After the Fall: An Inspirational Western Romance (Gold Valley Romance Book 2)

by Liz Isaacson

  She crowded Norah’s space. “He doesn’t deserve someone like you hurting him. He’s been through enough. Rex and I have sworn to protect him, help him. So you should leave. And you shouldn’t come back.” She stepped back, her speech delivered, and with enough fury to rival a hurricane.

  Norah didn’t know what to do. “Sterling’s staying in Denver?”

  “That’s right. He had a good life there, and he can be happy there again.” Emily pointed to the door. “Go on, now. If we find out you’ve even stepped one foot inside this cabin again, we’ll call the police.”

  Horrified and dumbstruck, and with little option, Norah moved past her and flew down the stairs. She dashed into the garage, put the key in the ignition with shaking hands, and drove down the mountain with tears staining her face.

  16

  Tell me you’re coming back to Montana.

  Sterling stared at Norah’s text, the letters burning into his retina. He really needed to return to Gold Valley, but he’d already missed the last flight out. He’d called and spoken to Dr. Richards, who’d reassured him he could return to work on Tuesday.

  That only gave him one day—twenty-four hours—to figure out what to do about Norah. He couldn’t fathom what Rex had told her, but it was obviously something about him staying in Denver.

  New fury roared to life inside his chest. He hadn’t told Rex he was staying in Denver. He’d simply been too numb, and too confused, and too wounded to make it to the airport. He hadn’t even gone back to the apartment yet.

  “Anything else, hon?” The waitress stood next to his table, coffee pot in hand. He’d downed at least a half-dozen cups, ordered and eaten dinner and then dessert.

  “What time do you close?” he asked.

  “About an hour.” She refreshed his coffee. “I’ll get you the bill now. Stay as long as you like.”

  He hadn’t been able to get himself to get up and go, exactly the way he hadn’t been motivated to do more than lie in a nest of blankets at the cabin. Until Norah. Once he’d met her, everything had changed.

  In only eight short weeks, he’d gotten up, gotten back behind the wheel, gotten on a horse, gotten a job, gotten back on good terms with God, gotten on with his life.

  I’m coming home tomorrow, he typed out. When he sent the message to Norah, a weight lifted from his shoulders. Just missed my flight.

  He hesitated. He didn’t just want to sweep what he’d learned about her under the rug. He wanted to dig at it until he heard the whole truth from her beautiful lips. But he didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to show up with rakes and shovels and pitchforks when she didn’t want to volunteer information.

  She didn’t respond, and Sterling paid his bill before trudging down the block to his boxed-up apartment.

  Don’t ask, he coached himself as he tossed and turned that night. She should come to you.

  By five-thirty in the morning, Sterling felt stretched thin. His flight wasn’t until mid-afternoon, and he typed out at least ten texts, all of them asking Norah to come pick him up at the airport. But it was a long drive, and he’d parked in the economy lot, and she couldn’t afford to come that far just to appease him.

  Sterling paused as he sat up in bed. He should’ve known more about Norah than he did. She always took his gas money, though it was obviously a lot more than it cost her to fill her tank. She’d only argued with him about it once.

  She never invited him to her house, but Sterling knew the address. He’d sent food to Javier, Erik, and Alex enough times to have it memorized. He’d never considered driving by just to see where she lived.

  He hadn’t cared.

  He still didn’t.

  But Norah obviously did, and Sterling had missed the signs. Sorrow replaced the simmering hurt beneath his ribs. Still, she didn’t trust him with the knowledge about her heritage, where she came from, whether it was a one-bedroom house in the worst neighborhood in town or a fancy high-rise apartment.

  “No, that’s all you,” he told himself as he headed for the shower, all thoughts of going back to sleep gone now. And Norah knew all about his apartment in Denver and his massive, three-story cabin in the gated mountain community.

  But Sterling couldn’t change who he was. He couldn’t change who his parents were, just like she couldn’t. He looked at himself in the mirror, and for the first time in a long time, he liked who he saw looking back.

  He wasn’t perfect, but he was more righteous than he’d been before. He wasn’t perfect, but he was kinder and more sensitive than he’d been before. He wasn’t perfect, but he worked hard—and wanted to work harder than he had before. At snowboarding. At his relationship with God. At living his life.

  At being with Norah? The thought flew into his mind, unbidden but present nonetheless. He turned away from his reflection, unsure of how to answer the question.

  A knock sounded on his door as he finished shaving. The clock inset into the mirror read six-twelve. He splashed aftershave on his face, unconcerned about getting the door. Surely he’d heard wrong. The neighbor’s pipes or something. Someone couldn’t even get in the building without a code.

  He pulled on gym shorts and a T-shirt before zipping up his bag. The knock sounded again, louder this time. Only a few seconds passed before the doorbell rang.

  Perplexed, Sterling left his bag on his bed and entered the living room like he expected to see a cat burglar cracking the safe behind the artwork. The remaining echo of the bell faded into silence.

  Another knock, more persistent now. Sterling moved to the door quickly now, not wanting the knocking and doorbell ringing to wake his neighbors. He paused to check through the peephole and jerked back, sure his eyes were playing tricks on him.

  Because Norah stood in the hall.

  He looked again.

  Norah stood in the hall, wringing her hands and glancing around her. She turned back to the door and raised her fist to knock again.

  Sterling pulled open the door, his heart pounding in his ears and making his throat narrow.

  She flinched away from him, those slender fingers working around and around themselves.

  “How did you get here?” he asked. “What are you doing here?” He was supremely glad he’d ignored her first knock and put on some clothes instead. “It’s six-fifteen in the morning.”

  “I came straight from the airport.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Did you know your building is almost impossible to get into?”

  Sterling folded his arms, though he wanted to wrap them around Norah and hold on tight. “I did know that. It’s one of its best perks.” He peered at her. “How did you get in?”

  “I called your mother, and she gave me the code.” Norah didn’t smile. Didn’t laugh. But Sterling didn’t believe for one moment that his mother gave her the code. In the middle of the night? No way.

  “Norah—”

  “She also said she didn’t authorize your sister-in-law to fire me.” Norah’s eyes shot angry fire, but Sterling suspected it wasn’t meant for him.

  “Emily fired you?”

  Norah’s jaw worked as her fingers stilled. “Can I come in?” She glanced toward the neighbor’s door several yards down the hall.

  Sterling stepped back, the possibility of being shut into his apartment with Norah appealing to him in an odd way. He resisted the urge to swoop in and kiss her, reassure her everything was fine, that he still loved her.

  “Did you really call my mother?”

  “I really did.” Norah’s gaze swept the apartment, and Sterling wished his kitchen counter bore a couple of scratches or a deep dent. Something.

  “Norah,” he tried again.

  She turned toward him, her eyes soft now, and her chin held high. “I came to talk,” she said. “There’s a lot I need to say.”

  “I’ve got time.” He moved past the small table to the right of the kitchen and into his living room. He’d stacked boxes against one wall, but the sofa and the chair were still usable. He chose th
e chair so she wouldn’t be able to reject him by not sitting next to him on the couch.

  She sat too, right on the edge of the couch and set her purse on the floor. Tucking an errant curl behind her ear—an action Sterling had done on countless occasions, and one he wanted to do again—she took a deep breath.

  “Your mother doesn’t approve of our relationship,” she started. “But she did agree to help me get here to see you, because I begged her and told her it was the only way to help you.”

  “And what do I need help with, Norah?” He kept his gaze on the floor, because looking at her was too painful. He also thought she’d be able to speak easier if he wasn’t watching her with the intensity he felt blowing through his veins.

  “I don’t know, Sterling. But I need to set things right between us. And I don’t know who told you what, but I do know that your brother’s wife showed up at the cabin, told me I was fired, and that you were staying in Denver.” She wiped her palms on her knees. “So I came to Denver.”

  Sterling wanted to rage at her for not telling him everything in Montana. Wanted to grin at her and give her one of his lazy smirks to let her know he understood. Wanted to kiss her and make her mixed up life better.

  “I came to Denver to tell you I love you. And I came to tell you that it terrifies me to my very core to have you meet my mother.”

  His eyes shot up to meet hers. “I want to meet her.”

  “She is…unkind. She will not be nice to you. She won’t even try.”

  “Have you told her about me?”

  Norah’s right leg began to bounce. “No.”

  Sterling couldn’t fault her. He hadn’t exactly mentioned her to anyone in his family. “Norah, I want to meet her. I don’t care if she’s nice to me or not. You’re nice to me, and that’s all that matters.”

  Her eyes turned glassy and she swiped one hand across her face. “You’re going to miss your real estate appointments tonight.”

  “I don’t care,” Sterling said.

  “I’ll take you home to meet her tonight, if you want. What time is your flight?”

  “Early enough to meet your mother for dinner.”

  Norah shook her head. “She doesn’t leave the house.”

  “Your house, then.” Sterling watched her carefully in an attempt to confirm his suspicions. Sure enough, her throat tightened and she could barely swallow.

  “The first time we met, I made a vow with myself that you would never see my house.”

  Sterling chuckled; he couldn’t help it. “Norah, how did you think that possible?”

  She shrugged. “It was the first time we met.”

  “Oh, Norah.” His voice turned low and deep. “I knew the first time I met you that we’d end up together.”

  She blinked at him, blinked some more. “I’ll work on believing that. Because I came to tell you that I’m still struggling to believe that someone like you would want to be with someone like me.”

  Someone like me. The words reverberated through his head and down into his chest. He got up and moved to sit next to her on the couch. “Norah, I don’t know who you think you are. But when I look at you, I see a woman so kind, so hardworking, so caring. I see someone I want to share everything with, who I can’t wait to get alone so I can kiss her, someone who has always put everyone before herself. And I want to change that. I want to take care of you.”

  Tears splashed her cheeks. “I came to Denver to tell you that the first time I went to Silver Creek, it was as a fifteen-year-old. I was a patient for twelve weeks after one of Mama’s boyfriends introduced me to pain medication.” Her voice hollowed with every word, and she stared at an unknown spot on the wall across from them. “I started taking them at first because I had migraines. Then I realized I could escape my life if I took more. So I did.”

  Sterling’s heart cracked for her, for the kind of life she’d had to endure, for the pain and endless string of bad luck.

  “I don’t care about what’s in the past,” he said. “Heaven knows I’m not perfect.”

  She half giggled, half sobbed. “You sure seem to be.”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the nest you found me in.” He lifted his arm and placed it around her shoulders, gently bringing her into his chest. “And Norah, I’m not gonna lie. It’s been real hard for me to leave Denver. Real hard. I actually wondered if you were worth it.”

  She stiffened, but he forged on. “I love snowboarding, Norah. I love it. When I thought I’d never be able to do it again, it wrecked me. And then I met you, and I realized there was more to life than snowboarding. And then when I found out I could have both? I didn’t know what to do. It seemed like I couldn’t have both, at least not at the same time.”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, her cheek, slowly working his way to her mouth. “But then everything started slipping into place. My apartment sold quickly. My sponsorships have been renewed. Gordon doesn’t care where I train, as long as I do. It seemed as if God himself was saying, ‘Sterling, you better stay in Gold Valley and somehow get that Norah Watson to stay with you.’”

  He kissed her, slowly urging her to go with him deeper and longer than before. When she finally pulled back, he pressed his face into the crook of her neck. “I’m in love with you, Norah Watson, and I don’t care if my mother doesn’t approve, or about what happened ten years ago, or what my brother’s wife says. I just want to be with you.”

  A few seconds of silence drew a blip of unease into his mind.

  “I came here to talk,” she said, her voice barely crossing the distance between them. “And you said all the right things.” She lightly punched his arm. “It’s not fair.”

  “You’ll get better at telling me things,” Sterling said. “After all, I’m going to push you to do it everyday.”

  Norah groaned even as she snuggled further into him.

  17

  Norah flew back to Great Falls alone—she’d left her car there, and she didn’t want Sterling to have to make a four-hour drive after landing in Missoula.

  She’d tried to get a flight out of the same airport as him, but they didn’t have anything until the morning. And that wasn’t acceptable to her.

  Apparently, charging an expensive, last-minute flight out of an airport she’d never been to was acceptable to her. Seeing Sterling’s face had been worth it. Seeing the acceptance in his eyes, even though he stood with his arms crossed and that adorable frown between his eyes, had been worth ten airplane tickets. Having him tell her he knew they’d end up together from the first time they met meant the world to her.

  Once he’d learned she wouldn’t be able to fly home with him, he’d suggested they postpone meeting her mom until the next night. So Norah drove through the National Forest with the radio silent, her thoughts the only chorus she needed.

  She pulled into Gold Valley just as the sun dipped below the horizon. She’d promised phone calls to a few people. Dr. Richards received the first one, and Norah assured him she’d made it to Denver and back in one piece and that she’d be at work in the morning.

  “Thank you so much.” Norah’s throat closed.

  “Norah, you haven’t taken a day off in five years,” he said. “Did Sterling make it back?”

  She coached herself to breathe through the emotion. She needed to learn how to speak when she didn’t want to—Sterling had said he’d push her to do just that. Funnily enough, for him, she wanted to do that.

  “His flight was an hour after mine,” she said. “But he should be on the road home by now.”

  “I’ll see you both tomorrow.” He paused, and Norah waited because she had enough experience to know that Dr. Richards hadn’t said all he wanted to. “And Norah, I’ve never seen you so happy. So whatever happened that sent you to Denver in the middle of the night, it’s probably worth fixing.”

  That blasted lump in Norah’s throat made her voice thick when she said, “You’re right, Doctor Richards. I’m trying.”

  “Norah, I thi
nk it’s time you started calling me Len.” He laughed and she joined in, quickly sobering when he added, “After all, you’re not even close to the fifteen-year-old I first met.”

  She agreed and hung up, but his words refused to leave her mind. She wasn’t the fifteen-year-old she’d been when she first met Dr. Richards. She’d worked hard to leave that life, that person, behind. She’d done it.

  But how often did that person, those choices, still haunt her?

  All the time.

  Not anymore, she sternly told herself as she dialed Lori. “Not anymore,” she said out loud as the line rang.

  Norah explained everything to Javier, who sat with her in the living room while the littler boys slept on the floor in front of them. Their world had been turned upside down, and Norah had only been gone for one day.

  “I’m worried,” she told her brother while she waited for Sterling to call. “What will happen to you guys when I leave?” At least she’d stopped saying “if.” She knew now she’d be leaving this house, this life, behind. She didn’t know what would happen, or when, or where she’d end up, but she now knew she wasn’t confined to Gold Valley, wasn’t chained to Mama.

  Mama, who hadn’t even known she’d left town in the middle of the night. Mama, who had squinted at her when Norah had mentioned meeting Sterling the following evening. Mama, who Norah was starting to break away from.

  “Norah,” Javier said quietly so he wouldn’t wake the boys. “We rely on you a lot. Too much. If you weren’t here, things would be fine. Maybe Mama would come out of her room.”

  She nodded. Intellectually, she knew Javier was right. Emotionally, though, she couldn’t fathom moving out of the house at the same time Javier did. And he deserved to go to college.

  “We could break up at any time,” she said.

  Javier chuckled. “Norah, I’ve seen him talk about you. He’s not letting you go. So if you want to break up, that’s all on you.”

  Warmth akin to the heat from the sun filled her. “You think so?”