by Danica Flynn
I texted Noah quickly.
ME: What happened?!? Are you okay?
NOAH: You didn’t see?
ME: NO....had the game on mute while I worked on my book.
NOAH: Took a puck to the face.
ME: NO! My poor baby!
NOAH: Oh, I’m your baby now?
ME: Shush! Are you okay?
NOAH: Yeah...we can talk later. They still want to check me out.
I stared at my phone in disbelief and then searched twitter to see if I could find a playback. It looked really bad, like concussion bad. FUCK. I didn’t know what else to say, so I set my phone down on the coffee table and took my rage out on video games.
My phone buzzed on the coffee table, but I ignored it as I mashed buttons on my controller and killed this insane boss I had been trying to beat for what seemed like forever. I cheered when I finally beat it and saw my phone was rattling across the table some more. I jumped at seeing that Noah was calling me.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Hey, sorry if I was short with you,” he apologized.
“It’s fine.”
He sighed on the other line. “They told me I need to take it easy, but they don’t think I have a concussion.”
“That’s good, right?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m just frustrated.”
“Why don’t you come over and I’ll make you dinner?”
He was silent on the other line for a minute. “Did you just offer to make me dinner? You don’t cook.” I heard the laughter in his voice.
“I can cook, I’m just lazy. You seem upset, and I want to cheer you up.”
“That would actually be really nice. I’ll see you in a bit.”
I hung up with him. Why did I offer to make him dinner? That was SO not me. I texted Chloe.
ME: I just offered to make a man dinner, what’s wrong with me?
CHLOE: HAHAHAHAHAHA
CHLOE: HAHAHAHAHAHA
ME: CHLOE!!!
CHLOE: Oh, honey! I think that means you love him.
I stared down at my phone for a couple minutes. No, I don’t think that was right. Could I? Could I really love Noah? I mean I always said I did before we crossed from the friendship zone to the dating zone. I cared about him very much, I knew that, but loved him? I wasn’t sure about that. I thought it was way too early in this thing to be tossing around that word. At the same time, I wasn’t really much of a cook, so why did I offer to make my new boyfriend dinner? I shook my head to see if I could physically shake all the unsure thoughts out of my head.
I went into my kitchen and started putting something together. I didn’t have much in the way of dinner stuff in my apartment. Jason had always done the cooking, so for the most part I ended up eating for one which was mostly salads. Or whenever my brothers felt sorry for me, they would bring me food. Mostly it was Frankie. It was a sad existence, but it had never felt that sad to me before.
I looked in my cupboards, and had to settle on some burrito bowls. I pulled out the rice cooker and started the rice, while I opened a can of pinto beans to heat them up on the stove. Luckily I had some ground beef in the freezer that I was able to heat up on the stove as well.
I was dicing tomatoes, when there was a knock on the door. I had given TJ and Noah a spare key to my place years ago for emergencies, so Noah could have just let himself in. It was kind of nice that he respected my boundaries. He was definitely something else.
I walked over to the door and was not surprised to find Noah’s towering frame standing in front of me. He bent down to kiss me, his hands going to my waist and lifting me closer to him. I was pretty sure I squealed like a giddy teenager, because I felt the smile spreading across his lips while he kissed me.
“Hey, put me down! I need to finish dinner,” I insisted.
He put me down and I rushed into the kitchen to turn the meat. The rice cooker popped up, and I realized I timed this all wrong. Noah’s strong arms wrapped around my waist. “What can I do to help?” he whispered in my ear. Did he know how sexy it was when he did that?
I turned off the burner for the beans, and stirred the meat a little more, it still needed a few minutes. “Hmm, can you just unplug the rice cooker? Maybe set the table?” I asked while my hands were busy with other tasks.
“I can’t believe you actually made me dinner,” he mused as he pulled away and did as I asked.
There was something so sexy about a man that helped out in the kitchen. Noah was setting the table, putting out the bowl of cheese, tomatoes, and diced spinach when I finished up the meat. I turned off the burner and moved it to a plate. I took it over to my kitchen table, where Noah had done a pretty good job of setting everything up.
I wiped my hands on a hand towel, and grabbed a beer from the fridge. “You want a beer?” I asked.
“Sure.”
I pulled another one from out of the fridge and poured both of them in glasses. I walked over to the table and handed him his glass. I set my beer at my place at the table, but before I could sit down, his hands grabbed my waist and pulled me down into his lap.
“Hey!” I exclaimed.
His big hand wrapped around the back of my neck and pulled me into a long and slow kiss. He smiled when he pulled away. “Hey, yourself,” he breathed.
My hand grazed his cheek and I saw the blood and metallic stitches on his ear. “Aw, babe, that looks bad.”
He jerked his head away from my hand. “It hurts, but I’ll be okay.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t go being all old-school hockey tough guy on me, okay?”
He gripped my waist harder, and pushed my hair behind my ear. “I’m fine, it was just a nick, really. It just hurts, but I’m okay. It’s cute that you’re so worried.”
“Of course I’m worried!” I squealed.
The smile stayed put on his face, but he finally let me go. I got up and sat in my own seat, even though when he kissed me like that, the last thing I wanted to do was just sit across from him. I doled out the food into my bowl. I hadn’t really eaten a big breakfast, and got too wrapped up in my writing to eat lunch, so I was pretty hungry. Noah must have been pretty hungry after his game too, even though it seemed like he hadn’t gotten to play all that much.
“This is nice,” he murmured after a little while.
I shoved more food in my mouth and nodded. “Tell me about the game,” I urged.
He shrugged. “It was going okay, I scored the first goal of the game, but then I blocked a puck with my face.”
I smirked. “Did you make the save?”
He tipped his head back and laughed. “Yeah, I did.”
I took a sip of my beer. “Well...I think you have job security now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Philly will probably hire you as their penalty kill coach when you retire.”
He laughed again and just shook his head.
I shrugged. I knew it was true. We in Philly liked the down and dirty, do whatever it took hockey guys. Noah had quickly become one of those since he was drafted by the team when he was a mere eighteen years old. God, he made me feel old.
He cocked his head at me, and I realized he had asked me something and I hadn’t answered him. “Lovey?” he asked.
I smiled back at him. “Sorry,” I apologized and gave him a sheepish look.
He put his hand over mine. “What are you thinking about?”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing.”
He squeezed my hand. “Tell me.”
I sighed and took another long sip of my beer. “I forget how young you are sometimes. Sometimes I think I’m too old for you.”
His mouth turned down into a frown. “You know that doesn’t matter to me, right?”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I know.”
“It doesn’t,” he urged.
I nodded, and waved him off. I knew when I looked at him that age didn’t mean shit to him. I just couldn’t help thinking about it. Age gaps could make thing
s difficult, but our friendship before all this had never felt weird. So why was I so worried about it now?
We finished up and Noah started clearing up the plates to wash up. “Hey, you don’t have to do that,” I told him.
He shook his head. “You made dinner, let me help do the dishes.”
I laughed.
“What?” he yelled in response over the sound of the water running in the sink.
“A man who wants to clean is seriously the sexiest thing ever,” I explained as I brought more dishes back into the kitchen. I put away the leftovers while he rinsed off dishes and put them in my dishwasher.
I watched him scrub the stainless steel pan I had cooked the ground beef in.
“Eh, you might want to just let that one sit for a bit,” I suggested.
“If you insist, but whatever will we do while we wait?” he asked sarcastically with a wicked grin.
“Oh, I can think of something,” I grinned back.
In no time I found myself in his arms, my legs wrapped around his waist and he was carrying me back to my bedroom. A girl could seriously get used to this.
20
NOAH
I pulled Dinah tightly against my naked chest and drew circles on the small of her back. I took her hand in mine and kissed the tiny quill tattoo on her wrist. She let out a girlish giggle from my beard tickling her sensitive skin. I felt her lips form a smile as she kissed my shoulder. I kissed the top of her head.
“Tell me about your day,” I whispered into her hair.
She looked up at me with squinty eyes. “It was boring, all I did was edit.”
I kissed her nose. “Tell me. I want to hear about it.”
Her brow furrowed. “You do?”
I smiled down at her. “Of course I do, did you finish it?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I did. Sent it off to my editor, it’s why I really only got to catch the last five minutes of the game. Sorry I couldn’t be there.”
I ran my hand through her long hair, and stroked it gently. “I didn’t want to keep you, I know how important your writing is. It must be hard to have two jobs. I wonder if I’m too much of a distraction.”
She twisted in my arms so she was facing me now. “You are a distraction!”
I frowned.
She kissed me softly. “A good one.”
I held her tightly. “Good.” She started to squirm out of my arms and I laughed. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I want to take a shower.”
I sighed dramatically and released her. My phone buzzed on the nightstand and I saw several texts from TJ.
TJ: Boys are going to come over and get lit, you in?
TJ: Or are you too busy with your lady tonight?
TJ: Dude, are you alive?
I had to laugh at that last one and I started typing away a response, but before I could Dinah was out of the shower and was rummaging through her drawers for clean clothes.
“TJ just asked if I chained you to my bed,” she announced with amusement.
I smiled. “Well...if that’s what you want...”
She laughed as she got dressed. “Uh...I don’t know about that, but I don’t want to keep you from your friends.”
I cocked my head at her and slid out of the bed. I put my boxers back on and walked across the room towards her. I pushed her damp hair out of the way and kissed her neck. “You’re not keeping me from my friends. Besides I think any of them would be doing the same if they were in my position.”
“Hmm...Oh! Do you know if Mia’s coming?” she asked and then tore off into the next room towards her office.
I pulled on the rest of my clothes and followed her in there. She was pulling a hardback of her first book off her shelf and writing something in the front cover. She looked up at the sound of my footsteps and set her pen down. “I told Mia I would get her a signed copy of my book for her little sister.”
“That’s really nice of you.”
“Gotta keep my readers,” she said with a happy sigh.
“I don’t know, I would assume so. Let me text Hallsy,” I reassured her and pulled out my phone to ask. I nodded once he confirmed that he was bringing his girlfriend over.
She set the book down and walked back into her bathroom to brush out her hair. I leaned against the doorway. I saw her smile through the mirror at me as she brushed out her hair and started plugging in the blow-dryer.
“Are you waiting for me?” she asked. “I might be a little bit.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “I can wait if you want.”
“You go on ahead, I’ll see you over there.”
I nodded and bent down to kiss her cheek. A red blush smeared across her pale face, and it made me just want to kiss her some more. She was so cute when she blushed like that, and I still couldn’t believe my luck that I got to do that to her.
I walked next door into my own condo and TJ called to me, “HE LIVES!”
I gave him the finger and walked into the kitchen where Riley and a tall redheaded woman were standing next to each other talking in hushed whispers. She had bright red hair and was dressed casually in a Philadelphia Bulldogs jersey and jeans. Riley perked up when he saw me.
“Hey, Kens!” he called.
We shook hands and that’s when I noticed the silver ring on his left hand. Had he always worn that? He put a hand out to gesture to the woman next to him. “Fiona, this is one of my teammates, Noah Kennedy.”
She put her hand out to me and I shook it, she was also wearing a silver ring on her left hand. I cocked my head at Riley in confusion. Wait, was Riley married? How did I miss that one? Wait, didn’t he say he was going to ask out Dinah not that long ago? Was he just fucking with me then?
“Fi’s fine,” she said with a smile and let my hand go.
“Noah, this is my wife, Fiona,” Riley stated.
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “I’m sorry, did you just say your wife?”
They both shrugged and then she sighed. “It’s a long story. We’re newly married.”
“Uh...” I trailed off.
I didn’t know what I just walked into, but I was trying to walk out of my kitchen to get away from it. Hallsy and Mia came in just in the nick of time to save me from the awkwardness. What the fuck was that? Riley was married to some random woman I had never met before. He had gone to Vegas for a friend’s wedding not that long ago. Oh, man, what did he get himself into? I took that as my cue to sneak out of the kitchen to start a game of beer pong with TJ.
“You meet Riley’s new wife?” he asked while setting up the cups.
I scrunched up my nose and looked at him with a confused face. “Yeah, man. What the actual fuck?”
TJ laughed. “Man, I do NOT know.”
“Was Riley even dating her?”
TJ shrugged. “I’ve met her before, but I was under the distinct impression they were just friends. Their moms are besties or some shit.”
“Weird...” I trailed off and sipped on my beer thoughtfully. Riley getting married made no sense to me.
“Where’s your old lady?” TJ asked.
“Don’t call her that,” I snapped.
TJ held his hands up. “It’s just an expression. Nothing about her being older than you. That doesn’t bother you, right?”
I shook my head. “No, but I think it bothers her.”
“Nobody gives a shit about that, so don’t worry about it.”
At the sound of the door opening, I looked up to see Dinah walk inside. Before she saw me, she glanced across the room and saw Riley’s new wife. A look of recognition crossed her face and she went over to her and the two women hugged. They spoke animatedly with each other, like they knew each other. It gave Riley the chance to stride over to us.
“What was that about?” TJ asked, pointing at my girlfriend and Riley’s wife.
Riley hung his head. “It’s a long story,” he explained.
I took a swig of beer. “We’ve got time. Also, how does she kn
ow Dinah?”
“Ah, writers, publishing tends to be a small circle,” Riley explained and ran a hand through his short blonde hair in frustration.
Huh. We both ended up with women who write, interesting. Dinah waved at me and I waved back, but she didn’t come over to me.
“So tell us!” TJ urged.
Riley sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“Then tell us, man!” I urged.
“Ugh, fine. She’s my best friend.”
“So you just decided one day to get married?” TJ asked.
Riley shook his head. “Nope, that would make sense. No, she was engaged to someone else.”
TJ and I shared a confused look, so Riley pressed on, “He left her at the altar.”
“What an asshole!” I exclaimed.
He nodded. “Yup. I was pissed. She was with that douche-canoe for five years!”
“So what, you just married her instead?” TJ asked.
Riley laughed. “Pretty much.”
Riley shook his head some more, but his gaze lingered back to Fiona who was laughing with my girlfriend and doing shots. I recognized something in the look in Riley’s eye. “You love her,” I stated.
He turned away suddenly with a fearful look in his eye. “What?”
TJ looked back and forth between the two of us.
I nodded to the redhead across the way in my kitchen. “That’s why you did it, because you’ve been in love with her all this time.”
He hung his head and ran a hand down his face. “Shit, man, I do. Is it that obvious?”
I nodded my head. “Yup.”
“Then what’s the problem?” TJ asked.
Riley’s gaze lingered on Fiona, and she seemed to catch his eye, there was something there, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
“She wanted a divorce,” he started to explain.
“Shit,” TJ swore.
Riley shrugged his shoulders. “She thought we made a mistake getting married like that on a whim. I’m trying to persuade her to just stick it out, let’s see if we can do this.”
TJ elbowed him in the ribs and I laughed too. Good for Riley.
“What does she want?” I ask.
“She doesn’t know, but she agreed to this ‘arrangement’ I guess. She wants me to convince her that this will work out between us,” he explained. “I’m just tired of the single life. Tired of women who can’t handle our grueling schedule. Fi gets it.”