by Rachel Cade
What the hell else?
*
Noa’s mouth was like a brand. His tongue had learned every inch of her mouth. But his hands never strayed too far from her neck and her hip.
This was enough. Lyndie felt like putty in his arms and knew nothing about the rest of the world until the hard stop of the Ferris wheel. Almost immediately, the metal door cried as the operator yanked it open.
Lyndie pulled away from Noa, pulling in her lower lip to taste him again.
Despite his firm grip, she slipped off his waist to grab her bear off the seat.
“That was nice. Thank you,” she said as they headed back to the lot towards his bike.
Her lips were swollen from his mouth, and each time she stepped, she felt an ache between her thighs.
All she had to do was say one word and he would satisfy it.
She knew he would.
“Yeah, it was nice.”
Amber Falls felt different when they returned.
Noa brought her to the motel, parked his bike in the same spot, and walked her to her car.
Lyndie held tightly to the bear.
“Thank you so much for this.”
“It’s a pretty sweet bear.”
She laughed. “I meant for the trip, for everything.”
She took out her key and put it into the car door.
“Yeah, anytime.”
“What’s the name of your MC?” she asked after starting the car.
Noa leaned down to her eye level. “Death Skulls.”
Lyndie nodded, keeping her smile charmed. “Death Skulls MC, got it.”
Noa grinned in a way that made her wish she was a different kind of girl. The kind that could go to his room and let his lips explore past her mouth. The thought made her almost bite the inside of her cheek.
But she wasn’t that type of girl. She was a woman. A mother. And she needed to get home to her baby.
“Will I see you tomorrow for breakfast, nomad?”
“I wouldn’t be caught anywhere else.” He winked and stood, letting her go.
“Evening, love.”
Ashley briskly walked in the door of their home. Not long after, she was taking off her shoes.
Will was officially off duty. In street clothes, he sat in the living room watching a college football game. He kept the volume low.
“You’re home later than usual,” he said quietly.
“I was having dinner with Daddy. You know you’re always welcome to come. It’d be nice to have another man there to keep Craig from eating all-”
“You showed the warehouse property to someone today?”
Ashley sighed and Will sipped from his beer bottle.
“I guess Henry spoke to you. Yes, I showed the warehouse property. A client made an appointment and I showed it. That’s how realty works.”
“I know how realty works, Ash.” Will took another sip. “I also know that your dad owns most of the property here. It just seems like if a client requested to look at the most expensive piece of land in town, you would have mentioned it to me. Since I’m the sheriff and we live together.”
“It was last minute. He literally called this morning when I opened. And nothing happened after Henry showed up and busted everything-”
“What was his name? The client.”
Ashley wore an expression similar to her gamer geek little brother, as if she didn’t know what the big deal was.
Thank God he was around to run the town.
“Noa Callas.”
“Big motorcycle, tattoos?” Will added flatly.
“Yes. And I assume a big wallet too,” she laughed.
“Everything’s not about money, Ashley.”
Her laughter died.
“If he contacts you again, if anyone new contacts you about any property, let me know. And do not go to any more appointments with strangers.”
Ashley’s expression constricted. “That’s not fair, Will.”
He almost wanted to close his eyes.
“Langley Realty is mine. Daddy gave it to me to run because he trusts me. Why can’t you?”
“God, Ashley, this isn’t about not trusting you. I’m trying to keep you safe. Something is going on and I need time to figure it out.”
“I’m a businesswoman, Will. I have to move around and meet people. We all can’t be diner waitresses with neat little shifts getting paid by the hour.”
The beer had been taking the edge off his headache, but now it was back. “Why do you have to bring her up?”
“I was just speaking in general.”
The fuck she was.
Will kept his voice calm and his eyes closed. “I never said you had to quit working; I just said if anyone new comes around to let me know.”
“You know I told my niece the baby was going to be there. And then I had to have the party without him. I’m going out of my way to make this blended thing work and no one wants to meet me halfway.”
The way the woman could hop skip and jump through an argument to make it all about her was fascinating. She should teach a class.
Will pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered the phantom call. “Yeah?” he said to no one. “Again?” Then he stood. “I’ll be right there.”
“What is it?” Ashley asked.
“An issue down at the station. Saturday night.” He shrugged and left the house.
It was later in the evening when Lyndie arrived home with Max.
Just inside the house, she flicked on her hall light after setting the car seat down.
“Where’ve you been?”
Will’s voice came out of nowhere on the porch behind her.
Lyndie quickly tried to shut the screen door, but Will easily stopped her, holding it back before she could latch it. “I asked a question, Lyndie.”
“I was at Peggy’s.”
The handle began to hurt her hand when neither of them would give. She realized she was still holding the car seat and didn’t want the struggle to wake Max.
Will pulled the screen door open. “Peggy’s.” He glanced over her clothes. “She gave you a lil’ makeover?”
Lyndie quickly walked into the living room with her baby, flipping on the light. “I need to put Max to bed. I have an early morning tomorrow.”
Will made no move to look at his son. He seemed to be avidly avoiding him. Lyndie was trying to keep her cool, but he put on her on edge by startling her on the front porch. Why was he out there just waiting for her?
“Go on and put him to bed then,” he said, heading toward the kitchen.
Lyndie swore in her head.
After putting Max in her bedroom, she watched him for a minute, smoothing a hand over his hair.
Then she took a deep breath and went to find Will in her kitchen.
“You gonna do something with this wallpaper?” he asked. “It’s been up since the place was built.”
Lyndie didn’t answer him, rubbing her arms instead while Will leaned back against the sink.
Just a year ago, she would have said he was the love her life. The only man she’d ever been able to rely on.
Now all she wanted was for him to say whatever he had to say, belittle her, and get out so she could go to bed.
“Can I get a drink?” he asked.
On autopilot, Lyndie grabbed a glass from the cabinet and a pitcher of orange juice out of the refrigerator, pouring the glass halfway full before offering it to him.
She was aware that he watched her the entire time.
“My favorite still.” He accepted the glass.
Yes, it was. She used to freshly squeeze it for him every day.
He drank it all in one gulp and toasted her after. “Still great.”
Lyndie glanced at the door, listening out for Max.
Will placed the glass in the sink before turning back to face her. In the kitchen light, she could see the green in his eyes that Max carried a hint of in his. She hated that he was going to grow up without a father and dre
aded the day when he asked her why he wasn’t around.
“I wanted to apologize for the other night.” He looked down briefly. “I was out of line.”
“Okay,” her voice was a reflex, like her responses to asshole customers at the diner.
But he seemed to accept it, his face relaxing a bit before he reached in his back pocket to pull out an envelope. “I also wanted to give you this.”
His arm outstretched in the space between them. “It’s for the kid.”
Was it actually? Or did he feel guilty for tossing her around and then grabbing her boob like a creep?
He was wrong for how he treated her, and he was still wrong for how he was treating Max.
When she didn’t reach for it right away, he shook it. “Come on, Lyndie.”
She didn’t want anything from him. Even though Max was half his responsibly, it felt wrong to accept it. Like she was forgiving him.
“You just like making everything hard?”
Not looking at him, Lyndie snatched the envelope out of his hands.
She didn’t mean to snatch it; she just wanted him to go.
“It’s two hundred dollars,” he said quietly.
Which broke down to a hundred a month since he’d been born. But it was cash from the great Will Durand and she was supposed to fall over with gratitude.
Lyndie held the money and the crackle of the paper overwhelmed the room. “I’ll be sure to get Max what he needs out of this.”
“Good.” For once there was no malice in his face when he looked at her. “I hope that we can move on to a new place from here on out.”
“Okay.” Lyndie was just trying to go with the flow. No matter how strange it was.
She walked him to the door, but right before she closed the screen behind her, he looked back at her. “Everything between us wasn’t all bad.”
Lyndie’s mouth was very dry. “No,” she admitted. “It wasn’t.”
He tipped his invisible hat and walked off the porch.
Noa and the moon were the only things up in town well after midnight.
Walking Lyndie to her car instead of through his room’s front door still weighed on him.
He wanted her.
Bad.
Any way he could have her.
And now he knew she wanted him back. So now it was just a matter of the time and the place.
The chances of him getting a good night’s sleep were nil, so he decided to sneak across town and take a better look inside the warehouse.
There hadn’t been a lock he’d crossed since he was twelve that he couldn’t crack; this one was no exception and soon the side door was open and he was in the musty building.
A quick scan with a small flashlight showed a room full of crates, some scattered along the floor space, some along the walls. It could take days to search every one.
One thing was for sure: the place wasn’t contaminated.
Noa knew a thing or two about chemicals.
A noise caused him to drop down behind one of the crates.
The front door opened, and he mouthed a curse as he heard voices.
“We need to get most of this shit out of here.”
He recognized the voice. It was Henry, the jerk cop from earlier.
“This whole room?” another man said.
“Just the labeled ones. Start cracking ‘em open. I don’t want to be here all night.”
Noa’s eyes went heavenward. He showed up too late.
He crouched low, creeping out the way he came and shutting the door behind him as quietly as he could.
“You can’t pick up your phone?” Tin asked as Noa entered his motel room.
“I had the ringer off. I was over at the warehouse doing some investigating.”
“What turned up?”
“Fucking cops. They’re holding something in there, but some of them showed up before I could find out exactly what.”
“So you were there all afternoon? I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Sorry,” Noa said quickly. “I got a little caught up.”
“Yeah, well, we got more problems. You got a letter here from immigration. Been sittin’ around collecting dust because most of these bastards don’t know how to clean.”
“Immigration?”
“Yeah. Your visa’s up.”
“Shit.”
“Skorp, you know how they are about that shit now. How the hell did you let this lapse?”
Noa held a tight fist against his forehead. “Fuck.”
“They’re gonna try to deport you. This shit’s gotta get straightened out.”
Noa sat hard on the bed. “I need to come back.”
“No,” Tin said. “The quickest way to solve this is find somebody out there and get married. That’ll hold them off so we can keep up with business.”
“Get married?” Noa repeated.
“Yes, nomad. Married.” Tin pressed each word. “Just grab a girl. And you’re in the perfect state to do it, too.”
“Can you just send me the paperwork-”
“What the fuck?” Tin cut him off. “Did you not hear me? I just told you the problem and how to solve it. Find a girl. Pay her. Get this taken care of and stay on top of that warehouse. We’ll be out there next week.”
The line clicked as Tin ended the call.
The diner door was locked, despite the sign being on.
Lyndie saw him through the glass and came to open it for him.
“Morning.” She smiled, but as soon as he saw her, he knew something was wrong. That sadness was back again.
He reached for her face with one hand and kissed the side of her cheek. His lip pressed into the dimple created when she smiled again. And pulling away was like resisting gravity.
She was so god damn warm. “I hid some croissants for us.”
His face wasn’t that far from hers. “Perfect.”
His hand grazed hers as he lowered it before she moved to the counter.
“We have a guest today.”
“A guest?” Noa raised his brows as Lyndie pointed to the booth across from her.
A few heavy booted steps brought Noa to a tiny human wrapped in a thick cloud print blanket.
His eyes were dark and wide open.
So were Noa’s.
“That’s Max, my munchkin.”
Noa stared down quietly at the squirming figure.
Then he planted both hands on his hips, turning his head back to Lyndie. “So it’s Babygirl’s baby boy?”
She chuckled a bit. “Yeah.”
“He looks like you.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah.” Noa leaned forward to inspect the kid, pulling his hair back from spilling into the car seat. “I can see the dimples.”
“Let me get your coffee.”
“Only if you’re making yourself some. Did you sleep okay?”
“I got a little bit.”
Noa found a stool, sitting sideways to keep an eye on the bundle of baby.
He wanted to ask about the father, but thought it was best if she brought it up on her own. Noa doubted they were together if she was willing to go out with him, not to mention the session they had on the Ferris wheel.
He was curious about the story, but at the same time hoped the mystery man was far in her past.
The idea of Lyndie with someone else didn’t sit well with him at all.
“You ever travelled around anywhere?” he asked as she set two mugs on the counter.
“What, do you mean like you? No.”
Her mouth. He’d tasted it fucking finally. And now all he wanted was more. The desire was so strong, his fantasies were beginning to haunt him.
“Where’ve you been?” He needed to redirect his brain to something G-rated.
“Amber Falls,” she shrugged. “I went to the city to have Max because he was born premature.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Two months.” She quickly grabbed his sugar. “He’s a fighter, t
hough.”
Noa nodded, watching her eyes brighten as she looked across at her baby.
“My sitter’s out of town and she’s coming to pick him up at ten, so he’s working the shift with me.”
“He looks ready to rumble.”
Lyndie chuckled. “He just ate.”
“Do you like your croissants warm?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
Lyndie returned with four croissants with a side of fruit and leftover ham, setting them on the counter.
She wanted to mix up their routine a little bit.
“You wanna get married?”
Lyndie’s eyes jerked up from the plate.
Noa’s face was straight.
“To me,” he finished.
Chapter Eight:
The Answer
To me.
His words rang in the small space.
It was crazy, but time seemed to freeze. Or maybe it was just her heart.
The man she shared so many predawn hours with was looking at her quietly.
His features were strong, bordering on extreme, but they worked together to make an extraordinary face. For a second, her eyes flickered to the lips she’d kissed. They curved beneath his goatee, a blushed red that gave him an air of being up to no good even if he was completely innocent.
The memory of the tongue ring almost lurched her arm across the counter before she straightened and refocused on his words.
Okay. What the hell, she could play along.
“Where’s my ring?”
Without hesitation, Noa pulled a ring off his pinky and held it between his thumb and forefinger. “Let’s see if it fits.”
Straight faced, Lyndie held out her left hand and Noa took it, slipping the thick onyx and silver band on her ring finger. It was a little loose, but it worked.
“It’s temporary, but we can find a jewelry store and you can pick out a better one.”
Lyndie looked down at the ring, then back up at Noa.
He sounded serious.
“Eat your croissant.”
Noa picked it up and took a bite, talking around it. “We need to do it over the weekend.”
Whoa.
Lyndie took off the ring, setting it by his plate.