him feel—off his game, edgy and aroused at work, which was the last freaking thing he’d needed with the biggest job of his career underway.

So, he’d argued with her nonstop, hoping if he annoyed her enough—and vice versa—he wouldn’t be tempted to act on the unreasonable attraction. She had him so preoccupied, he could barely concentrate on the thousands of details that were his responsibility.

Then Mrs. H had intervened, probably with the assistance of his grandfather, and everything had changed. Last night, Brianna had said she didn’t want this thing between them to be anything more than friends and colleagues. He’d gone along with that, but maybe he ought to tell her what he wanted.

You sure about that, pal? You could say nothing and keep things the way they’ve been. We were fine before she came along, and we’ll be fine after she goes. But isn’t this better? Isn’t laughing with her and having her laugh at me better than being alone all the time? Sure, but don’t forget what can happen when you give someone else the power to hurt you. Brianna wouldn’t do what Mel did. She’s had that done to her. She’d never do that to someone who cared about her. Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t cheat on you, but that doesn’t mean it won’t end badly.

“Noah.”

He snapped out of the conversation he was having with himself to realize she’d been talking to him. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I asked if there’s any chance we might drive off this road.”

“Nope. There’s a guardrail on this one.”

“Why wasn’t there one on the road where Izzy had her accident?”

“There used to be, but so many people hit it that it fell off. I think the plan was to replace it in the spring.”

“Is there some kind of map or something that shows all the places where you can easily plunge to your death around here?”

Noah laughed. “Not that I know of, but I can give you a tour of the hot spots.”

“That’d be good. What’s the story with Izzy and Cabot?”

“I’m not sure, to be honest. They had fun together at the wedding, but I wasn’t sure if it was anything more than that.”

“Seven months later, he’s camped out in her hospital room and offering to stay with her when she gets home. Sounds like something more.”

“Maybe so.”

“Do you like him?”

“I don’t know him very well, but he seems like a nice guy. You won’t believe the story of him and his daughter.” Noah told her about how Mia had discovered her long-lost father. “Needless to say, he was elated to have her back in his life. He threw the most incredible wedding for her and Wade.”

“What an unbelievably shitty thing his ex-wife did to him and their daughter.”

“Seriously fucked-up.”

“Tell me they charged her with something.”

“Cabot declined to press charges because he didn’t want to put Mia through that, but I can’t imagine how deeply the anger must run through him.”

“I’d be a raving lunatic if someone ever did that to me. I say all the time how thankful I am that Rem and I didn’t have kids. Not for lack of trying, but for all I know, he’d had a vasectomy or something. I can’t even imagine an innocent child caught in the nightmare our marriage became.”

“I hear you. I thought I wanted kids with her, but I’m so glad that never happened.”

“Were you trying?”

“I thought so, but like you said, who knows? She was probably on the pill, or some other birth control, the whole time while pretending to be disappointed we never got pregnant. Considering how things ended, it was a blessing that she never conceived.”

“I just keep wondering why people have to be so shitty to the ones who love them. It’s so rare to find true love, and to treat it so callously… It’ll never make sense to me.”

“I’ve asked myself that a lot, especially after my dad left my mom with eight kids to finish raising on her own.”

“Speaking of shitty.”

“It was pretty bad. My dad was the one who made most of the money. It was rough without his income.”

“And no one made him contribute?”

“The court did, but only the minimum required. Nowhere near enough for a family of nine. Gray, Izzy, Nessa and I were working when we were far too young to be concerned about things like food on the table and younger siblings who grew out of shoes and clothes so quickly.”

“What a terrible thing he did.”

“We think he had some sort of mental health issue. We’ll probably never know for sure. And get this—a year or so ago, I ran into him out of the blue, and he told me he was planning to reach out to us.”

“Did you believe him?”

“I did because he was sick and needed a bone marrow transplant. He wanted us to get tested.”

She spun around in her seat to stare at him. “Are you serious? I hope you all told him to fuck off.”

“We wanted to, but more than that, we didn’t want his death on our consciences. Gray ended up matching to him and donated. We haven’t heard much from him since then except that he’s in remission.”

“Wow. It takes some kind of balls to reach out to kids you abandoned to ask for such a thing.”

“Yep. Everyone was upset about it. I was the one who said we ought to do it and move on. That way, we wouldn’t have to feel bad if he died.”

“You’re a bigger person than most would’ve been under those circumstances.”

“He’s still our father, even if we want nothing to do with him.”

“Did you call him about Izzy?”

“We did. He said he wanted to see her, but I guess he hasn’t shown up yet. I would’ve heard about it if he had.”

“I hope he’s filled with shame over what he did to you and your family. I hope he doesn’t have a minute of peace. And in case you were wondering, I never would’ve said something like that about anyone until it happened to me.”

“I get it. Believe me.”

“It helps to talk to someone who understands. It’s been weird at home. My family loved Rem and couldn’t believe what I was telling them could be true. His parents were in a total state of disbelief until I was able to prove that he stole from them.”

“How’d you do that?”

“He was on one of their accounts. They’d put each of their children on various things so someone would have access if anything happened to them. I logged in as him and was able to prove he’d been withdrawing money from the account for years. Small amounts that wouldn’t trigger any kind of suspicion, but it added up to more than twenty-five thousand. After that, they were completely on Team Brianna.”

“He stole from his parents. What a dirtbag.”

“That was the least of what he did. The worst part was the gaslighting, him making me believe I was seeing things when it came to him cheating and lying and stealing from me. ‘Come on, baby,’ he’d say, ‘you know me. You know how much I love you. I’d never do anything to hurt you.’ I wanted to believe it so badly that I started to question the black-and-white evidence staring me in the face that confirmed he was full of shit. Being made to feel like I was crazy was worse than anything.”

Noah listened to what she was saying, but he kept his eyes on the road so they wouldn’t end up in the hospital with Izzy. “That had to be so awful.”

“It was, and I’m not even sure why I’m talking about it to you again. You must be tired of hearing the many ways my ex did me wrong.”

“I don’t mind listening, and I’m sorry for all the ways your ex did you wrong. I hope he’s regretting what he lost.”

“He’s not capable of regret. That’s one of the hallmarks of his condition. He has no care for anyone but himself. Anyway, enough of that. I’m good at bringing down the mood, huh?”

“You’re fine. I don’t want you ever to feel like you can’t talk to me about what you went through with him, what you’re continuing to go through. I can’t believe he dares to sue you after what he did.”

“I know but being with you and your family helped me this afternoon, Noah. I’d be a disaster if I’d gone straight home to spend the evening alone with my disturbing thoughts.”

“Glad we were able to help.”

“The Colemans are a great distraction.”

“How hard did my sisters pump you for info?”

“They were pretty crafty, but I was craftier. I dodged them.”

“Well done. That’s not easy to do.”

“They worry about you.”

“I wish they wouldn’t. I’m fine.”

“Are you, though? Are any of us fine?”

“I’ve been a lot finer this week than I’ve been in months.”

“Is that so?”

He pulled into her driveway and put the truck in Park before looking over at her. “That’s very much so.”

“Me, too.”

“It’s funny, isn’t it, how we found a kindred spirit in the least likely of people.”

“It is, and it’s proof that we need to take the time to get to know people before we judge them.”

Noah grinned at her. “Had you judged me?”

“Rather harshly.”

He laughed. “I deserved it. The minute I heard Mrs. H was bringing in an architect from Boston, I wanted off the job.”

“You did? Seriously?”

“Dead seriously. Architects are always such a royal pain in my ass, and this time was no exception.”

She sputtered with outrage. “You were the royal pain! Not me.”

“Nope, you were. So precise with your rolls of plans and your detailed instructions. Not to mention your forked tongue.”

“As I recall, you quite liked my tongue the other night.”

And just that quickly, he was hard as a rock for her. “I’ve come around on the subject of your tongue.”

She laughed softly. “You want to come in?”

He really ought to go home. If he didn’t, his siblings would be all over them both even more than they already were. But the last thing in the world he wanted to do, when she was offering the opportunity for him to spend more time with her, was go home.

“Yeah,” he said. “I want to.”