It Was Always You (Ridgewater High Romance Book 3)

by Judy Corry

  18

  Noah

  Lexi fell asleep shortly after Mr. Darcy's failed proposal. She hadn't been lying when she told me about falling asleep during chick flicks. I didn't think I knew of a single girl like her—she was so different from what I was used to. But I kind of loved that about her.

  The movie ended, and I successfully got up from the couch without waking Lexi and walked Jake out.

  "Thanks for letting me chill with you and your girlfriend." Jake shrugged into his coat at the top of the stairs. "I think I might actually crack my book open now."

  "You could probably ace the test without reading it. The movie was actually pretty true to the book." From what I'd understood of the book, that is.

  Jake shrugged. "I know. I kind of liked how much Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth were always fighting. If I'd known about that when Mrs. Phillips assigned the book, I might have actually read more than the first two pages."

  "Well, the test isn't until Monday, so there's still time."

  He nodded. "See you at school tomorrow. Tell Lexi I said bye."

  I smiled and opened the door for him to leave. "Yeah, I'll tell her when she wakes up."

  Who would have thought that when two jocks sat down to watch a romance movie with a sixteen-year-old girl, it would be the girl who fell asleep?

  I shut the door behind Jake and checked the time on my phone. It was close to six. Easton and Mr. Stevens should be home soon. But instead of heading out, I found myself wandering back downstairs to sit next to Lexi.

  I browsed through the channels on their TV and ended up stopping when I saw the weather forecast on the news station. Apparently, a huge snowstorm was supposed to roll in tonight. They were telling everyone to bring their animals in if possible, so they could stay warm. I really hoped Lexi was still okay with me sleeping in her closet again. The floor wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, and it was a really tight fit, but it was warm.

  The commercial break came on next, and for some reason, the commercials were louder than the news report had been. Lexi startled in her seat, and for a second, I thought she might wake up. But instead of opening her eyes she just turned on her side, and somehow, her head ended up resting on my shoulder.

  I went still at her unexpected closeness, my heart coming to a stop before taking off like it was in a race. She nuzzled against me as if to get more comfortable, and soon the side of her head was resting on my chest.

  Was she really that deep of a sleeper that she wasn't aware of cuddling up to a human instead of the throw pillows that were usually in the corner?

  I held completely still for about half a minute, worried she'd wake up and jump away from me. She hadn't seemed to want to get very close to me during the movie when I'd asked her to sit closer. But she didn’t stir, and after another ten seconds, I released the breath I'd been holding.

  The news ended so I started flipping through the channels again until I found a hockey game to watch. I let my muscles relax. My gaze landed on Lexi's hair, which was long and would probably feel silky in my hand. I'd threaded my fingers in it as we'd kissed earlier, but I hadn't really been concentrating on the softness of her hair so much as I'd been lost in the way her lips felt pressed against mine. But now her strands looked soft and inviting. I felt the urge to reach out and touch them.

  She did seem like the deepest sleeper in the world, so maybe I could just... I slipped the tips of my fingers into her hair, letting them slowly trail down her back. She twitched, and I went still. Did I wake her up?

  But then she resumed her regular breathing again, so I traced a line along her side and then down her arm, watching the goosebumps rise on her skin where I touched her. I smiled, liking that I could have this effect on her as she slept.

  What was happening to me? I shouldn't be growing more and more attracted to Easton's little sister. I was eighteen. She was only sixteen. But the more I got to know her and the more time I spent with her, I found her stealing small pieces of my heart. Pieces I didn't know were even there anymore. I had the feeling that if I wasn't careful, she might just go and steal the whole thing.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and before I could even register what those footsteps signaled, Mr. Stevens stared down at me. And he did not look happy.

  Oh crap! This couldn’t be good.

  I glanced down at Lexi, wondering what I should do with her. She was practically cuddling up to me. Should I just shove her off and jump to the other side of the couch, hoping that Mr. Stevens somehow wouldn't notice?

  I pushed the thought away almost as soon as I had it, because I knew from the angry glint in his eyes that he had most definitely noticed how Lexi and I were sitting, and he'd probably also seen the way I'd been looking at his daughter while running my fingertips along her arm.

  "H-hi, Mr. Stevens." I sat up straighter. Lexi startled a little but didn't wake up.

  Mr. Stevens gritted his teeth. "Hi, Noah." Then his gaze went down to his sleeping daughter, his expression darkening further. "Sit up, Lexi." His voice was gruff, and he just glared at Lexi, not even looking at me.

  Lexi, who had been dead to the world for the past hour, sat up faster than lightning.

  "I'm awake. I'm awake." She pushed her hair out of her face and looked around, clearly disoriented.

  "What's going on here?" Her dad crossed his thick muscled arms.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat, knowing I was in huge trouble.

  Lexi seemed to finally break out of the daze from her nap—her eyes went wide and she jumped off the couch. "We were just working on Noah's school project and I fell asleep."

  Her dad narrowed his gaze, clearly not believing her. "I think it's time for you to go home, Noah."

  I launched myself out of that couch, faster than I'd ever moved before. "Uh, yeah. Of course, Mr. Stevens. I was just leaving anyway."

  I slipped past him, feeling his glare burn a hole in the back of my head as I walked up the stairs. I could just imagine him debating whether to grab his shotgun.

  My hands were shaking as I pulled on my letterman jacket. I was about to walk outside when I heard Mr. Stevens' voice again, speaking to Lexi. "You can stay sitting, Lexi. We need to have a talk."

  19

  Lexi

  My dad sat down on the other side of the couch. I wasn't usually afraid of him since he was my dad, but he didn’t look happy at all. And I had a feeling it had everything to do with him finding me at home alone with Noah Taylor. I'd fallen asleep while watching a movie, but that wasn't a crime, was it?

  My dad looked at me with his stern expression. "Is there something going on between you and Noah?"

  What exactly had he seen? Did he somehow find out that Noah had slept in my closet last night? Or had someone said something to him about Noah and I pretending to date?

  "What do you mean?" I asked, hoping my non-committal answer wouldn't make him even more upset.

  "I saw the way you were laying on him. We have rules, Lexi." Okay, so he didn't know about everything else. But this still wasn't good.

  "Laying on him?" My voice squeaked. I'd been sleeping, but I hadn't been sprawled on Noah, had I?

  "Don't play stupid with me. Why were you two sitting alone in the dark basement?"

  My stomach shrunk in on itself. When he put it like that, it sounded really bad.

  "I wasn't l-laying on Noah." I stuttered. "We were watching a movie for his class, and I fell asleep. And we weren't even alone—Jake Haley was here, too."

  Where had Jake gone, anyway? How long had I been asleep?

  "You were alone with that boy when I got home. I wouldn't put it past Noah to pull some kind of stunt with you. Just yesterday, his dad was telling me about how Noah’s always getting into trouble. I don't want you spending time with him anymore. In fact, I'm going to talk to Easton about it when he gets home."

  Frustration bubbled up inside me, my muscles tensed into knots. He couldn't do that.

  "His dad doesn't have any idea what's
going on with Noah."

  "His dad thinks he's getting into drugs."

  "His dad is a jerk who doesn't even take five minutes to listen to his son," I said before I could think better of it. At my father's glare, I shut my mouth.

  "Then why else would Noah be getting into fights all the time? Mr. Taylor says he's pretty much emptied his bank account in the past week."

  Because he's homeless! I wanted to shout. And I wanted to march up to Mr. Taylor and tell him what was really going on with his son. But I bit down the words. That was Noah's secret to tell. I made him a promise and I wanted him to trust me.

  So I said the only thing I could. "He's not getting into drugs. I would know if he was."

  "And why would you know, Lexi? Are you sure there isn't anything going on between you two?" Dad narrowed his eyes at me, and I couldn't get over the feeling that he might see right through me.

  "I just know, Dad. Nothing’s going on."

  "Didn't look like nothing from the look on that boy's face when he saw me. That was the look of trouble."

  What had Noah been doing while I was sleeping? My dad made it sound like I was on top of Noah. Had I really fallen asleep on him...and he didn’t shove me away? Was it possible that he was okay with me being so close to him? I really hoped I didn't snore.

  I shook my head. "We're barely friends. He just needed a place to watch a movie for class."

  "And he couldn't do that at his own house?"

  I looked down. "No."

  My dad pursed his lips. "I don't want you spending any more time alone with that boy in this house. It's against our rules, and you know that."

  "But we weren't alone. Jake was here until a few minutes ago."

  "Those are the exact same things your sister said to me. And I love Grant, he's my little buddy, but your sister had a hard time of it. She was lucky to have you to help out so much with Grant. But I won't let that happen to one of my girls again. You need to be smart."

  Why did he always have to think I was up to something bad? I hated how just because Maddie had gotten into lots of trouble when she was my age that he assumed I was going to follow in her footsteps. I hadn't done a single thing wrong.

  I laid my head back and blew out a frustrated breath. "We're just friends. He wouldn't dare do anything with me, anyway, even if we did want to...which we don't. Guys know all about my purity ring and my drill sergeant dad. Pretty sure I won't get asked out on a date until I'm hundreds of miles away at Yale. If then."

  Which reminded me of exactly why Noah, or Harrison, or any guy for that matter would never dare touch me.

  My paranoid dad was ruining my life. It wasn't fair that I was being punished for my sister's actions. When was I going to get to stop proving myself to him?

  My dad stood then touched my shoulder. "I just want you to have more options in your life. Getting mixed up with the wrong crowd has more of an impact than you know."

  I crossed my arms and glowered at him. "All I did was fall asleep. I'm not going to end up like Maddie."

  "That's all I want to hear. Just make good choices and your life will be easier."

  Except for the fact that I had always made good choices, yet my sister's choices were the ones making my life hard at the moment.

  But instead of saying anything about that, I just sighed and said, "You don't have to worry about anything. I'm still planning to go to Yale. Nothing will get in the way of that."

  My dad gave me a small smile, though his eyes told me he was still worried about me. But I tried not to look too hard or it would just make me feel guilty. I wasn't going to do what my sister did. But I wasn't going to just cut Noah out of my life. He needed someone right now, and at the moment, that someone was me. I wouldn't let him down.

  20

  Noah

  "I'm sorry, but your card was declined." The girl at the first drive-thru window at McDonald's gave me an uncomfortable look. It was the kind of uncomfortable that made me think she knew who I was. Which meant we probably went to the same school.

  I cleared my throat, feeling awkward myself. "Are you sure?" I had checked the balance on my account yesterday. There should be at least thirty dollars left.

  "I can try another card," the girl offered.

  I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. "I don't have another card. Could you just try once more?"

  The girl nodded before ducking back in to swipe my card again. How could my money have just disappeared from my account? I needed that money to get me through until at least Saturday. I had to eat somewhere, and from the way Mr. Stevens had reacted to finding me at his house, I doubted I'd be bumming food off them much more.

  The girl came back, holding my card out to me. "It still wouldn't go through."

  "Okay, thanks." Without meeting the girl’s gaze, I took the card back and tossed the useless thing onto the passenger seat. Then I rolled up my window and stared ahead at the car in front of me, wishing I could just drive straight through and hide my shame.

  Had someone hacked into my account somehow and stolen my money?

  The brake lights went off on the car ahead of me, having successfully gotten their food into their vehicle. I followed it out of the drive-thru, not bothering to stop at the second window since they wouldn't be giving me my order after all.

  I drove down the next block and pulled along the curb to call my dad. Maybe he would know what had happened to my money.

  He picked up after the third ring. "Hi, Noah." His deep voice came through my earpiece.

  "Hey, Dad," I said, trying to figure out how to proceed. Our last conversation had ended with him accusing me of getting into drugs. "Um, do you know what happened to the money in my checking account? I had thirty dollars yesterday, but my card just got declined."

  "Yes," he said. I could hear the chattering of my step-siblings in the background.

  I waited for him to say more, but when he didn't, I asked, "Yes as in yes you know where my money is?"

  I heard his chair scrape across the floor in the background, like he was standing from his nice warm dinner with his perfect little family. "I put a hold on your account and transferred the rest of your money out this morning."

  "You what?" I raised my voice.

  "I noticed that your account went from about two-hundred fifty dollars to only thirty in less than a week. And the only reason I can think of for a high school student to blow that much money that fast is if they're up to something illegal."

  "Are you serious right now?" I blinked my eyes in frustration.

  "I told you to stay out of trouble, Noah. To not get into drugs. But since you can't seem to take responsibility for yourself, I had to take matters into my own hands."

  Hot anger burst through me. "For the last time, Dad, I'm not doing drugs! I'm not getting into trouble anymore." I stopped getting into fights—aside from the ones Paul picked with my mom. I stopped making out with random girls. I had practically lived like a saint for the past two months.

  He sighed loudly like he didn't believe me. "Then what is it, Noah? Why did you withdraw so much money this week?"

  "Like I told you, I got kicked out for the week. Paul went on a stupid rampage and I'm the one being punished for it." My throat constricted with the emotions threatening to bubble over. "I had to go buy myself a freaking sleeping bag, so I could sleep in my car since I'm not good enough to stay with either of my parents. I withdrew the cash for my expenses, so you wouldn't know I was homeless!"

  Tears sprang to my eyes, and I hated that I was getting emotional over this. I would not let my dad hear me cry like a baby. I'd cried the day he moved out and I had watched him drive off to his new life with his mistress. After that day, I promised I wouldn't show emotion in front of him ever again.

  The line was silent for a moment. Then after about ten seconds, my dad's voice came through again, "Y-you're sleeping in your car?"

  I bit down, already regretting telling him that much.

  When I didn't respond, h
e said, "Noah?"

  "Yes," I grunted.

  "How can you be sleeping in your car?"

  "Well, I park in the woods and just don't get out of it. Eventually, I fall asleep."

  "This is not something to joke about."

  Oh, believe me, I knew that.

  When I didn't say anything, he said, "You know what? Let me give your mom a call. Let me see if I can arrange for you to go home again tonight."

  I rolled my eyes. Of course, when faced with the option of inviting me to stay in one of the spare bedrooms at his house, or push me onto someone else, he still chose to keep me away from his precious perfect children.

  "Don't bother, Dad. I'm fine, really."

  "Don't be like that, Noah. I'm trying to help."

  "Dad, we have to go now, or I'll be late for my recital." I heard my step-sister, Paige, say in the background.

  "Noah," my dad spoke again. "I need to go. But I'll call your mom and get you back home."

  I leaned my head back against the headrest, fighting the wave of emotion threatening to topple over. Once again, my step-siblings came first. I was never going to be as important to my dad as they were. "Don't worry about me, Dad. I don't want you to be late for your recital."

  And then I hung up and tossed my phone onto the seat beside me before he could say anything more.

  I pulled onto the road again, driving back to the north woods. If I wasn't going to be getting any dinner tonight, I might as well go to sleep now. Then I'd swallow my pride in the morning and use some of the money in my school lunch account to buy myself breakfast. I could ignore the gnawing, empty feeling in my stomach until then.

  The road to the campground hadn't been plowed since the recent snowstorm, so I ended up driving toward the school. Maybe I could park in the back lot and go unnoticed for the night.

  I passed my house on the way and couldn't help but look in the windows as I drove by. The warm, yellow glow coming from inside would have me tricked into thinking it was a nice cozy environment if I didn't know any better. But I did know better. I just hoped my mom and Brielle were okay. Paul should have heard about his promotion by today.