This Just In... (Harlequin Superromance) (22 page)

Noah’s resolve didn’t waver. He couldn’t be weak around this woman, the one who’d gotten behind his defenses and made him think that she would stay. That he was worth staying for. “It’s not a good time right now.” He stopped short of saying her name, afraid that hearing it slip from his lips would shatter the thin shield of protection around him.

“Oh.” He saw the realization register. She tried again anyway. “When would be a good time? This is important.”

“Not to me.”

Surprise then pain flashed across her face. He schooled his features into polite boredom. He would not crumble, would not let her know she still had the ability to dig into his heart. He had to protect himself. “Noah.”

“I need to get ready for work,” he told her. His hands were clenched so tight that he wouldn’t have been shocked to find the nails had broken skin.

“But...”

But nothing. Noah stared at her. She didn’t finish her sentence.

“Well, I wanted you to know that I’m back.” She slowed and took a breath. Her eyes met his and her voice quieted. “I quit my job in the city.”

Goodie for her. He didn’t say a word.

“I wanted you to know that.”

“And now I do.” He didn’t shift, not even a millimeter. What did it matter if Sabrina was back? Nothing had changed between them. Nothing at all.

“Okay.” He saw her throat bob as she swallowed. “Then I guess I’ll let you get back to dressing.”

Noah looked down at his bare chest and boxers. Hell, he hadn’t even thought to grab a pair of sweatpants or a shirt. It was her. Sabrina confused him, made him disregard the image he’d worked so hard to create. He hated that. More than ever he needed to cloak himself in that armor of perfection. And in less than twenty-four hours, she’d already managed to make him forget.

“Noah?” He didn’t want to look at her. Did his trick of looking just past her, letting his gaze fix on something in the distance. “I hope you’ll be willing to talk to me soon. I know that things...” She shook her head. “I’d like to talk. When you’re ready.”

Like he just needed a few more days to get over it. That everything would be well and good if she gave him another day, a week, a month. Noah didn’t think it would ever be well and good between them again. But he didn’t say that. He didn’t say anything. Just mumbled something noncommittal and watched as she headed back to her own apartment.

She still had that swing in her step. The one that made her ass look absolutely delectable. He knew he shouldn’t be watching, shouldn’t be punishing himself by viewing what he couldn’t have. But he did, not closing his own door until she was safely behind hers.

He let his head rest against the cool wood. Sabrina had quit her job. The hope he’d been fighting tried to blossom. He hoed it back. She hadn’t said she’d quit for him, hadn’t said she’d come back for him. She’d just said she was back. Maybe all she wanted to talk about was how they could move forward as friends, so that living beside each other wouldn’t be horribly awkward when she wanted to bring someone new home.

Noah’s stomach roiled at the thought. He swallowed the burn working its way up his throat. She could bring back any man she wanted, and do whatever she wanted with him. It had nothing to do with him if she wanted to ride some new sucker like a cowgirl on that beautiful big bed of hers.

But she’d better not wear the boots if she did.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

W
ELL
,
THAT
HADN
’
T
gone as planned. Sabrina rubbed at the numbness creeping up her neck and over her ears. Not that she’d expected Noah to throw open his door and invite her in for a cup of coffee. Okay, that would have been nice, but she was reasonable.

She just hadn’t anticipated the crushing coldness. The flinty look in his eyes and small sneer on his mouth as though he couldn’t believe she was wasting his time. She wasn’t wasting his time. Didn’t he understand he was part of the reason she’d come back? That he’d shown her all she’d missed out on for the past nine years and she didn’t want to miss the next nine?

She sighed. She was back now and she wasn’t going anywhere. She’d made sure of that, telling her Vancouver editor that she wouldn’t be party to a fabricated story about the young actress and when he threatened her with dismissal, she’d told him not to bother because she quit.

But it meant she was unemployable at her old paper and probably any other in the city, too. The industry wasn’t large and word of her difficult behavior would certainly make its way around. She shoved the thought away. She didn’t care. She had no intention of going back.

Although she’d been here less than a day, arriving yesterday afternoon with the furniture and boxes she’d never bothered to unpack, Sabrina already felt more at home than she had the past few weeks in Vancouver. Even that little pinch behind her heart was gone. Yes, she’d done the right thing.

Now she just had to convince Noah.

Satisfied that at least their reconnection hadn’t devolved into painful accusations, she turned on her coffeemaker. If spending the night on the couch didn’t earn her a strong pot, she didn’t know what would. Then she hurried to the shower, shedding clothes as she went. She sang a little as she turned on the spray and waited for it to heat up.

Yes, coming home had been the right move. Of course, it would be better if Noah were with her right now, kissing the side of her neck and telling her all the delightful areas he planned to wash for her, but all in good time.

He still cared about her. She was sure of it. Why else would he have taken care of her last night?

Sabrina might have dragged the blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped herself up in it while still sleeping. She might have even woken up long enough to turn off the TV and then fallen back asleep without remembering. But there was no way she’d climbed off the couch, traipsed over to the door, moved her red boots and locked up. Her boots had been placed neatly beside the door, toes pointed toward the wall, heels perfectly even. No, that was all Noah. Which meant that icy facade and brusque manner had just been an attempt to hide his real feelings.

She hurried through her shower. She was due at the coffee shop in twenty minutes. Her parents had been thrilled when she’d called to tell them she was coming back and had happily agreed to let her move back into the apartment, which they had yet to rent out. Then they’d happily informed her she could start at the coffee shop as soon as she arrived.

She yanked a comb through her wet hair. Not because she was so desperate to get to the kitchen, the rich aroma of the now ready coffee filling the apartment, but because she couldn’t wait to start her new life.

Sabrina gave herself a quick hug. Today, she would reintroduce herself to Wheaton and show them that she meant to stay.

* * *

“H
E
’
S
BEING
DIFFICULT
,” Sabrina complained to Marissa over coffee two days later. She’d spent the morning at the newspaper office and was covering the afternoon shift at the coffee shop, but she’d decided she needed a break. The shop was slow between two and three anyway. “He wouldn’t even accept a coffee from me this morning.”

And after she’d made him a cup to go. Didn’t he know that not everyone was treated to a morning cup of coffee, Sabrina style?

She’d waited by her door, travel mug in hand, until she’d heard Noah’s door open. Then she’d walked out, too. He’d thanked her for the thought, but declined the cup.

“It’s frustrating.”

“I know.” Marissa had one eye on Scotty who was rolling a toy truck across the wooden floor a couple of tables over, unaware that the other patrons had to step over and around him. Timmy slept against Marissa’s shoulder. Paul and Daisy were still at school. “I told you, you broke him.”

“I did not break him.” Sabrina took a sip of the latte in front of her in hopes it might calm her nerves. It didn’t. She put the cup down hard enough that the liquid splashed up and over the rim. “Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?” she asked as she mopped up the mess.

“I am?”

“Yes.” Wasn’t it obvious? “You didn’t let up on me when I was away. ‘When are you coming back? I miss you. The kids miss you.’” She crumpled the soiled napkins into a ball.

“We did miss you.”

“Did Noah?”

Marissa blew out a breath and rocked the baby. “I think so. But, Sabrina, this isn’t about being on a side. I’m on both your sides.”

“You
think
so?”

Scotty, alerted by the change in their voices, wandered over, truck in hand. He dropped it when he spied his hot chocolate still sitting on the table. His earlier attempts at drinking had landed the majority of it on his shirt, but he didn’t seem to care. He reached for the cup now. Sabrina helped him guide the cup to his lips.

He drank and grinned at her, then lifted his arms to be picked up. The contents of the cup spilled out onto Sabrina.

“Scotty,” Marissa said, juggling Timmy with one arm and grabbing napkins with the other. “Be careful.”

Scotty popped his thumb in his mouth and stared at Sabrina with worried eyes.

“I know it was an accident,” she assured him as she blotted the liquid off her jeans. He nodded, his thumb securely fastened between his lips. He pointed to her lap even though it was still damp. Sabrina lifted him up. He turned and curled against her, content to be held. “People make mistakes,” she said, her eyes on Marissa.

“You make a lot of them.”

“I’m a slow learner.” They were both quiet for a moment. The sounds of the coffee shop filled the silence. The bubble and hiss of machines. The low conversation of the few other patrons. None of them held the answer Sabrina was searching for. “He’s going to forgive me, isn’t he?”

Marissa considered the question. “I think so. He’s just worried.”

“About what?” Sabrina wrapped her arms around Scotty, who wriggled closer, his warm body snuggling into hers. There was comfort in holding a child. A protective instinct curled through her, warming her in a way coffee never could.

“Well, I’m only guessing since he won’t talk about it, but I think he’s afraid you won’t stay.”

“What? That’s ridiculous.” Had she not quit her job in Vancouver? Given up her apartment? “What am I supposed to do? Write up a contract proclaiming that Wheaton will forever and always be my home?”

Marissa snickered. “Not that you’re dramatic or anything.”

Scotty giggled, too, and the cheerful noise rumbled through Sabrina, chasing out the tension. He reached up to pat her face. “Pretty,” he said shyly.

“Handsome.” She patted his cheek back and then hugged him, squeezing until he giggled again. This time, the sound wormed its way into her heart and planted a seed. No, that wasn’t true. Scotty, his siblings, Marissa and Kyle. Ellen, Mrs. Thompson, Trish. Her parents. They’d all carved out a place in her heart, lain down those roots of home, before she’d ever come back. She just hadn’t been able to admit it.

But she no longer saw Wheaton as nothing more than a pit stop in the race of life. It was home and she wasn’t leaving. No matter what Noah thought. Even if they couldn’t be together. She swallowed and lowered her chin to rest on Scotty’s head.

What if they didn’t get back together? What if she was forced to stand by while Noah wined and dined some other woman? Asked her to marry him? Moved her into his apartment and let her redecorate?

“Aunt Sabby?” Scotty tilted his head to look at her. She tickled him until he laughed and then hugged him hard. This was her home. The place she felt whole. Scotty gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek, no doubt leaving traces of hot chocolate behind.

If only relationships with grown men could be so simple. A tickle and a hug and they were yours for life. As if to prove the point, Scotty kissed her again, then he pushed out of her arms and toddled off to play with his truck. So maybe a little more than a tickle and a hug were required.

“Are you glad you came back?” Marissa asked.

“Yes.” The answer came without thinking. Sabrina had missed out on all of this. The joy of seeing friends settle down and start families. Settling down and starting one of her own. Not that she’d been ready nine years ago to become a wife and a mother. No, she’d had some living to get out of her system, to become the person she was. Or grow up enough to admit to herself who she really was. She sighed and let her head loll back. “He doesn’t think I’m going to stay.”

“Well, you haven’t exactly built up a reputation for loving the town.”

“I had things to do.” Sabrina threw her arms wide to encompass all she’d done. The last-minute trips to Vegas, dancing at the club all night and going for brunch before bed, flirting, kissing, living. But it had all been leading her back to Wheaton. “I was young.”

“And you’re such an old hag now.”

Sabrina’s head shot up. “If I am, then so are you. In fact, you’re older and haggier by an entire six weeks.” She snickered at Marissa’s narrowed gaze. “Good thing I’m here to help you maintain the remnants of youth that you haven’t destroyed.”

Marissa’s eyes narrowed farther. “You know, I’ve changed my mind. I didn’t miss you at all. In fact, I think you should go back to Vancouver.”

Sabrina snorted. “Nice try. You’ve realized now that you can’t live without me. That I’m integral to all your future happiness. Also, here to make sure your hygiene is up to public standards.” She reached out and plucked what looked like a piece of cereal from Marissa’s hair.

Marissa looked down at Sabrina’s open palm and shrugged. “Kids.”

Sabrina wiped her hands with one of the remaining dry napkins. “So if Noah thinks I’m going to leave, I need to show him I’m staying.” She looked at her friend. “Any bright ideas?”

“I haven’t slept through the night in eight years,” Marissa said and took another slug of coffee. “I’m lucky to remember to put makeup on in the morning.”

“Or wash your hair.”

“Very funny.” But the edges of Marissa’s lips twitched. “You’ve always been good at getting what you want. How do you do that?”

Sabrina thought about it. “Usually, I just keep going until things work out, but I don’t know if that will work this time.” She tapped a finger against her lip. She feared that pushing Noah would make him back off more. That he’d start outright ignoring her. And then what? She’d have to break into his apartment and refuse to leave until he talked to her?

“Why not?”

She pursed her lips. “He won’t let me in. There’s this polite reserve that I can’t penetrate.”

“It’s only been two days,” Marissa pointed out.

“I know. But he’s never been like this before.” She rolled her shoulders. “Not with me.”

“Maybe give him some time. He probably just needs to come to terms with his feelings.”

Sabrina nodded slowly. She hoped Marissa was right.