by D. K. Combs
Any moment, Noah could decide to take her home, and never contact her again.
If he did that, who would she be able to talk to like this? Madeline?
No. She could never talk to her employee like this. She had a degree of professionalism to maintain, and even asking for Madeline’s help with Tinder had breached that. The warm glow she felt right now… It wasn’t going to last. Eventually, whatever was going on between them would die off, and she’d go back to her empty routine.
And that was fine.
That’s something she chose for herself.
She had to have that empty routine, otherwise her life and the memories she held would spiral out of control.
That didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy this small break from life, though, right?
Noah shrugged.
“Cops, street racers, professional racers. I do a little bit of work for the MC’s and gangs around here too.”
“Gangs?” she asked, eyes wide. “Aren’t you worried about turf wars? What if you work on the bike of a different gang? Is that dang—”
He shook his head, laughing.
“No. Bristol, chill. My clients respect me and the work I do. I dare one of them to get pissed off. The one thing you don’t do is screw with the guy who fixes your shit.”
“That’s...a good point. Still, though.” She took another bite of food, staring down at her plate. She wasn’t surprised he dealt with those kinds of people—he had the type of demeanor that said he could handle anyone who came near him.
“You scared now?” That teasing tone brought her eyes up.
“No,” she said honestly. It didn’t matter if she was or not. They weren’t serious, and even if they were, Noah was a natural born protector. He seemed like the kind of man that would take care of his woman no matter the cost.
But that really didn’t matter.
She finished her meal in silence, and he did as well. When he tried to take her empty plate from her, she shooed his hands way.
“I can take care of the dishes,” she said—or rather, that’s what she said until she saw the catastrophe in the sink. There was goop and muck and all sorts of things going on in there. “Noah, what did you do?”
He looked over her shoulder. “Oh, that? Uh, I tried pancakes. It didn’t work. Never has. But since you have the dishes....” Noah didn’t finish his sentence, instead running off to really leave her with the dishes. She stared down at the mess before her, rubbing a hand down her face.
Okay, so the man took flawless care of his house, and when it came to dishes, he was a slob.
Makes sense, she thought, shaking her head. Yeah, no, not really.
She turned on the hot water and as she stuck her hands into the sink, she couldn’t help but cringe.
She cleaned as she cooked. Never would she let her sink get this disgusting. She had half a mind to take a handful of the goop and toss it at Noah’s head.
“All right, I’m back—” She rounded on him with a handful of desecrated pancake mix, holding it up.
He froze in his tracks.
“Bristol, what are you doing?” Ever so slowly, he backed out of the kitchen, arms in the air.
“This is nasty,” she said, holding it out to him. “How did this even happen?”
There were brown chunks and goopy globs of something that looked like syrup.
“I got a little over excited, okay? Bristol, listen to me. Set the glob down. We can be civil about all of this, all right? There’s no need to resort to violence.”
“You left me down here with a sink filled with this!” she said, hoisting it toward him. He reared back farther, almost back up to the stairs now.
“Bristol.” His voice was nothing but a warning. A desperate, pleading warning. She raised a brow. “If you don’t set that down, I will spank you.”
“Really? Now, in what world wouldn’t I want a spanking? That’s an incentive,” she said, batting her lashes.
His jaw clenched, eyes flashing. He was thinking about it now, she thought, unable to stop the blush from climbing up her neck. She retreated to the kitchen, washing her hands of the glob.
“Fine, fine,” she said, forcing herself to sound casual, and not like she wasn’t picturing her kneeling in front of him, his palm slapping her ass.
“Don’t worry about cleaning that up. I just wanted to get a shirt on before I started dealing with this.” He came up behind her, his body pressing against her back, and his arms went around her waist.
Her throat tightened at the sensation, and when his lips touched her temple, she wanted to shudder—but she didn’t. She restrained herself. If she reacted, she was sure to find herself bent over the table they’d just ate from.
“I can turn on the rest of The Imitation Game for you while I do this if you want. I do need to step into the shop today to check on my techs.” With his arms still wrapped around her, his heat radiating through her, the warmth going so much deeper than just her skin, he directed her out of the kitchen.
“That’s okay, I have to—” She stopped talking, covering her hand with her mouth.
She had completely forgotten about her plans for the day.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s the time?” she asked, breaking out of his arms to find her phone. Son of a bitch, where had her phone gone? “Where is it? Where is my phone?”
“I set it on the coffee table. It fell out of the shorts—”
She practically ran to it, and when she turned the screen on, the time glared at her in disappointment.
She was late. And at this rate, there was no way she would be able to stay for very long. Bristol would have to find a ride home, she’d have to get changed—oh, god, she’d forgotten to switch over her clothes.
She put her hands to her face, groaning.
“Bristol, what’s wrong? Did you have to work today?”
“No, I just… I had something important to do.” She shook her head, sitting down on the couch.
“Well, let me get my shoes and your clothes and we can head out,” he said easily, taking her by the jaw so that she was forced to look up at him. “I can get you where you need to go without a problem, Bristol.”
She gave him a thankful smile, but the disappointment was too great for the smile to stay.
“There’s nothing to rush. My clothes aren’t even dry, and—”
“Yeah they are,” he said, letting go of her to go to the laundry room. She followed after him, gratefulness coursing through her when he pulled out a bundle of dry clothing. “Here, get dressed. What all do you have to do?”
She’d showered last night, and if he really was willing to drive her there, then… She couldn’t stop herself from reaching for him. It had been a long time since she had hugged someone just to hug, but she couldn’t stop herself.
The past twenty-four hours with him...they’d been amazing. He’d done so much for her, and he still continued to help. Some of the anxiety slid away, and she took her clothes from him.
“I just have to get dressed. Then we can stop at the bank and be on our way. Thank you, Noah,” she said, leaning up on her toes to brush her lips against his jaw. She meant that from the bottom of her heart.
She lived a solitary life. She never had anyone to rely on but herself, and today, she had failed—but he hadn’t. He’d stepped up to the plate, and was even willing to put off his own plans for her.
“Where do we go after the bank?” he asked as she stepped into the laundry room to get dressed.
“Oh, down to May Street. The hospital,” she called through the door.
Chapter Nineteen
He was taking her to the hospital?
She wasn’t saying what for, and he wasn’t going to ask. If she wanted to tell him, she would. Was she sick? Injured? Did she suffer from something? Was she seeing someone there?
When she had realized she was late for something, her face had gone deathly pale. Yeah, he had to go in to see how his techs were doing, but see
ing her go from lively to horrified had changed his priorities quick. There wasn’t much else he could do besides help her.
They went to the bank first. When she asked him to just drop her off at the door and then park, he did so without a problem. But the longer he’d sat there in silence, mind racing, unable to think of anything that would make sense, he’d slowly started to go insane—until he’d seen her beautiful red head pop out of the door as she strode toward him.
Now, she sat beside him, an envelope clutched in her lap with white knuckles, her shoulders tense and straight.
This was a different kind of Bristol that he’d never seen before, and Noah had managed to see a lot in a short amount of time.
He’d seen her fiery, he’d seen her strong. He’d seen her furious, passionate, desperate, disgusted—he’d seen everything—except for the part of her that was radiating through every pore of her body right now.
As she sat beside him, her eyes focused straight ahead, it looked like she was preparing herself for war.
Her eyes were solemn, but her knuckles were tight. Her legs were clenched together, body tense in a way that said she was preparing for impact. Not that she was stressed—no, she didn’t have those lines of stress around her eyes and mouth he’d noticed before—but she was just...preparing. For something.
And he wanted to know what.
Noah pulled into the hospital parking lot, turning off the ignition to the hyper blue STI, and reached for the seat belt buckle.
“No,” she said, putting a cold hand over his. “Stay here. I’ll just be a minute today.”
Today. So she came here often?
His jaw clenched, but he left the buckle alone, grabbing the wheel. He had to grab something, or he would have said screw it and undone himself. Hell, he still might. He’d eaten this woman out not even twelve hours ago, and now she was going into the hospital?
Of course, he was going to be concerned. Not about himself—he knew without asking that Bristol would disclose whether she was clean or not—but because as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was becoming invested in her, even if it was just because she had a great body.
She took that envelope with her when she got out, closing the car door behind her. Hands stuffed into her pockets, he watched her go...and knew he couldn’t stay in the car. Whatever was going on with her, he wasn’t going to let her go through it alone.
She resisted him at every turn, and probably always would—but he wouldn’t take no for an answer, and especially not now. He would never forget that look on her face, that one of pure disappointment and horror in herself. He had to know just what he was getting himself into, and also prepare himself to be there for her.
Even if she hated his guts in a week, at least she would know that at one point, someone had been there to support her.
Once she was a few feet away, he unbuckled himself and climbed out of the car. She was so focused on where she was going she didn’t notice him following just behind her, but then, he was pretty good at being quiet when he needed to.
She went in through the main entrance doors and he followed, right up until she went to the main desk.
The woman there greeted her with the brightest, happiest smile he had ever seen on someone’s face.
“Miss Thompson,” the black woman greeted, standing to shake her hand. “I was worried when you weren’t here earlier. Is everything okay?”
From his distance, he could barely see the smile on Bristol’s turned face.
“I just… I was caught up. I’m so sorry I’m late. Did I miss him? Is he still here?”
The receptionist smiled. “He is; let me page him for you. Did you want him to meet you at the children’s ward? I think they are still out playing.”
“That...that would be wonderful,” Bristol said, the relief clear in her voice.
He frowned. What the hell was going on? Who was she here for? Who was ‘he’?
“You know where to go. He should be down there soon. You don’t mind if there’s a wait, do you? I know you are used to spending the day here, but since you’re here later than normal…”
“No, no. I can wait. Thank you, Angie. Thank you so much.”
“No, thank you, Ms. Thompson. You do so much for us. I’ll be seeing you around,” Angie said, waving her off. Bristol took off down the hall, a new purpose to her step. He followed behind, ignoring the odd look from Angie.
He wanted to know who this ‘he’ was.
Last night, after he had put her to bed, he’d heard her phone ringing under the couch. He’d pulled it out from under there and hadn’t been able to not notice the caller.
He hadn’t thought anything about seeing the name Tim, but now he was curious. Was this who she was seeing now?
Who even was Tim?
Was it her husband?
Was she married?
Noah started to feel sick—sick and angry.
She obviously wasn’t here because there was something wrong with her, that much he could tell. Maybe she was here to see family. Yeah, that. She had to be here for family.
But then, what had the receptionist meant by her doing so much for them?
What was Bristol doing here?
Feeling like a total creep and not caring a single bit, he followed her through the hospital, up until she went through a set of glass doors and into what looked like a waiting area. Except in here, there were toys and children. Some of the children were wrapped in gauze, and some of them had horrible burn scars.
He watched, completely amazed, as each kid went running up to her.
She didn’t turn a single one away. Didn’t look down at a single one with disdain or disgust. Her face was more open and honest than he had ever seen it before, and he almost felt like an intruder, like he wasn’t meant to see this side of her.
But there was no going back now.
He watched her hug each kid, watched all of their excited little voices raise above each other. She even sat in the center of them, right on the multi-colored mat. A woman who hadn’t been able to sit at the Barn Bash with a straight face was surrounded by injured and scarred children, not even blinking, not even cringing.
There were a few kids who stayed back, who obviously didn’t know who she was, but the ones who did hung all over her.
“I missed you guys,” she said, whispering, opening her arms to them. He barely heard her over the excitement, but sweet voice carried.
“We thought you weren’t coming today,” an older boy said. He couldn’t have been more than ten. Half of his face was wrapped up, and he was walking on crutches. He gingerly set them down and sat on the bench next to her.
She put a hand on his knee, patting.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I wouldn’t miss you guys for the world, you know that.” The sincerity in her voice hit a cord in his heart he didn’t know he’d had. This woman…A woman not easily impressed, not easily entertained, was opening a part of her that she kept hidden from the world, and she was opening it only to these children.
He didn’t know how he knew, but he did.
Clear as day, love and warmth swam through her eyes, her movements.
She was here for the kids, he realized.
“Miss Thompson!” a little girl squealed from behind him. He backed out of the way, behind a wall, as a girl and a doctor came through the doorway. The doctor gave him a look, but when he saw Bristol sitting on the floor, he seemed to forget all about Noah.
“Bristol!” he said happily. “I’m so glad to see you today. How is everything? Still planning those new cargo holder things?”
She got to her feet and brushed off her pants. The kids stood with her, a little boy hugging her leg. She didn’t do anything about him, simply let him hold on.
“They are going great. The engineers and I have been going back and forth over one of his concepts and I think we are getting somewhere. In the next six months, I should be able to present it to the board for approval.”
“Didn’
t they approve it already, though?”
She shook her red mane. “They approved me contacting the engineer. I still have to get approval for the final concept from the board, and the investors as well. But it shouldn’t be a problem.” The little girl hobbled over to her. Her leg was wrapped up, and just like the other boy, she had a pair of crutches. Despite that, she moved fast, and soon, she was holding onto Bristol for balance.
“Miss Thompson, we missed you a lot. Why weren’t you here earlier?” the little girl asked, blonde curls bouncing when she looked up.
“I’m so sorry, Addy. I got caught up at a friend’s house. I won’t be able to stay long, but next time I come, I’ll bring everyone a treat,” she said, sharing a grin with the girl.
“Bristol, you know how the hospital feels about unauthorized food—”
She waved a hand, then pulled out the envelope. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them,” she said, handing it out to him.
He took it, sliding it into his pocket right before he drew her in for a tight hug. She returned it, and the peaceful look on her face nearly killed him. This place...had taken down her barriers, he thought, watching her closely. Barriers that even he hadn’t gotten through.
“Miss Thompson,” the boy hanging off her leg said. “Who is that man? Why is he watching us?”
Bristol pulled back from the hug quickly, whirling to face him. He stepped out from behind the wall, his hands in the air.
“I plead the fifth,” he said, strolling toward her.
“I told you to wait in the car.” She gently extracted the kid from her leg and came toward him, taking his arm. “Why didn’t you just stay there?”
“Well, I had to make sure you were okay. It’s not like you gave me much to go off of, Bristol. Plus, what’s so bad about this?”
“Miss Thompson,” the little girl said, coming between them. “Is that your boyfriend?”
Bristol’s face went pale, and then blood rushed to her cheeks, creating an adorable flush. The doctor looked between the two of them, raising a brow. “You’ve never brought a guy along with you before.”