Noah (38 page)

“So that made him a sure thing?”

“No. Nothing
’
s a sure thing.”

“Exactly.”
He smiled but there was still some fire behind that smile. He’d won the argument but he was still peeved. “And for the record,” he leaned in close enough to kiss her. “Its not written anywhere that everyone reaches
that
place
at the same
age
. Seems to me Derek and your friend Nellie’s husband are prime examples of this.”
He leaned in closer and kissed her softly on the lips. “So you’re done with this guy and wa
n
t nothing to do with him any
more
right?”
His words were self assured but she could still see the uncertainty in his eyes as he waited for her response.

She nodded amazed at how
readily she’d give
n
into him.
He smiled satisfied and pecked her one more time before pulling away. “Then you’ll
have
to be a little more specific about what I can and can’t do the next time his ass shows up. Because I tend to have selective hearing and I’ll tell you right now the only part I’m gonna remember is you not wanting to anything to do with him.” He smirked before picking up another slice. “I’ve already blocked out the no-kicking-
anyone’s
-ass part.”

About to rea
ssert
he
r
no-kicking-ass rules
,
Hector interrupted her thoughts.

“Yo, Noah!” He called from the front room, holding out a controller. “C’mon it’s halftime. Let’s go again. Abel says we got lucky. Lemme just
beat
your ass one last time.”

Noah smirked at her shrugging as he began to walk away. “This conversation isn’t over, Noah,” she warned.

He put
h
is hand to his ear as if he hadn’t heard a thing
, mocking her with that sexy smile of his
before turning his back to her on his way to the front room.

“For fuck
’
s sake can you pay attention?” she heard Abel mutter
as Noah took the controller and sat down on the floor.

Gio and Hector laughed and the television was suddenly booming with machine gun fire and bombs. Hector yelled out something about that not being fair while the other
s
laughed
.
A
bel threw a pillow at him
.
M
issing
,
it hit Gio instead who protested loudly. In the midst of the chaos Noah suddenly turned and glanced at her. He smiled so tenderly her heart turned over and she swore she felt it swell.         

Who would’ve thought just a few months ago when she was moping all alone
in this silent house, feeling fat and completely uninspired that she’d be here with all these new friends.

This day might’ve gone entirely different
ly
had it not been for Noah and the guys
.
She still hadn’t heard from Nellie since the day she left her place in tears and her anxiety about that was beginning to really get to her. Noah and the guys, but mostly Noah had really gotten her through today.
For
a
n instant the fear was back in her heart—fear that one wrong move, one hasty decision could make
this
all go away.

Then they all laughed loudly again and she decided
to
let the fears go for now, already anxious about tonight
’s
friendly
kiss.
    
      

Last night
’
s kiss had gone on extra long. Noah could see he was making progress in breaking through Roni’s defenses.
He understood why she was still hesitant to go any further. He wasn’t without worry either. The possibility that something could go wrong was too real. But there was no way he couldn’t try. It was a huge risk but one he felt was absolutely worth the reward should it all work out and he was certain it would.

For now he’d take what she would give him, knowing they had somewhat of an unspoken agreement. Getting her life back to what it used to be was important to her
and he’d respect that. She did say she wanted to deal with that first before making any major changes in her life. So he’d be content knowing she wasn’t considering anyone else either.
Most importantly although she set down the law that she would handle
Kratz
and there would be no ass kicking should he ever show up again, she did once again mention she had no interest in reconciling with the guy, not even in friendship terms.   
      
 

The fight Friday night was only
four
days away.
He’d focus on that instead.
Last week Abel’s fight had been a
huge
hit. They had a full house at the gym and Abel said he’
d
actually held off a little longer before knocking his opponent out just to give the
spectators
who’d lined up hours before the fight
a longer show
. But he warned Noah not to even think of doing the same since
not only was hi
s a rematch
,
  he
also
needed to send out a message to his
much tougher 
opponent in
the
following fight
.

Noah waited in the ring for Abel who’d jumped out for second to take a call
. He turned to check on Roni.
He’d done such a good job impressing her with his phone
it m
ight
’ve backfired. All that time she spent snuggling with him on the sofa every night while she
played with
his phone might be out the door
.
S
he was now saying that as soon as she was up for an upgrade on her phone plan she was getting herself one. In the meantime she used his during her workouts which this week had come in handy because with his fight this week he was training even longer which meant he had less time to train with her. Not that she needed him anymore. Most of her workouts consisted of her doing an hour on the treadmill then some
weights for toning. But
she said
listening to music made that hour on the treadmill go by so much faster.

Most of the day he’d train methodically without ever falling off track. But
when
Roni got there
in the evenings it was
a different story. She’d been a little
down
still
because
of  the whole
Nellie
thing
.

He watched her now, trying to make out her mood. Abel jabbed him hard in the ribs making Noah flinch.
Noah hadn’t even notice
d
him get back in the ring.

“Can I say something without you getting all stupid on me?” Abel glance
d
at Roni then back at Noah.

If this was about her he wasn’t promising shit. “What?”

“I hope to hell you do
n’t do
what you did at your fight a few weeks ago.”

Noah punched his gloves together and frowned. He knew exactly what Abel was getting at
but he r
olle
d his neck as he walked around the ring and asked anyway. “What’s that?”

“Get all caught up watching her and lose focus on the fight.”

“I won’t.”

“Dude, the second she walks in here every night we may as w
e
ll hang it up. You check out just like that.
Y
esterday you could barely concentrate whenever she walked through the room.
You can’t do that fight night, Noah. You remember what happened last time
?
” Abel glanced away and looked out into the gym at nothing in particular. “Maybe it’s better if…”

Noah peered at him. “If what?”

“If she’s not there, Friday.”

“No!” Noah held back what he really wanted to say. That he
needed
her there. As crazy as that sounded
and
even though he’d been pissed
and distracted with
the guy carrying on with her during the fight, there’d been something so comforting about
her
be
ing
there. Even the ride there he’d felt so much more at peace than he ever had
before
any fight.  And now after everything that had happened between them he knew that feeling would be even stronger. “Don’t worry about it
.
” He jabbed Abel playfully
,
his words a little calmer now. “I’ll focus
.
I promise.”

He could see Abel wasn’t impressed or convinced by his promises. “
Yeah? Prove it. She’s got what?
Twenty minutes
left? Lets see how long you can go without looking her way. Show me now.” He jabbed Noah hard on the shoulder. “C’mon lover boy. Lets do this.”

Noah resent
ed
having to force himself to keep his attention away from Roni  but he knew Abel had a point. Still
,
he decided to use the aggravation to his advantage and jabbed hard at Abel missing his chin by an inch. Abel laughed jumping in place now. “There you go. Focus. Maybe next time you’ll land that.”

“Asshole
,
” Noah muttered as he swung again harder this time but Abel blocked it.
He swung again this time landing one on Abel’s side. 

A
b
e
l
laughed again, completely unfazed by the solid jab Noah landed.
“Call me crazy
,
Noah
,
but I think this focusing
shit really works for you.”
 

They went at it for a while before Abel called their sparring session done. First thing Noah did was glance over in Roni’s direction. She was standing by the treadmill drinking from her water bottle. When she finished she wiped her forehead with a towel. She glanced at him then smiled when she saw him looking.

“Geez
,
she’s as bad as you are.” Abel nudg
ed
Noah
before stepping out of the ring.

Noah laughed
, but didn’t say what he was thinking.
H
e
sure as hell
hoped so
.

~*~

Even though their routine had changed a little this week because of Noah’s extra training, once home in the evenings
,
everything was blissfully the same.
  Noah flipped the channels as
Veronica
laid on the sofa her head resting on his lap playing with his phone. She still couldn’t believe the amount of things she could do with it. Noah had even showed her an app that she could use to star
t
her car. It was unreal.

She
re
sized the picture she’d taken that weekend of the guys while they were completely engrossed in their game. It was so cute
;
they all looked like their actual lives depended on whatever it is they were concentrating so hard
on
. The app she was playing with would let her add thoughts over the
ir
heads. She was in the middle of adding thoughts above Noah’s head when she hit something and the screen switched over to an incoming text—from Rita.

Veronica
’s stomach did that weird thing it’d done just about anytime there’d been mention of Rita
. The same thing it did when she’d seen Noah hug the groupies after his fight. The text was bad enough.

Sorry I won’t make it to your fight this Friday, my week is going to be crazy. But before I forget I wanted to wish you luck even though I know you won’t need it. Kill’em baby MUUAH!

That alon
e
was enough to light a fire in
side
Veronica
. Had Noah asked her to come see him fight? He’d said they didn’t stay in contact after she left.  

But it was the follow up photo
-
text that made her sit up slowly. It was a picture of Rita and Noah on his motorcycle. Her arms were wrapped around him and her hands
strategically placed
in his inner thighs
right at his crotch area
. Even though Noah’s smile was barely there, her entire body pushed up against him and the
seductive
smile she wore was that of woman who’d either just got
ten
laid or was about to. The text under the picture read simply:
Aren’t we cute?