Pierced by Love (27 page)

A knock sounded at the door and Noelle heard her mother calling her name softly. Wiping her eyes futilely with her hands, she looked around for a tissue and spotted a box of them near the sink. Gratefully, she grabbed several and blew her nose. When she had regained a reasonable amount of control, she pulled her phone from her purse and dialed Pierce’s number.

He answered on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Pierce,” she croaked, hating the cragginess of her voice.

“Noelle? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“How’s the fitting going?”

“I, um . . .” What should she say? “Pierce,” she tried again, “It’s not going very well. I need you to do me a favor. How far away are you?”

“I’m in Mesa. I was spending some time with Gage, but I’m heading your direction now.”

She sighed in relief. “Okay. Good. Can you come and get me?”

“Where are you?” Now his voice carried a note of concern. “Are you all right?”

Sniffling loudly, she answered, “No. I need your help. Can you please come and get me?”

“Tell me where you are.”

She told him the location of the bridal boutique, which thankfully was only a twenty-minute drive from where he was. “Hold on, Noelle. I’ll be right there.”

“Thanks, Pierce. You’re a lifesaver,” she said shakily as she ended the call.

She grabbed a fresh tissue from the box and opened the door, meeting her mother just beyond. Once again, Brenda Jensen’s brows were raised questioningly. “Noelle? Are you all right?”

“I don’t feel well, Mom. I’m going to change out of this dress and wait up front for Pierce. He’s picking me up soon.”

“But you agreed to go to lunch with us. Are you sure that you wouldn’t be fine if you simply rested for a few minutes?”

With a tiny shake of her head, Noelle explained, “No, I really should go home, Mom. I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked.

Her mother peered at her more closely. “Maybe you’re right. You look like you’re about to faint. What happened?”

“I’d rather not talk about it right now. But please don’t rush Melody on my account. Go ahead and take her to lunch. I’ll be fine. Pierce will be here soon, then he’ll take me home.”

“It’s a shame. Melody was looking forward to spending this time with you. She says you’ve been so busy this semester. She’s worried that you’ve continued to grow apart.” Her mother’s sharp gaze pricked Noelle’s conscience, but she couldn’t deal with it right now.

“I haven’t meant for us to grow apart. I’ve just had a lot to deal with lately. Anyway, tell Melody that I’m sorry I messed everything up. I’ll try to make it up to her somehow.”

“All right,” her mom said doubtfully. “Please call me if you need me to come home.”

Noelle agreed and hurried in and out of the fitting room, handing the dress to Sharon. Then she made her way to the lobby to wait for Pierce.

Noelle hadn’t said anything beyond a hello for the past ten minutes, unless Pierce counted the sniffles he heard while she had her face turned toward the window. Pierce looked at her in concern, wondering what had happened in the bridal shop. He knew that she’d been crying, judging from the way her voice cracked on the phone and the way she averted her eyes.

The sudden realization that he was becoming familiar with this woman’s tears startled him. Not that he minded being there for her, but he was wondering whom these tears were being spilt for, her or Chase.

He drove with no destination in mind, giving her the time she needed to compose herself. Heck, if he was being honest with himself, he’d admit that he needed time to rein in his heated emotions too. This situation with her sister and ex-boyfriend was enough to drive him over the edge. Just when Pierce thought that he was making some headway with Noelle, she suffered another setback. When was she going to get over this guy?

His gut told him to stay calm even though his brain was screaming to have it out with her.
Be patient with her, Logan,
he told himself.
She needs more time.

“Feeling any better?”

She nodded mutely. Pierce gritted his teeth in frustration. He pulled into the parking lot of an office complex and parked, waiting for her to say something. He fought to keep his tone even. “Come on, Noelle. Tell me what’s going on. When we talked last night, you were fine. Now you’re stressing out.”

After taking a shuddering breath, she finally turned to him. Her sorrow was so palpable; it tore him up seeing her this way. He gently lifted her chin and looked into her teary eyes. “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to help, sweetheart. But please don’t shut me out.”

“You’ll probably think I’m an idiot. And you’d be right.”

Her self-incriminating tone erased all of his negative thoughts from a few minutes ago. “No, I won’t. Tell me what happened.”

He waited again. Noelle buried her head in her hands; then she straightened her body and blurted, “I saw Melody in her wedding dress and it all came flooding back—the horror of being dumped and being jealous of my own sister and the futility of it. I didn’t handle it well at all.”

“So you feel you made a scene in front of your mom and Melody?”

She grimaced, shutting her eyelids tightly as if trying to shut out the memory. “Yes,” she cried. “I held it together long enough to call you, and then my mom kept pushing me to stay and keep my end of the agreement to spend this time with Melody. But I just couldn’t handle the stress, so I bailed.”

Pierce didn’t know how to respond. He’d been right about her reason for being upset. Unfortunately, being right did nothing to appease him. “It’s been, what? Six weeks since you broke up?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“It isn’t easy to recover from a breakup. Give yourself some more time.”

“But what about us?”

That was the question he wanted to ask her. Instead, he reassured her. “I’m still here and I’ll stand by you for as long as you need me to.”

She gave him a wobbly smile. “Thanks, Pierce. You’re awesome. I’m sorry I lost it. I knew it was going to be hard.”

When her body convulsed again, Pierce thought she would resume the crying spell. But to his amazement, she took a deep breath and pulled herself together. He asked her, “Are you sure you can pull this off?”

“By ‘this,’ do you mean us?”

“Actually, I meant the wedding and bridesmaid thing.”

She took a deep breath and raised her chin boldly. “With you by my side, I can.”

“So what about us?”

After a pause, she declared, “The jury’s still out on that verdict.”

He sighed in resignation. “Fair enough.”

TWENTY-ONE

T
HEY BOUGHT SOME Spanish food from a local restaurant and then drove past the recently dedicated Gilbert Temple. The white edifice stood magnificently against the pale blue sky, reminding Pierce of his and Noelle’s excursion to the Snowflake Temple. At the time, he’d just been trying to do Noelle a favor, but the unexpected events of the past few weeks had brought them much closer since then. He wouldn’t mind sharing that sweet experience with her again sometime soon.

He drove Noelle to her parents’ house and parked the Explorer. “So, is anyone home?”

“My dad should be. He mentioned this morning that he had some yard work to do before the barbecue.”

Pierce nodded, feeling relieved. After what had happened with Kasey and then being accused of taking advantage of Noelle by Melody’s fiancé, he didn’t want to get caught in a similar trap.

They went inside and put their leftovers in the refrigerator, then Noelle led Pierce out to the backyard. “Dad?” she called, opening the sliding glass door.

Her dad unbent his medium frame from a hedge he’d been trimming. Noelle and Pierce walked from the patio into the yard where he worked. He wiped his brow with a handkerchief and smiled at them. “Hi, Noelle.” He nodded to Pierce. “Hello again, Pierce.” A perplexed frown appeared on his face. “I thought you were with your mother.”

“I was, but I . . . well . . .”

“She wasn’t feeling well, so she called me to come and get her,” Pierce explained.

Noelle sent him a grateful look.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Dad. I just needed some fresh air. I was feeling claustrophobic in the bridal boutique, that’s all.” She gestured toward the lawn mower behind him along with the hedge clippers in his hand. “You’re keeping busy, I see.”

“I’ve had a heavy caseload lately. I haven’t had time to come out here and take care of the yard.”

Noelle said cheekily, “Knowing Mom, I’m sure she wanted everything to be perfect for the family get-together too.”

Her dad grinned in return. “I can’t deny it.”

“Would you like some help?” Pierce inquired.

Samuel Jensen watched Pierce closely, apparently deciding that his offer was valid. “Sure. I’d appreciate it.” Noelle quickly ran inside to change into work clothes. When she came back out, Pierce decided that she looked every bit as gorgeous as when she’d been dressed up.

Noelle swept the patio and gazebo while Pierce raked in the pecans that had fallen from the pecan trees. While they worked, Samuel and Pierce conversed comfortably about everything from the Suns’ playoff hopes to the pros and cons of Samuel’s career. Practicing family law had been an eye-opening experience for him through the years. Now that he was older and ran his own law practice, he was able to pick and choose his cases a little more cautiously. “I don’t mind handling divorce cases when, as far as I can tell, the husband and wife are amiable with each other. However, in those cases, I can’t help but wonder why they’re splitting up to begin with.”

The subject took a decided turn for the worst when Samuel looked Pierce in the eye and said, “I understand from my wife that your parents are divorced. She and Noelle had a talk last night regarding the two of you dating. My wife raised some concerns about your family background.”

Pierce had always known that this would be a hurdle in finding a woman to love. No, he did not come from a fairy-tale family and because of that, he knew the risks of dating someone who apparently did. “We’ve had our ups and downs.” He understated it, hoping to head his questions off.

If anything, it only served to fuel the fire. “Care to explain that to me?”

“It’s a long story.”

Samuel shrugged. “I’ve got plenty of time. But we’re about through here. Why don’t we go inside and pour some glasses of lemonade and relax for a while? It’s getting rather warm.”

Pierce looked around. Not seeing Noelle, he decided that she must have done the same thing. “All right.”

They found their way to the kitchen where Noelle had just placed two tall glasses of chilled lemonade on the table. “Thank you, sweetheart,” Samuel said.

“You’re welcome, Dad. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.” With an airy “See ya,” she winked at Pierce and fled the room. Pierce narrowed his eyes at her retreat. Interesting. She must have known that her dad wanted to talk to him.

“So what happened between your parents?”

Pierce chuckled, raising a brow. “You don’t pull your punches, do you?”

“I like to get straight to the point. I’ll admit that it can be a hindrance to my work at times when I’m trying to counsel my clients. Sometimes they need time to ease into the crux of the matter.”

That described how Pierce was feeling perfectly. He took a moment to gather his thoughts, then he began telling Noelle’s dad about his difficult childhood when he’d wanted to be noticed by his dad and then his teenage years when he wanted his dad’s approval but never received it. He also told him about his dad’s years of inactivity and recent reactivation as well as Noelle’s part in helping the two of them to reconcile.

Samuel grinned, obviously pleased to hear this bit of news. “She’s a good girl. Has a heart of gold. But because of that, it has a tendency to get broken easily. I’ve heard bits and pieces from Melody about you dating girls only once or twice before moving on to someone else. Is that true?”

“It was, sir. Not anymore.”

“And why is that?” Her dad’s nonchalant face revealed nothing, but Pierce had the uncanny feeling that his future with Noelle was riding on the way he answered the question.

“You can probably understand better than anyone else why I’ve avoided relationships in the past. My parents were unable to keep their marriage intact. I’ve learned recently that it was due to a serious lack of communication when they went through a rough time as well as stubbornness on both of their parts. The fact of the matter is that they divorced while I was serving my mission.”