Noah (14 page)

The silence on the other end went on a little too long. “You still there?”

“Yeah, I
’
m
here,
”
Gio said, clearing his throat.

“So uh, yeah. Let your mom know—”

“Noah, what are you doing?”

“What do you mean?” Noah squeezed his eyes shut, knowing exactly what Gio was getting at. Several times over the past couple of
weeks,
he’d gotten strange looks from Gio, especially when he’d slip and refer to Veronica as Roni
in front of him
—Gio
already
knew what Noah hadn’t even admitted to himself yet.

“Are you falling for this chick?”

Noah’s first thought was to play stupid. Act like Gio was being ridiculous but he knew it was pointless. So instead, he sat down on his bed, letting his head fall back
and
said nothing.

“Dude, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with it, or that it couldn’t work out. I just hope you’re not getting too comfortable, in case it doesn’t. You’re my boy and
you know with everything you’ve been through…
I don’t wanna see you hurt is all.”

Noah
wanted to
smile
but he couldn’t. Things weren’t even close to what he knew Gio must be imagining. “It’s not like that with us, man. So if you’re ever around her don’t go saying something that would make her think I said it was. She just… she has no one. I know what that feels like and she was gonna be alone tonight, so I decided to stay and keep her company. That’s all.”

Noah knew Gio would never buy that
’s
all
it was
, but he also knew he’d let it go. He heard his friend exhale and then he sp
oke
again. “Okay. Well, I’ll tell Rita and you’ll be missed, bro. Enjoy your day with
Roni
.” He chuckled. “We’ll have plenty of leftovers so come by this weekend and grub. You know my moms
.
S
he’ll be disappointed you didn’t come by tonight so you’ll have to make it up to her.” 

Noah chuckled. “Got it
.
I’ll make my rounds
this weekend
. Thanks.”

He hung up and
t
ook
one last look
in the mirror
before
walk
ing
out of the room.
As he walked around the corner of the
hallway,
Veronica
came into view. She
stirred a coffee cup and then sipped it. He sucked in a hard breath when she
glanc
ed up and
smiled
at him. How was it possible that she’d gone from being
average
looking
,
when he first met her, even after she’d lost the weight he thought her
somewhat
attractive but now she was
beautiful
.
Not much had changed in her appearance
, but everything about her
now
seemed to glow—
th
e curls, her eyes
—those lips.

She raised her cup at him. “You thought of everything. Pumpkin spice creamer. I love it.”      

Noah smiled
,
trying hard to conceal
the fact that having pleased her for something as simple as picking the right creamer made him feel damn good
.
“I thought it fit
t
he occasion.”

“
I also saw the champagne in fridge. How’d you manage that? Didn’t they card you?
”

Taking a
n annoyed
deep breath he walked into the kitchen, the smell
of
her freshly shampooed hair, with a touch of something else—perfume maybe—very subtle, overwhelm
ed
his senses as he walked by her. He almost forgot
about the irritating question. He’d had a fa
k
e I.D
.
for over a year
now
,
not that he got carded too often. Like this morning, the clerk glanced up at him and just asked him for his birthday. He gave it to her with the fake year and she just punched it in.  

“
I also got beer
.
And no they didn’t card me.
”
As
smug
as he had hoped to sound
,
his words
sounded
more defensive
than anything
.
If she
noticed,
she didn’t let on.
Instead,
she barely glanced at him before her eyes were on the oven behind him.
“It’s already lunch time. We spen
t
so much time preparing the food we skipped breakfast.”

“You hungry?”

“Starving.”

“Well
let’s
do this.”

With everything
done,
they moved the food to the dining room table and sat down prepared to eat. 
Just as he saw her fork dig into the mashed potatoes, he had to ask. “Aren’t we supposed to say grace first?”

With a
near
frown Veronica shrugged and dropped her fork. “You can if you want to. God
and I
haven’t exactly been on speaking terms for a while.”

Ah
. With that in mind Noah kept i
t
short and to the point then they dug in.
Noah glanced up at her after a few minutes of silent ravishing. She wasn’t kidding when she said she was starving and he hadn’t realized what an appetite he’d worked up with such a busy morning.

“So your mom was really the only family you eve
r
had?”

She nodded and thankfully, she didn’t seem uncomfortable with the subject. “My mom mentioned having a much older sister who she never really knew. My grandparents were older when they had my mom. She was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.” She buttered a roll as she spoke seemingly okay with sharing this part of her life with him.
She told him all about the much older sister her mom had that ran off when she was eighteen and never returned so while she knew she had an aunt somewhere she’d never met her.

“What about your dad?” Judging by her sudden change in expression, this obviously wasn’t quite as easy a question as his first. Worried that this might change her mood he added, “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want.”

“No. It’s no biggie. I never met him. My mom fell in love with
an
acquaintance of
the family who came from
Mexico
to visit for weeks at a time.
He made her all kinds of promises, especially after they became intimate and when he’d go back to Mexico they’d writ
e
each other constantly
.
W
hen she wrote him to tell her she was pregnant he never wrote back.” Her expression hardened. “She later found out he’d bee
n
married the whole time. His visits over here were to make money to send back to his wife and
kids
. She was devastated but my aging grandparents helped raise me though I was really young when they passed and from then on it was just me and her.”

She dipped her roll in her potatoes and took a bite.

Feeling bad that he’d dr
e
dged
up
such a sore subject Noah felt compelled to say something and then hopefully change the subject. “Well, I’m sorry about your dad but at least your grandparents stuck by your mom. I know
the
older generation tend
s
to be very stern about those kinds of things.”

Her smile made him feel better. “No. My grandparents were wonderful.” She glanced around. “This was their house. They left it to me and my mom.” Her eyes met him and were suddenly full of compassion. “And don’t be sorry. At least I had my mom. Were you really in foster care your whole life?”

Noah wanted a change of subject but
this certainly wasn’t the direction he had in mind.
He continued to eat t
rying to play it off as it was no big deal.
“
I honestly don’t  know anything about my dad and I barely remember my mom. All I know is we lived in a
house
here in 
Los Angeles
. We shared it with several other families. I’d go to school
,
come home
,
go into our room and wait for her to get home from work.” He took a hard drink of his coffee surprised that talking about it still made him sad. “One day when I was six she never came home. The other women in the house looked after me saying the
migra
had taken her from
the factory she
work
ed at
and sent her back to
Mexico
, but she’d be back for me. Then weeks later, we got notice that she’d been killed when the truck she and about thirty other immigrants were being smuggled in crashed just before crossing the border. So I was placed in foster care and was told it was only until one of my mother
’
s family members came to get me.” He moved his food around on his plate. It’d been years since he told this story to anyone and he was surprised now that
h
e was telling
her
this. The only other person
he’d ever
shared this with was Gio. He glanced up at him and she was staring
, her eyes full of compassion. “No one ever came. End of story.”

She nodded as if she understood and wouldn’t ask anything else. Strangely, he wanted her to. As hard as it was to relive it, it felt good to tell someone else. He’d only told Gio bits and pieces over the years and that was usually when he was drunk.

“I’m so sorry to hear that, Noah. Have you ever tried to find any of your mom
’
s family?”

Noah shook his head almost annoyed
,
not at her
,
but at the idea of him trying to reconnect with people who obviously didn’t give a shit about him. Over the years he’d come to the conclusion that if
he and
his mom were all alone living with strangers in
a
shared house
then
none of her family gave a shit about her either. “What for? If they had any
interest,
they would’ve come looking for me. I was the kid.”

“Maybe they didn’t know about you.”

Noah chuckled bitterly. “Someone knew. They knew enough to send word about my mom being killed.” He stared at her eyes that now seemed to search for more in his. “You know that saying ‘blood is thicker than water’?” She nodded. “It’s bullshit.
Growing up I got to know a lot of different families and it always amazed me how fucked up some of these families were.”

Noah bit his tongue before he went on. As good as it felt to let it out
,
today wasn’t the day for it. Today was supposed to be fun. He shook his head and speared a piece of
turkey
breast with his fork. “Anyway, some of the relationships I’ve developed over the years with friends, I would never dream of trading them with someone just because we have the same blood running through our veins.
That’s all I’m saying. I didn’t mean to get all heavy on you.
”

He stuck the turkey in his mouth and stood up. “You ready for some champagne?” Her pensive eyes were still glued to him even as he glanced back at her. “I know it’s early but what the hell? It’s a holiday.”

Her expression finally eased up then she smiled. “Yeah, I’ll take some.” 

All the muscles in his back and arms seemed to have tensed up with that last conversation. He needed something to bring him down. Help him relax so he could enjoy the rest of the day and evening with her. The very thought pulled him immediately out of his edgy mood and
he
smiled as he pulled the bottle of bubbly out of the fridge.

After only one glass of champagne, Noah switched to beer. He said he wasn’t much of a champagne drinker and only
ever
had a glass or two when he was in a celebratory mood. Veronica’s insides had warmed when he said
that
today he was celebrating his new friendship. Given the little speech he’d just
made about
how
he felt about his friends
,
it was even more heartwarming that he now considered her a friend. That of course only made her reasoning even more
p
ertinent
about why she shouldn’t get caught up in anything like what happened that morning.