She nodded her head and tapped him with the order pad. “You know we don’t serve spirits here. You’ll have to go to Roy’s if a beer is what you want.”
“I’d actually like a coffee, black and bottomless, please.”
Dottie glanced at me. “You need to have a conversation with this young man about his drinking problem.”
“Oh, I will.” I laughed as she walked off, and Noah stared at me.
“What just happened?” he asked, sounding perplexed.
“I ordered waffles, and you nearly showed her your ID for coffee.” I planted my elbows on the table and tucked my hands under my chin as Dottie hurried back with his coffee and my Sprite and left again.
“Are you still feeling sick?” he asked me.
Tell him now! Despite my brain screaming directions, when his eyes focused on me, I couldn’t say the words. I wanted this to be a nice meal. I’d wait until the end, but I would tell him. When we have finished eating and the odds of making a scene were the lowest, I’d spill the beans.
“Off and on. How is the new project you’re working on?” I’d seen his construction crew building something in town, though I wasn’t sure what it was.
“The new police station is going well.” He seemed pleased that I asked.
“I’d love to listen to you talk about work at some point.” How they created buildings from bare patches of land and lumber fascinated me.
His expression lit up. “I’d like that,” he said, picking up his coffee. “How’s it going at Roy’s?”
“I like it.” I thought working in a bar would be uncomfortable, and it would have been anywhere else, but everyone that came into Roy’s was more like family than anything. It felt like home. “Roy is a great boss.”
Noah nodded. “Yeah, he’s a good man, and I’m glad you like it there. It’s nice to have another friendly face around, and Roy needs help.”
I was glad he didn’t think I shouldn’t be working at a bar. “Thank you for doing this.” I put my hand over his, and our eyes met across the table.
“For doing what?”
“Coming out with me. I’ve had so much fun with you today. I’m glad to have you in my life again. I just wish we never had to spend so many years apart. I know that was my fault, but I will never stop trying to make it up to you.” The words poured out without a filter, and I could only hope I wouldn’t scare him away. Judging by the warmth in his eyes, he felt the same way.
“It has been my pleasure spending the day with you. And you don’t have to make anything up to me, I have forgiven you already, and you are here with me now, where you belong. Since the day you left, I never wanted anyone else, and now that you’re back, I know it is because you were always the one I wanted to be with.” His eyes shifted between mine as his meaning sunk in.
My spongy heart soaked up his words. “You’re the one I want to be with, too.”
I leaned forward across the table and grabbed the back of his head. Pressing my lips to his, not caring who saw.
He let out a soft growl, and his tongue slid along my lower lip, where he nipped at it. Excitement thundered through my veins, and I wanted more. Instead, I pulled back, because we were in a public place. Unable to catch my breath, I studied his expression. The hunger there echoed my arousal.
“I’m glad we’re giving us another try,” I whispered the words, and he nodded, leaning in close enough to press his forehead to mine.
“Me too. It feels right.”
Everything was okay in the world because I could do anything with Noah by my side.
Chapter Nineteen
Noah
Her expression shifted to one of annoyance as she glanced over my shoulder. She quickly ducked her head, keeping my body between her and whoever she was trying to avoid.
Dottie walked over with her waffles and my pancakes and refilled my coffee. The second she was gone, I glanced at Kandra.
“Were you hiding from Dottie?”
Her gaze slid to mine as she slumped further in her chair and continued hunkering down. “No.” Picking up her fork, she nipped a bit of whipped cream and a cut strawberry and popped the sweet bite into her mouth before dumping syrup all over the mess.
“Who, then?” I didn’t want to glance over my shoulder and make her more obvious to whoever she was hiding from, but as the seconds ticked by, her discomfort seeped into me and lined my gut with a frost-like chill.
Before she could answer, I heard Benji’s voice. “Kandra?”
He was straight-up shouting at her across the diner. The smattering of other people there began to murmur. The sounds of backsides shifting in chairs and throat-clearing told me things were about to escalate into a full-blown public scene.
Kandra flinched at her name on his lips, and fear filled her eyes. I swallowed back my rage and stood up, turning to face Benji. His tweed jacket, bright-yellow tie, and lime-green shirt assaulted my eyes, and I wanted to hit him based solely on his clothing.
With his head down and a maniacal gleam glaring past me, he put me on edge. He marched right up like he was on the warpath. I sidestepped to block him from Kandra.
Benji danced around me to glower at her, so I put an arm out to block him, and he shoved it away. My fist balled up, and Kandra’s panicked voice rang in my ears.
“Noah, it’s okay.” Her tone told me it was not okay, and the need to beat down this little shit intimidating her overwhelmed me. I grabbed Benji’s collar and hauled him back a few feet while his arms windmilled and furious gibberish sputtered from his lips like bubbles from a drowning man.
“Stay back, or I’ll drag you outside, and we’ll settle this like men. Give her space.” If this was happening, Benji would need to be respectful and not try to intimidate her.
Still, he ignored me and continued to glare at Kandra.
She finally looked at him, taking a slow, labored breath and appearing oddly pale.
“What, Benji?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Benji puffed up and squared his shoulders, leaning forward with a strange light in his eyes.
I waited with every muscle and tendon in my body taut and ready to spring into action if he so much as breathed in her direction the wrong way.
Kandra stopped looking at him and drew in her whipped cream with her fork’s tines, though the fluffy white mound had mostly melted into the waffle. Her hand trembled slightly, and she set the fork down to take a sip of her Sprite. Nothing she did seemed to ease the genuine fear she appeared to be experiencing, and I wondered what I’d missed. What happened between these two to make her so afraid of Benji?
“I wanted to do a story on your return for the paper.” Benji’s tone held a note of sick glee, and Kandra froze, but Benji pressed on. “It will be a welcome back kind of article. The prodigal daughter returns after conquering the modeling world.”
I somehow doubted it was anything like that because Benji liked to destroy people he thought had wronged him somehow. I had no doubts he’d write an exposé of some sort on Sherriff Miranda after her constant refusal to give him the time of day.
The guy had always been a sleaze-bag.
“That’s very nice of you.” Kandra’s voice sounded strangled, and I knew she was waiting for him to deliver whatever blow he had locked and loaded for her.
Benji nodded. “I like for the town to stay informed of everything that’s going on.”
Kandra nodded, her somber mood not lifting one bit. “Yep, small-town news. Nothing big happens, so you have to air people’s dirty laundry or transgressions you think you’ve found.”
I wanted to applaud her cutting words, but instead, I held back. She wanted to go toe-to-toe with this guy, so I’d only step in if she wanted or needed me. I knew she could handle herself just fine.
Benji’s cheeks went bright red. The color clashed with his hideous outfit, somehow. “Things happen here, and people have a right to know.” His livid response almost earned a laugh from me.
“Yep, the Preston
s’ cat had five kittens. The Lockhart brothers are making great progress on the new police station, but are they overcharging the city?” she said. “Nope, it turns out they’re not. Will the pothole on Main Street ever be filled? Residents demand answers.” She took another sip of her soda, and I couldn’t hold back a snide grin. She’d just word-for-word recited several of the headlines he’d put out over the last month.
“Make fun of me all you want. I learned some things about what you were up to while you were gone.” He crossed his arms.
“I’m not making fun of you.” She set her soda down and studied the ring of water on the table.
Benji wasn’t done talking. “Your ex sure had a lot to say.”
She flinched like he’d hit her. Her head snapped up, and she stared at him. Her mouth opened like she was about to ask him what he was talking about, but the light dawning in her eyes told me she knew exactly what he was about to say.
I prepared for Benji to fling false allegations from her ex. The guy was a hack, a predator, and I’d been saying so from day one. What could he have said to make her look bad? Maybe she did some nude photoshoots or something? I could imagine her not wanting that to get out in today’s climate, but that was on him as her manager, not her as the model. It wouldn’t sway my opinion of her in any way. Even if she did nude photoshoots, I didn’t give a damn, because it wasn’t my place to judge her past.
What could the idiot possibly have said to Benji that could have her looking so pale? I couldn’t think of anything.
“Please don’t.” She didn’t seem to know what to say, and her words sounded like she was begging him not to say whatever he was about to.
I stepped toward him, ready to escort him outside as roughly as I could without it becoming an assault charge, but Kandra lifted a hand to stop me. “Noah, please.”
She stared at Benji, who glanced from her to me and back again.
“Please don’t do this.” Her tone took on an exhausted edge, as if she was so bitterly tired she couldn’t come up with any other words. “Not here. We can talk in private if needed.”
The second those words left her lips, my hackles rose. Under no circumstances did I want Benji alone with Kandra because I didn’t trust him. He leveraged some silent threat against her in front of me. What would he do if he got her alone?
Benji hesitated as if considering her offer, and then, all of a sudden, he seemed to deflate. It was as if he knew what she was offering wouldn’t wind up being what he wanted, and a malicious look crossed his face.
It was a look I recognized. A look that said if I can’t have you, nobody can.
It was apparent he was out to destroy her. Whatever he had on her was bad—bad enough to devastate her.
Benji looked at me, his evil little eyes studying my face. He seemed satisfied that he knew more than me, and his ugly smirk turned smug as his attention returned to Kandra. “He doesn’t know, does he?”
Finding myself suddenly in the middle of this oddly tense conversation, I glanced at Kandra. Her eyes were locked on Benji, and I could see the silent plea in her expression and the fear across her face. She swallowed hard as if she was about to be sick.
The diner was silent with people pretending not to listen while hanging on every word, and I knew Kandra’s hatred for confrontation was likely adding to her stress.
“Look, whatever she hasn’t told me isn’t my business. She’ll tell me when she’s ready.” I lifted my shoulders, feeling pretty blasé about the whole threat. “Or she won’t.”
Benji laughed. A real, throw your head back, hold your stomach laugh that brought me right back to wanting to deck him.
He glanced at me when he calmed down and wiped a stray tear from the corner of his eye. “Oh, that’s precious.” He pointed between the two of us and swung his index finger back and forth like a pendulum. “I take it you’re a couple, right? That’s the rumor, anyhow.”
“That’s none of your damn business.” Neither of us owed him an explanation.
“Oh, no need to get all defensive with me. I already know everything I need to know to keep the hell away from her.” He said the words with such disdain, I lifted my fist a few inches.
Kandra grabbed my wrist, and I relaxed a little bit.
“Yes, we all know you’re a big, strong man.” Benji rolled his eyes. “A big, strong man that deserves to know that his girlfriend is keeping something from you.”
He was toying with me, and I wasn’t in the mood. “Don’t you have some garbage news story to cover? Pretty sure tweed went out of fashion forty years ago. Maybe you can do something with that.”
He tugged his lapels and rolled his neck. “I’m wounded. Aren’t you curious?”
I was, but I stood by what I’d said; she would tell me when she was ready. I had no right to demand or expect information from her.
“Not really. Not sure I’d trust it from you anyway. Does she know the real reason you pretended to be her friend all those years?” I took a step closer to him even as Kandra tried to hold me back. “Does she know you only wanted one thing from her? It seems pretty suspect now that you’ve discovered she won’t give you the time of day, you try to ruin her life with what ... a secret that’s hers to keep?”
He planted his hands on my shoulders. “Noah, my friend … she’s pregnant.”
Chapter Twenty
Kandra
Noah looked like he’d been punched in the stomach as Benji’s hands fell from his shoulders. I stood there, unable to breathe. Asphyxiation might have been preferable to that moment. As Benji turned to me, the satisfaction in his eyes sickened my stomach.
“Were you planning to dupe Noah here into thinking he was the daddy?” He couldn’t hold back a smug grin as he stared at me.
I blinked and resisted the urge to slap the smile right off his stupid face. Instead, I shook my head. “What is wrong with you?” I asked. Truly stunned that anyone would even think I could do something like that, I shifted uneasily. Did Noah believe that’s what I was trying to do?
“What’s wrong with me? Honey, you’re the one who hid this pregnancy from everyone, even your boyfriend. What do you think people will believe?” He crossed his arms and studied me like he thought I would answer. Like he thought I owed him an answer.
I glanced at Noah and noticed his jaw flexing. I wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t know how to get rid of Benji.
“This exposé will be great for sales.” Benji pulled my attention back, and the way he gleefully rubbed his hands together made my stomach twist. He faked concern as he glanced at me. “It might not be so good for you, though.” The forced frown on his lips didn’t hide the joy in his expression.
My brows knitted together as pure hatred filled me. “Shame on you, Benji. The news was mine to distribute. This is the twenty-first century, and I have no obligation to share this kind of thing with anyone. You plan to tell the world without my permission in order to try to shame me, and that’s disgusting.”
I lifted my chin and took a step closer. His eyes widened, and I continued talking. “You’re reprehensible. It says a lot about your character when you’re so desperate to sell papers you don’t care if you become a tabloid. Congratulations because nobody will ever take you seriously as a journalist. Might as well sign up for some celebrity watch rag.”
My words seemed to ruffle him, and he glanced at Noah, back at me, and then around the diner. I took in people’s glares and ducked my head. I hated being humiliated in public. I’d never forgive Benji for this.
“Some friend you are,” I whispered. To my horror, my eyes filled with stinging hot tears. Noah was right; Benji was never my friend, but more accurately, my enemy. Maybe I’d always known it. He always seemed less concerned about me and more interested in being with me.
I was wrong.
Noah still hadn’t said a word, and he wasn’t looking at me either. I wanted to talk to him to repair the damage before it was too late, but Benji didn’t seem ready to leave m
e alone.
“You can go now,” I told him. “You got what you wanted. You embarrassed me, messed up my relationship with the man I love, and you stole the opportunity from me to tell my news when I was ready.”
Benji chuckled, but the fire seemed to have left his eyes. Someone in the diner cleared their throat, and the harsh sound made Benji jump. He glanced over to see glares aimed in our direction and gave Dottie a weak smile.
She disappeared into the back without acknowledging him.
I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore, and two slipped down my cheeks. Furious with myself for crying, I swiped them away.
“You can’t make me leave.” Benji planted his feet and straightened his shoulders. “Besides, I’d like a statement from the man you were going to pin another man’s baby on.”
I shook my head. “You can try to twist the narrative all you want. There are plenty of reasons why women don’t tell people they’re pregnant. Duping someone into being the father isn’t one of them. Not for me, at least.” There were many reasons for my silence but Noah was never one of them. “It doesn’t matter. My reasons for not sharing are my own, and they are valid. You have no business asking questions. Now, leave me alone before I call the cops on you for harassment.”
His brows shot up. “I’m not harassing you.”
“You’re cruel and insulting, and you deliberately hunted me down to do this.” I pulled out my phone. “I bet Sheriff Miranda would be interested to hear about this.”
That seemed to sway him. He glanced at the table behind me where our food was cold and our date ruined.
“Enjoy your lunch, lovebirds.” With that, he shoved his hands into his pockets and sauntered out the door.
My face had to be as hot as the surface of the sun and redder than a tomato. I turned to Noah and saw him tucking money under his plate—more than enough to cover our uneaten meal.
I stepped closer to him and reached for him. “Noah—”
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