By the end of the year, she’d officially adopted Noah and the town had adopted all of them. They were simply The Barnes Family. No explanations needed.
But he’d never stopped trying to be the best boy ever.
“I don’t dance,” he repeated.
Ellen glanced back to the dance floor. Noah’s eyes went there, too. Sabrina was wagging her finger at George again, but they were both smiling. “Maybe it’s time you tried something new.”
He wasn’t averse to the concept. But dancing was not that something. Something about the thought of getting out on the dance floor made him highly uncomfortable, as though he’d be demanding attention for the wrong reasons. Running for mayor and standing in front of a crowd were different. Then, he was the mayor, acting out a position, working on behalf of the town’s residents, taking care of their needs. But dancing, well, no. It just wasn’t him.
“I’m happy with the way things are.” He answered his mother’s pointed look.
She tilted her head. Her earrings caught the light. “Are you?”
“Of course.” But he worried he’d answered too quickly. He looked away from his mother’s assessing stare and found Sabrina again. Her tight jeans showed off her curves, curves he remembered touching and stroking. His fingers curled into his palms.
She’d hurt his brother and Marissa. She was only here for the interview. She wasn’t staying.
He didn’t hear his mother leave, just noticed that she’d stepped away when he cued up the next song. There was no reason he shouldn’t be happy with his life. He had his health and his family. A great job that not only provided for him personally but others in the community, as well.
Noah rubbed the back of his neck. He’d made certain choices in his life. Returning to Wheaton after university. Running for mayor. Helping Kyle. But those had been the right things to do and he was content with his decisions.
His eyes tracked Sabrina. Women like her weren’t part of his life. City dwellers with big dreams and ambitious careers. People who couldn’t wait to leave the town he loved so dearly. Her laughter sparkled through the room causing those around her to join in. She’d been gone for close to a decade and yet it seemed as though she’d slid right back in, as though the town had just been waiting for her to appear.
Sabrina caught his eye, said something to George and walked over. Noah felt his lips twitch and warmth spread through his body. She might not be staying, but she was here now.
“Nice try, pal, but I’m onto you.”
Noah forced the image of her straddling him on the porch away and tried to remember that they were in a public place with lots of eyes and a surprising number of cell phones. He had a mayoral rep to protect. “What’s that?”
She stopped in front of him. “Don’t pretend you didn’t plan to foist George on me. He copped a feel. Three times.”
“I saw.” Noah thought George was a lucky man. “I did try to warn you about him.”
“And yet you didn’t come over to cut in and protect me. Really, I feel it’s your civic duty as mayor to ensure residents are able to shake their booty without having it patted.”
He couldn’t help looking at the body part in question. And a fine booty it was. “I’ll be sure to bring it up at the next council meeting.”
“Please do. But for now, you can make it up to me by dancing with me.”
Noah balked. Like a stubborn mule, he just dug in his heels. “I don’t dance.”
She put a hand on his arm. “You do now.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I really don’t.”
“Come on, Mr. Mayor.” Sabrina’s fingers slipped into his. “For me. It’ll be fun.”
Noah knew fun. And dancing? Was not fun. “I’ll crush your toes.”
“I’ll live.” She managed to drag him a step forward.
The music changed to a cheerful dance tune that reminded him of one of those old black-and-white movies the residents liked to watch. The dancers spun before him, all certain of time and place, of rhythm and flow, things that eluded Noah.
“Come on.” She pulled him forward another step.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about this, this sudden shifting of his carefully plotted-out life. Kissing on the porch, in the relative privacy of his own home, was one thing. But getting up in front of everyone and being vulnerable in a whole new way was not part of the deal. “I’d prefer to watch.”
“Yes, you’ve made that obvious. I prefer that you dance. Consider it part of your ‘getting involved in the community’ strategy.”
“I’m involved.” Sometimes he felt like getting involved was the only thing he did. But he let Sabrina tug him forward another few steps, felt his resolve weakening. She smelled so good, and like a siren she lured him toward his death on the rocks. Or death on the dance floor, which was practically the same thing.
“There you go.” She kept her hands wrapped around his once she finally got him out onto the floor. Probably thought he was a high flight risk. She was right.
Noah felt as if a spotlight was trained on him, as if everyone was watching. This wasn’t the same as giving a stump speech or addressing the crowd at a grand opening. He couldn’t hide behind the mantle of mayor now. His mouth felt dry and he wanted to hurry back to the security of sidelines, but Sabrina’s firm grip kept him in place. He could shake her loose easily, but that would cause a scene. He didn’t do scenes. He swallowed, but it didn’t help his dry mouth.
“You’re going to be fine.” Sabrina ran a soothing hand up his arm and around the back of his neck. “Now, step side to side. You know how it’s done. You were in grade seven once.”
He shuffled awkwardly. He could feel the room staring at him. He didn’t dance. Heat prickled up his spine.
“You.” George zipped up. Noah had never been so grateful to see the old man. “First you got to have two working legs and then you got to steal my woman?”
Some of the tension in his shoulders eased. George, he could handle. Dancing, not so much. “Your woman?”
George nodded. “I asked her to dance first and now I’m cutting in.”
Noah gripped Sabrina’s waist more tightly, then realized what he was doing. Acting like she was with him, as if they were a couple. Overprotective and jealous. Not the kinds of attributes he wanted to be known for. He started to step back, to allow George to replace him. And then he saw George’s hand, his palm extended, heading straight toward Sabrina’s ass. Again.
And something primal woke inside him.
Not on his watch. No one would be patting any part of Sabrina’s anatomy but him. He deftly spun her to the side and felt George Cuthbert’s hand connect with a different ass.
His own.
“Hey!” George jerked back and shook his hand as though to rid it of something. “Not funny, boy.”
Sabrina started to laugh.
“That stays off the record,” Noah told her. There was nothing right about George Cuthbert’s hand on his ass in any universe. Ever. “But you remember that I took one for you when you’re writing your article.”
Her eyes twinkled with humor. Sure, it wasn’t her ass in the line of fire. “You’re quite the white knight, Mr. Mayor.”
“Quite something,” George said and wheeled off in search of easier prey.
Sabrina smiled at him and he felt his heart stutter. “Quite something, indeed.”
He tried to remember all the other people in the room watching. But the music shifted to something slow. She moved closer and looped her arms behind his neck. His skin tingled where she touched him. He reminded himself that she was here to do a story. That he was perfectly content with his life. That this wasn’t a great idea.
But he suddenly wasn’t sure about anything.
* * *
NOAH TRIED TO KEEP his dista
nce from Sabrina the following week. He needed to know how he felt about her without the question of the article hanging over his head. Was she being honest when she said she wasn’t planning to write anything that might harm his campaign? Or was it all a ploy?
But he couldn’t ignore her. The sound of her music floating through her open windows and her pleasant voice when she sang along. The scent of her perfume that occasionally lingered near the front door or the porch. The way he was drawn to her.
Her article had come out this morning. A charming and thorough treatise that made him seem a hell of a lot nicer than he felt. There was no mention of his donation to Cedar Oaks. Noah couldn’t articulate why it was so important that she omit the information. It just felt wrong to include it, as though he’d done it to buy the town’s love instead of for his real reason, which was that it was the right thing to do. Not just for the town, but for himself. He was glad she hadn’t pushed him to explain.
He’d hoped to see her today to thank her, but she hadn’t answered his knock this morning and he’d been at his out-of-town dealership all day, before driving straight to Kyle and Marissa’s for dinner.
Kyle opened the door before Noah even unfolded himself from the car. “Nice article, Mayor Barnes.”
Noah shot his brother a look but didn’t correct him. “Thank you.” Like he’d had anything to do with it. But a flicker of pride settled over him. It was a nice article.
He and Kyle managed about three seconds of quiet in the living room before Daisy screeched in, hair flying, eyes wild. “Uncle Noah.” She jumped into his lowered arms and promptly squealed in his ear. Ah, yes. It was good to be around family.
In twenty seconds, Noah was inundated by kids all scrambling for attention and airplane rides. He laughed as he played with them. This was what he wanted, what he lived for. Family and love. Children and home. Things he already had in Wheaton.
He tossed Scotty in the air and caught him, wrestled with Paul and after putting Daisy in a gentle headlock was forced to admire her latest drawings, which featured a girl in a tiara with a sword. The kid was no Monet, but he had one of the masterpieces tucked in his pocket for placement on his fridge anyway.
She informed him that the picture needed to be displayed “right in the middle so everyone could see it” and was so enthusiastic in her description that when the doorbell rang he wasn’t sure if he was hearing things or it was simply a reverberation from her shouting.
But when she scrambled off his lap and ran for the door, he knew he hadn’t imagined it.
He looked at his brother. It wasn’t uncommon for Noah to come over for dinner on Saturday night, which now that he thought about it was a sad statement on his bachelorhood, and it wasn’t uncommon for Kyle and Marissa to invite other friends, but neither of them had mentioned other guests. Not that they needed to run the dinner guests past him, but the omission struck him as odd.
He caught Kyle’s eye. “Who—”
“Yeah, I should have mentioned it. Sorry, man,” Kyle said, lowering his gaze and hurrying to the door before Daisy could greet the new arrivals with a chorus of shrieks.
Noah frowned at his brother’s back. Why was he apologizing? He followed Kyle out of the living room and saw who was at the door. Oh, hell. He was going to kill Marissa.
Noah ducked into the kitchen rather than greeting the new guests. Not his usual M.O., but desperate times... “Marissa, tell me you aren’t matchmaking.”
She smiled. “Good to see you, Noah.”
He realized he’d been rude, hadn’t even stopped in to say hello or give her the wine he’d brought. Actually, he hadn’t even carried the wine in from the car, so wrapped up he’d been in thinking about Sabrina and the article. Well, the wine could wait. He came around the counter, gave her a quick kiss on her upturned cheek and repeated his statement.
This time she answered, a tiny smirk on her lips. “Okay, I’m not matchmaking.”
He frowned at her. This was no time to play cute. “Then why do I see Linnea—” he lowered his voice on her name “—out there?” He’d told Marissa before that he wasn’t interested in a setup and certainly not with Linnea Grimes. She wasn’t his type, despite the fact that Marissa had tried to push them together on more than one occasion.
She claimed it was because she thought they’d make a cute couple. Noah suspected it was because she was friends with Linnea. Their oldest boys were the same age and they already spent hours of hockey practice huddling together while the boys skated. So the relationship would be easy for her.
Noah loved his sister-in-law, but he was only willing to go so far for family.
“Linnea and I are friends,” Marissa said. “I invited Faith and Stephen, too, so we’d have a nice even number.”
He glared at Marissa. She didn’t fool him with her rationale. But he didn’t get a chance to respond before Linnea breezed into the kitchen on a cloud of heavy perfume that made Noah’s nose itch.
He pasted on a gracious smile and bent to kiss her on the cheek. “Nice to see you, Linnea.”
“Noah, I’m so glad you’re here.” She rested her hands on his chest. Her nails were polished a dark red. She seemed to be admiring the way they looked against his shirt.
He stepped back breaking the contact. “What can I get you to drink?”
Dinner was a tortured affair. Even before they’d finished the first course, Noah was wishing that he was somewhere else. Anywhere else. Even the dance floor at Cedar Oaks.
But Noah kept his smile in place and tried to make polite conversation. He managed well enough, surreptitiously stealing looks at his watch, counting the minutes until he could depart. Until the subject of Sabrina arose.
“I read the article she wrote on you today,” Linnea said and leaned closer to him as she’d been doing all evening. “Are you okay?”
“Of course.” Why wouldn’t he be okay? It had been a good article. A great article. But even so, he felt a sudden anxiety. Had other people seen something he hadn’t?
“What do you mean, Linnea?” Kyle asked. His voice gave nothing away.
“I just thought it seemed obvious that she was using you.” Linnea patted his arm, her red fingernails standing out against his skin. “Trying to get in good with the town. Why did she even come back? I thought she was some big-shot reporter in Vancouver?”
The table was silent. Not even the clink of glassware or cutlery to break the stillness. When Noah spoke it was carefully, slowly. Each word distinct and separate. “Do you know Sabrina, Linnea?”
“Well, I haven’t seen her since high school.” Linnea seemed to relish being the center of attention. “But I seriously doubt she’s changed. We’re just concerned about you, Noah.”
“I’m not concerned,” Kyle piped up. “Just wanted to point that out.”
Noah might have laughed had the moment not been so fraught with tension. He shot his brother a grateful look and then faced Marissa and raised an eyebrow. “Did you read the article?”
She nodded.
“And?” His tone was quiet even though he felt as if he might snap the stem of the wineglass with his grip.
She exhaled. “It was a good article.”
Some of the tightness in his chest eased, until Linnea opened her big mouth again. “I still say she should never have come back.” Linnea sniffed, her lip curling as she sipped her wine. “But I guess she doesn’t realize that she isn’t one of us.”
Noah’s shoulders stiffened. One of us? “I’m not sure I understand your meaning.” His voice was composed even though the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up.
Linnea leaned forward as though imparting an important bit of advice. “She doesn’t belong.”
Didn’t belong. The way he didn’t belong. He hadn’t been born into one of the founding families. Residents didn’t have memorie
s of him as a squalling baby. They didn’t tell stories about Noah learning to walk or reminisce how he looked so much like his parents at the same age. He wasn’t the only person to ever move to town, but there were days when it felt like it.
His ears pounded and all those old emotions swarmed through him. The lonely orphan sitting on his bed. Afraid he was going to be sent away. Keeping his head down at school so the teacher wouldn’t call on him. So no one would notice him. Because if they didn’t know he was there, they couldn’t send him away.
To hell with that.
The annoyance Noah had been damping down through the entire night roared up, like banked coals finally given enough oxygen to blaze. “You know, I just remembered something else I have to do this evening.”
“Noah.” Marissa rose when he did.
“I’ll see myself out. Thank you for dinner.” He didn’t bother to tell her the night had been lovely. They’d all see that for the lie it was. Marissa, at least, had the grace to look pained, but the wine that lingered on his tongue tasted sour.
She followed him to the front door. “I don’t know why Linnea said that. It was a good article.”
His nod was brusque. He didn’t want to stand here chatting. He wanted out into the night, wanted the freedom to just breathe.
Noah had nowhere to go and nothing to see, but anything would be better than returning to the dining room, to Linnea’s snide commentary and superiority complex.
Actually, he did have somewhere to go and someone to see. Assuming she was home.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SABRINA STARED AT her computer screen and sipped her tea. She was rereading her notes from her interview with Noah. She’d used barely a quarter of what she’d gathered. She could do a whole series on him. If he’d let her.
Of course, she’d have to catch him to ask him. The mayor seemed to always be on his way to or from something important whenever they crossed paths. She might have taken it personally had she not seen the spark of interest in his gaze when he thought she wasn’t looking. Unless she’d been imagining things. She hadn’t been above giving her butt a little extra wiggle each and every time anyway. Just in case.
This Just In... (Harlequin Superromance) Page 9