Come Together by Marie Force

Chapter Twenty-Two

“One day you’re going to remember me and how much I loved you…then you’re gonna hate yourself for letting me go.”

—Drake

Watching Brianna interact with his sisters, Noah felt out of sorts and off-balance. Something had changed for him, something big and vital. He loved her. After his marriage blew up in his face, he’d promised himself he’d never go there again. There was a place where you gave another person control over your heart and your emotions. There was a place he never wanted to be again, until Brianna blasted into his life and turned everything upside down.

The discovery had him spinning and his stomach dropping as if he’d fallen into a bottomless pit.

He loved her.

He cared about her.

He hated to see her upset over a man who’d never deserved her.

He wanted her in his life.

And none of that was supposed to have happened. His goal had been to avoid anything that required a commitment or having to place trust in strangers. But she wasn’t a stranger. Not anymore, and regardless of his goal to avoid such things, he trusted her.

“What’s wrong?” Brianna asked him quietly.

When he looked at her, he noticed that her eyes were red and puffy. “Nothing.”

“I’m sorry to be such a mess over him. That’s not how I wanted to spend this afternoon and evening.”

“It’s not your fault, and I don’t blame you at all. I can only imagine how I’d feel if something had happened to her. I’d be upset with myself for being upset about her.”

“That’s it, exactly. It helps that you understand, but that doesn’t tell me what’s got you wound up.”

“It’s nothing. Just thinking about some stuff.”

“Will you tell me later?”

He couldn’t tell her he loved her. Not yet and certainly not tonight. That couldn’t happen the same night she found out her ex was dead. But he could tell her he was having feelings and get a sense of whether they were on the same page. And if they were? What then? “Yeah,” he said in response to her question. “We’ll talk later.”

“I’m looking forward to later.”

Ugh, that little smile, those pretty eyes, that face, the curls… He was crazy about her, and it was getting worse by the minute.

The girls were unusually thoughtful. They cleaned the entire kitchen, did all the dishes and got ready to leave shortly after dinner, each of them hugging Brianna and letting her know they cared and were close by if she needed friends.

“I’m heading back to Boston tomorrow for school,” Sarah said, hugging Noah. “Keep me posted on what goes on here, okay?”

“I will.”

She whispered in his ear, “I like her. Don’t mess it up.”

Noah laughed and gave her a playful shove. “Get out of here. And drive carefully tomorrow.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Speaking of Dad, no sign of him this week?”

“Not that we heard, and we would’ve,” Nessa said. “Is anyone shocked that he’s a no-show?”

“Nope,” Ally and Noah said in stereo.

“Who cares?” Ally said as she put her coat on and pulled her long hair out of the collar. “Izzy doesn’t need him. She has us. And Cabot, who’s been there for days now.”

“What’s up with that?” Noah asked.

“I don’t think even Izzy knows,” Sarah said, laughing, “but she hasn’t kicked him out, so that’s something.”

If Izzy didn’t want him there, he wouldn’t be. That was for sure.

“Any word on when she’s coming home?” Noah asked.

“They said maybe the day after tomorrow,” Nessa said, “and Cabot is planning to stay with her to help for as long as she needs it.”

“Has Izzy figured out that he has a massive crush on her?” Brianna asked.

“She’s not sure that he does,” Ally said. “She’s as surprised as we are that he’s planning to stick around.”

“Very interesting,” Noah said. “Thanks again for dinner, you guys.”

“Make sure you’re home by curfew.” Sarah smiled at Brianna. “He used to love saying that to us.”

“Because not one of you ever made it, and I had to listen to Mom rant about where you were and what you were doing.”

Ally winked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Actually, no, I wouldn’t.”

Brianna laughed at their antics, which made him thankful for his sisters and the lightness they’d brought to this difficult evening.

He walked them out and waved as they drove off. Back inside, he shut off the outside lights and locked the door before wondering if Brianna wanted him to stay. Maybe she’d rather be alone. He ought to at least ask her.

She’d curled up on the sofa with a blanket over her lap.

Noah sat next to her. “What can I do?”

“You’ve already done so much. Thanks for being here. You and your sisters make it easy to forget my troubles.”

“Do you want to be alone?”

“No,” she said quickly. “Unless you’d rather go home.”

“I’d rather be with you.”

“Are you going to tell me what you were thinking about earlier when you looked weird in the eyes?”

“Did I?”

“You did.”

“Tonight isn’t about me. It’s about you and whatever you need.”

“I’m talked out on that topic. Let’s talk about something else.”

“What I was thinking would be better discussed at a time when there’s nothing else weighing on us.”

Her brows furrowed adorably. “This sounds serious.”

“It’s serious in a good way.”

She tipped her head, studying him so intently, he wondered if he had something on his face. “What’re you saying, Noah?”

“Nothing yet, Brianna, because you’ve had a rough day.”

“Let’s pretend today was any other day. What would you say to me then?”

“In that case, I might say that I find myself wondering what’s going to happen when you’re done here and have to go back to Boston. I might tell you I’ve been thinking about maybe going with you because I can’t imagine being here without you. I might say something like that.”

Her lips parted, and her eyes widened. “You would come to Boston with me?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“But your business and your family… Your whole life is here.”

“If you’re there, my whole life isn’t here.”

“Noah…”

“See what I mean? Not the right time for this.”

“Yes, it is. It’s the perfect time to remind me that the past doesn’t define me.”

“It doesn’t. You’re amazing, and I just want to be with you. If you need to be in Boston, then that’s what we’ll do. If you want me there, that is.”

“Yes,” she said on a long exhale, “I want you there, Noah. I want you here, there, everywhere.”

As he reached for her and wrapped his arms around her, he was overwhelmed with relief to know there’d be more. There might be upheaval and big decisions to be made, but he’d put her on notice that he didn’t want her to get away. “I didn’t want anything like this, ever again. I was quite determined to avoid it until this sexy, infuriating architect showed up and made herself essential to me.”

“I’m essential to you?”

“Hell yes,” he said, kissing her. “You make me not want to be a cranky loner anymore. You make me want to rejoin my family and live fully again instead of burrowing into my misery. Do you have any idea how miraculous that is when I honestly believed I was going to live that way for the rest of my life?”

“You have too much to give to live like that. I wish you could see how your sisters look at you with so much love and admiration. They’re so happy to have you back.”

“How do you know?”

“They told me. Every one of them has said something about it this week. That they’ve missed you and hurt for you and wanted to help but didn’t know how.”

“They’re delightful, even if they drive me bonkers sometimes.”

“They love you.”

“And I love them.” He linked their fingers and looked down at their joined hands. “There’s just one other thing I have to say about all these big things we’re talking about.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s the biggest of big things.”

“Okay…”

“If we do this, if we make some sort of commitment to each other, I need to be certain we’re both in it for keeps. I can’t go through what I did before again, and I’m sure you feel the same way.”

“I do, but I’m not sure I’m ready to say this is it for the rest of my life. After everything that’s happened, I don’t trust my judgment the way I used to. And while I know you’re nothing at all like him, I thought he was perfect for a long time. Until I realized how wrong I was about that, and now…”

“Now you don’t know what to believe.”

“Something like that.”

“I get it. All I can do is continue to prove you can trust me with the hope that maybe, at some point, you might decide to believe in me.”

“I already do. I just need to be sure I’m not making another bad decision.”

“The good news is we have a few weeks left before you head home, and that gives us plenty of time to spend together to get to know each other.” It would also give him time to show her he was just what she needed. How he would do that, he wasn’t quite sure yet, but he’d wage a campaign to keep her in his life if that’s what it took.

* * *

Brianna snuggled upto Noah in bed. He was always so warm, like her own personal heating pad, and during a Vermont winter, that was a nice thing to have. He’d been so sweet earlier, telling her he’d move to Boston if that would keep them together after she had to leave.

She was beginning to wonder if she wanted to leave. Her life in Boston had changed dramatically after her marriage ended. Everywhere she looked was a painful memory of something she’d done with Rem, back before she knew their entire relationship was a big lie. The friends who’d been so supportive of her when things first went bad with him had continued with their lives, their marriages, their children, while she had to wonder how her life had gone so wrong.

Her cousin, Dominique, was the only one there she’d truly miss if she didn’t go back, but Dom was so busy with her own life and family that they rarely saw each other.

Adding to her woes in Boston were the always-fighting brothers she worked for who made each day so stressful that she’d jumped at the chance to work in Vermont—primarily outside in the winter—just to get away from them for a few months. She’d been thinking about looking for a new job long before the inn project had bought her a reprieve. If she went back, she didn’t want to return to that firm.

If she went back…

Since when was that even a question?

She smiled in the dark. It’d become a question when Noah told her he wanted her in his life, but only if she was there to stay.

Of course, she understood why he’d want those assurances. Neither of them ever again wanted to be in the place they’d been before, but Brianna was wise enough now to know that all the assurances in the world didn’t guarantee that things wouldn’t still go sideways.

“What’re you thinking about?” he muttered, his voice hoarse and sleepy sounding.

“You.”

“What about me?”

“The things you said earlier.”

“I don’t want you awake worrying about any of that.”

“I’m not worrying. I’m thinking.”

“Talk to me. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I like that you keep me warm at night.”

He tightened his arms around her. “I’ve never liked sleeping like this until you wrapped your sexy self around me, and now I love sleeping wrapped up in you.”

“You didn’t sleep like this with your wife?”

“Nope. She didn’t like anything touching her while she slept.”

Brianna kissed his neck and breathed him in. “That was most definitely her loss.”

“Is that right?” he asked on a low chuckle.

“Oh yeah.” She took a minute to enjoy the warm, safe feeling that came with being wrapped up in him. “I want you to know…”

“What, honey? What do you want me to know?”

“If I were going to have faith in anyone, I’d want to have faith in you.”

“I saw what my father did to his wife and children and vowed as a teenager I’d never be that kind of man, the kind who left and disappointed the people who loved him. I may not be the best guy who ever lived, but I don’t leave when things get hard. If Mel hadn’t done what she did, I never would’ve left her, even if there were things about our marriage that didn’t work for me.”

“Like what?”

“She spent a lot of time with her friends—more time with them than she spent with me. She even traveled with them.”

“Without you?”

“Yep. They didn’t invite me. We did stuff together, too, but it bugged me that she spent so much time with other people, and they seemed to come first with her.”

“Did you ever tell her that?”

“I tried to, but she didn’t want to hear it. They were her ride-or-die girls, and they came first.”

“That’s not fair to you.”

“I knew they were incredibly close before we got married. I just thought our relationship would come first after we got married, but nothing changed. I realized much later, after she was long gone, that I was lonely in our marriage. But I stuck it out because I committed to her. That mattered to me.”

“She didn’t deserve you.”

“No, she didn’t.”

Brianna laughed. “We both deserve better than what we had before.”

“We do, and that’s why I believe that if we were to make a go of this, we’d know how to do it right. We know what not to do.”

“For sure,” she said with a sigh. “I also want you to know that I’d been thinking about making some other changes long before I came up here.”

“Like what?”

“My job, for one thing. I hate it. I work for brothers who do nothing but scream at each other all day long, and I can’t stand it. When they were looking for someone to take this job, I jumped at the chance to get the hell away from them, even if it was Vermont in the winter, and I hate being cold.”

Noah slid his leg between hers. “But now you know the secret to staying warm in Vermont, and it doesn’t seem so bad, right?”

“Everything about Vermont is different from what I expected.”

“So, move up here and be part of my business.”

Brianna raised her head off his chest. “What?”

“You heard me. I’ve had this idea running around in my mind for a while now, and you’d fit right into it.”

“What idea?”

“The renovation idea. There’re all these great old buildings all over Vermont that would make for unique homes. For instance, my aunt and uncle live in a restored barn that’s the most incredible home I’ve ever seen. You’d have to see it to get the full picture. I’ll take you over there tomorrow.”

“Like Grayson’s place, the restored church, which is amazing.”

“Yes, exactly. I thought it might be a fun niche for the company to buy the places, restore them and then sell them at what I hope would be a huge profit. People are always looking for ski houses up here. I think there’d be a real market for it.”

“That’s the most exciting idea I’ve ever heard.”

He laughed. “That can’t possibly be true.”

“No, it is. It sounds so fun and interesting. My brain is exploding with ideas and thoughts, and well, I think it’s a great idea.”

“Even though I work for myself, there’re so many daily demands from clients that I just get tired of it all. I feel like this way, I could truly work for myself, and I’d want you to be part of it.”

“Really? You’d want to work with me when all we did was fight for weeks when we first worked together?”

“We only fought for weeks because we were both pretending we weren’t attracted.”

“I wasn’t attracted.”

“You’re such a liar!”

Brianna lost it laughing.

“Everything is different now.” He squeezed her ass for emphasis. “We’d be a great team. You’d do the design, and I’d do the work. While I was finishing one project, you could be preparing for the next one.”

“I have goose bumps.”

Noah ran his hand down her arm. “You do.”

“You’ve given me so much to think about.”

“I’m glad you’re thinking about good things rather than things that hurt you.”

With her hand on his face, she turned him to receive her kiss. “Thank you for giving me good things to think about.”

“You’ve done the same for me.”

“I just need a little more time to think. I hope you understand.”

He kissed her. “I understand, and I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here when you figure out what you want.”