Save Me (28 page)

“Butch and Joanie’s son?”

“That’s the one.” I try to sound nonchalant as a tiny chill runs down my neck.

“I haven’t seen him since Joanie’s funeral. Poor boy. She was lovely. Do you remember her?”

I nod and take a bite of the toast. “From Sunday school.”

“Jack, do you remember Joanie Leer? Died of cancer about a year ago.”

“I remember,” my dad says, and appears to be ignoring us, but I know he’s not. He always hears everything.

“If you don’t want to be with Brian, that’s fine, but please not a rodeo cowboy,” my mother pleads, not missing a thing.

“I only said I saw him. What’s wrong with a rodeo cowboy?”

“Nothing. For someone else’s daughter. I really want you to marry someone with a job. Someone who can take care of you.”

“Can’t a cowboy do that?”
From what I’ve seen, he can take very good care of me.

“Charlotte, please tell me you’re not serious. They’re always on the road. Their income’s not steady. It’s a very difficult life.” My mother’s stern warning is delivered while she fills the dishwasher, as if we’re discussing a fairy tale, a situation so absurd it barely warrants a discussion. She’s still beautiful, even when she’s lecturing me. “I know safe choices aren’t attractive to the young, but believe me you do not belong in that world and he’d wither up and die in yours. Do not underestimate the power of safety in this crazy life.”

“How do you know so much about rodeo cowboys?” I ask.

“Yeah, how do you know so much?” my dad asks. He stares at her over the newspaper.

“Is your stomach flipping?” she asks, and gives him her beautiful smile she’s flashed to quell him my entire life.

“Yes,” he says, and winks at her.

N
oble?” I stare out the window as we pass field after field and lose my attention to the crops. I follow them to the horizon, the only boundary between the earth and the sky. The perfect blue meets the green fields as if it’s watching over them. This is Noble’s world.

God’s country.

“Yes?” He brings me back to his truck. I turn to him and watch him drive with the ease that’s always a part of him.

“Would you say I’m your best friend? That we’re best friends?” Noble takes his eyes off the road to meet mine. I’ve seen this look before. He’s not sure whether to laugh.

“Are you going to give me half a BFF necklace or something?” he asks, as if I am the most ridiculous person he’s ever known.

“I was just thinking about how things change.”

“Charlotte, what’s going on?” He’s listening closely now. We pass the cornfields, almost knee-height. How many corn crops have I passed in my lifetime?

I shake my head. “I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

About what?
“You are one of my closest friends. You, Margo, Jenn, and Sam. And at Rutgers I can’t survive without Julia, Violet, and Sydney.”

“Where are you going with this?” Now he’s worried. Noble turns left and a new set of fields draws my attention.

“What happened to the others? Jason, and Ollie, and Possum? Where are Heather Miller and Dana Davino? Why aren’t we friends with them anymore? I went to Jason Leer’s birthday party every year of my life until we hit high school, and then I never hung out with him.”

“Charlotte, things change—the passage of time, circumstances—but people don’t. We’re still friends, just old friends. Jason was into the rodeo, and we weren’t. We just went in different directions.”

Noble turns onto the farm lane leading to his house and crosses the railroad tracks that sever it. An acre and a half back, we pass Jason Leer’s house on the left. His truck is parked near the barn separating his and Noble’s yards. I swallow hard at the thought of my ankle in Jason’s hand.

“Wait here,” Noble says, and pulls up near the side door of the farmhouse.

“Why?” I ask, knowing my cheeks are probably flushed. Noble notices and seems confused for the second time today. I’m not making any sense.

“Because my mother will interrogate you about my love life at Rutgers and we’ll never make it to Jenn’s.” Noble’s easy smile lights up his face.
He is my best friend.
“Just wait here, okay?”

Noble leaves me, and I can’t take my eyes off Jason’s truck. I wonder what he’s doing today, what Jenn and Margo will say if I invite him to the lake house with us. The door to Jason’s house swings open and hits the side of the house. Anyone else exiting a house that way would indicate anger, but Jason smiles as he strides over to his truck. I watch in delight. Everything is so powerful about him, and I can’t take my eyes off him. A chill runs down the back of my neck and I tilt my head to thwart it.

Jason reaches for his truck door and glances back. At the sight of me, he stops. The smile drains from his face. It’s replaced with something else. Something coercive. I should lean down in the truck. Crouch down and escape his gaze, but that would be cowardly, and something about Jason Leer brings out the best and worst in me, neither of which is anywhere near fear.

He takes one step toward me as Noble practically skips out of his house. He breezes to the truck and climbs in carrying cucumbers, without even noticing Jason. As he pulls away, he waves at Jason, and I sit in awe of him. We drive a few miles, me trying to understand what Jason does to me and Noble singing along to music without a care in the world. He lowers the volume and examines me.

“Charlotte, what?”

I release myself from all things Jason Leer.

“What if the person you’re supposed to be with you’ve known your whole life? What if they’re an old friend?”

Noble’s gaze is serious, and that’s terrifying.

“An old friend or a best friend?”

“Old, either, does it matter?” This line of questioning is not relaxing him.

“Is this about Brian? Are you second-guessing breaking up with him?”

“No. This is absolutely not about Brian.”

Noble studies me. “What you’re talking about will change everything. I’m not saying it never happens, just that if it ends, it never ends well.”

“Have you ever been with someone you know in your heart is the exact right person for you? That everything swirling around you just moves you closer to that person?”

Noble takes his eyes off the road and looks at me as if I have a unicorn horn growing out of the center of my head.

“Did you get high before I picked you up?”

“No,” I say, and lower my head. I’m not making any sense today. None of this makes sense.

“You’re scaring me a little.”

“I know,” I say, and drop the subject. It’s a stupid one.

The drive to Jenn’s lake house is about a half hour. Noble and I spend it with the windows down and the music playing. We pull down the long gravel-cut lane winding through the woods and park behind Jenn’s and Margo’s cars.

A day on the lake is the perfect end to June, I think as I jump out of the truck and grab my bag. The cloudless sky agrees with me. This will be the last summer we’re all home together. It seems everyone branches out after their junior year. Jenn has already said she’ll be on a beach somewhere full-time and Margo wants to stay at school and take summer classes. I’m not sure what I’ll do, but it’s not going to be in Salem County if these girls don’t come home.

I hand the bag of cucumbers to Jenn and she starts washing them. “Compliments of Noble Sinclair.” I give credit where credit is due.

“Oh, Mr. Sinclair? You don’t say? I love that you still call him Noble after all these years. Can’t just commit to Nick like the rest of us,” Jenn says.

“She’s stubborn,” Noble concludes.

“It’s nice to know a farmer. I’m going to make you cucumber salad as thanks,” she says.

“I was going to bring some tomatoes, too, but they’re about a week out.”

“Let’s meet back here in a week. I’ll make a tomato salad then,” she adds, and begins cutting the cucumbers.

“Sam should be here any minute,” Margo says, and grabs a cucumber. “Why don’t you guys take out the canoe? It’s covered in spiders. I couldn’t get within three feet of it.”

I look out the window at the lake. It’s completely still, no signs of life.

Noble and I sweep the interior of the canoe for webs before pulling it to the water’s edge and placing the paddles inside. We step into the water and gingerly board the canoe. We almost tip at Noble’s entry, but we right ourselves and set off on our sail with Noble at the bow. His neck and shoulders appear enormous from this vantage point. As he pulls the water with his paddle, his biceps bulge. When we exit the shade of the coast, Noble takes off his shirt and I am in awe.

“How come you don’t have a girlfriend?” I ask, and Noble keeps paddling.

“What makes you think I don’t?”

“You wouldn’t keep something like that from me, would you?” I’m wounded at the suggestion. Noble turns around and his warm, inviting smile confuses me all the more. Why is he alone? Or is he?

“I’m just waiting for the right girl,” he says, and paddles with deep strokes that push us from shore. “Until she comes along, I’m trying to meet as many wrong girls as possible,” he adds with the naughtiest grin.

“Sounds like a great plan to catch something nasty.”

“That’s very romantic, Charlotte. Just because things aren’t swirling around me, or whatever the hell you were saying earlier, doesn’t mean I’m a venereal disease waiting to be contracted.”

“Says you,” I retort, and continue paddling the canoe. The river is completely empty except for Noble and me. We row close to the shore of a tiny island with no beach. The trees hang over into the water and there are sounds of bugs, and birds, and God knows what else inhabiting it. Noble takes his paddle and pushes us away from the island just as I duck under a branch and we row back to the open water.

“How deep do you think it is here?” I ask.

“I can throw you in so you can find out.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I say, and push my paddle straight down. It touches nothing but water. “Deep,” I say, nodding. Noble rocks the canoe from side to side, coming within a few inches of taking on water each time. I don’t say a word. I will not give him the satisfaction. Instead I tilt my face to the blue sky and let the sun warm me. It is the most beautiful day. Almost too bright to face it even with my eyes closed. The glare is blinding. Noble bores of tormenting me and begins to row back to the house. I match his paddling and between us the canoe is charging toward home.

I stop rowing as I see Jenn, Margo, Sam, and…Sean standing on the dock.

“What’s your brother doing here?” Noble asks, his voice filled with the doom I feel.

“I don’t know. Keep rowing.” Dread settles at the bottom of my stomach.

When we get close to shore, I can see them clearly, each of them staring at me with unspoken sadness. Their faces scream at me to row the other way. Something horrible has happened. I lay my paddle across my lap and listen as the devastation in Sean’s eyes cries out to me. Noble rows us to shore and gets out first, immediately turning around to help me. I run out of the water and face my brother’s stricken face.

“Mom and Dad were in a car accident. A delivery truck T-boned them on the Swedesboro Road. Mom was airlifted and is being operated on now.”
Where’s Dad?
“Get your stuff.”

“I’ll follow you guys,” Margo says.

“I’ll drive, Margo. We’ll follow you, Sean,” Noble says to Sean, and I grab my shoes and climb into Sean’s truck. We pull onto the lane, the one I rode in on an hour ago, and everything has changed. None of it for the better.

Forgive Me

Redeem Me

College student Charlotte O’Brien is lost and she can’t find her way home. Devastated by her parents’ tragic deaths, she aches for any kind of connection…and finds it in a man who is all wrong for her. Jason Leer is a rough-hewn steer wrestler from Oklahoma—and the hottest thing Charlotte has ever laid eyes on. Yet he has his own dark secrets…

Burying herself in Jason, Charlotte soon discovers that life doesn’t have to be so painful. When they’re together, their passion eclipses everything—and Charlotte can finally begin to see a way out of the darkness of her past. Fighting for a future with Jason won’t be easy, but for the first time since her parents’ deaths, this lost soul might have finally found a place that feels like home.

Charlotte O’Brien desperately needs redemption. Torn apart by her parents’ tragic deaths, Charlotte has no one to turn to after she alienates herself from everyone and everything. Fate sends her a lifeline when she runs into a childhood friend. Now all she sees is Noble Sinclair—tall, gorgeous, with a body made for sinning. But Charlotte knows better than anyone how quickly the things you hold dear can be taken away—and though loving Noble feels like it could be her salvation, Charlotte knows it could also destroy her.

Noble Sinclair has always loved Charlotte. Now, seeing how far she has fallen, Noble vows to be the man who can make her happy and bring her out of the darkness that has haunted her for far too long. But to save Charlotte, he must make her learn to forgive everyone who has forsaken her…starting with herself.

Jo Walsh has loved Cameron Mitchell for as long as she can remember. Whether front and center in her life or on the periphery, the tall, brooding artist has made his presence seductively and irresistibly known. But whenever they start to get close, Cam pulls away. Jo’s tired of keeping her feelings in a box Cam is afraid to open. If he wants her, he’ll have to prove it. And if he doesn’t, Jo will need to know the
real
reason why…

How do you walk away from your soul mate? Cam wishes he knew. No matter how far he runs from Jo, he can’t resist looking back at the silver eyes that seem to see right through him. But as well as Jo thinks she understands Cam, the dark truth about his past is something she shouldn’t have to handle. Cam’s sure that setting Jo free is the right thing to do. Too bad his heart has other ideas…

Publicist Abby Fields’s career is on the rise. And with failed romances in her past, she has no time for men. When a job opportunity opens up with a sports team in Florida, Abby eagerly packs up and heads south. Yet after a work event in Mirabelle, Florida, Abby finds herself in the arms of a hockey player whose heart-stopping smile leads her to the steamiest night of her life…

Logan James is hot on and off the ice. With his team on an epic winning streak, life couldn’t get better…until he meets Abby, the fiery redhead assigned to protect his team’s image. Now Logan’s finding it difficult to concentrate on anything other than getting Abby undressed. But after a secret is leaked to the press, the taste of betrayal opens old wounds. If they can’t learn to trust each other, they may risk losing more than their hearts.

Attorney Hannah Sterling lives a life she’s worked hard for. So when she unexpectedly inherits an inn, Hannah decides to take that long-overdue holiday and settle her eccentric grandmother’s estate. She knew there would be challenges, but what’s hardest about returning to Mirabelle, Florida, is facing the man who gave her the most passionate summer of her life—and then broke her heart.

Nathanial Shepherd never forgot the redheaded goddess who lit up his world and got away. Now that she’s home, Shep vows to make up for their years apart—and if the fire in her kiss is any indication, they’re well on their way. But when a devastating secret from their past threatens their future, Shep must fight to heal Hannah’s heart. Because this time, their love will truly be unforgettable…