“Around five.”
I gape up at him. “Are you serious? I thought it was maybe two or three in the afternoon. Shit. Five? Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he laughs, pulling out his phone just to prove his point.
“The cops kept you there for a while. Is it all done?”
“Think so. There’s literally nothing else I could tell them.”
“Hopefully they got what the needed,” I mumble. “So, why’d you stop in at the fire station?”
His grins to himself and I swear I’ve never seen him look so proud. It kind of looks a bit cocky and I instantly start to melt. I love that look on him. “To get my shifts. I’m officially on the roster.”
I stop walking and gape up at him, grabbing his shoulders and turning him to face me just to make sure I’m hearing him correctly. “Wait. What do you mean ‘officially on the roster?’ Are you telling me what I think you’re telling me?”
“They called me in for a meeting and offered me a job,” he says. “They want me on the team. Apparently, it’s been hard for them finding recruits that can actually keep up with the guys, aren’t dickheads, and know how to walk into a situation without shitting his pants.”
“And they think you’re capable of not shitting your pants?”
“Apparently so.”
I grin wide, stepping back from him and throwing my hands in the air. “Fuck, yeah,” I cheer, loud enough for the whole world to hear just how damn proud I am of this guy standing right beside me. “My boyfriend is the bomb.” A girl walking past gives me a strange look and I find it impossible to bite my tongue. “That’s right, you heard me. Noah Cage is the fucking bomb.”
Noah grabs me around the waist and pulls me into his side, doing his best to silence me. “Knock it off, would you?”
I can’t help but laugh as he continues dragging me down the lake. “Are you sure they really think you won’t shit your pants? Because maybe I should let them know what happened when you thought Monica was pregnant. It could save them having to deal with your sorry ass when shit gets real.”
Noah’s hand slaps down hard on my ass and has a devilish grin slipping across my face. Is it wrong to have liked that so much? “Really? You want to bring that up now?”
I grab hold of him, bringing him to a stop before looking up into those dazzling green eyes. I can’t resist him any longer and crush my lips to his. “Congratulations. You’re going to be the best damn firefighter Haven Falls has ever seen, but you better not get hurt because if you do, I’ll have no choice but to kill you myself.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he chuckles. “But don’t worry, there's heaps of training I have to do. Though they’ve already taught me everything I need to know over the past few months, but you know, it has to be ‘officially’ done.”
“That’s good,” I tell him as he leads me down a long jetty before sitting down at the end and watching Jesse’s boat fly past us. “I guess that makes you the first of our group to make something of himself after school.”
“You claimed that title the second you got that scholarship.”
Noah drops his legs over the side of the jetty and sticks his feet in the water. I do the same while placing my cocktail down beside me, but my legs aren’t long enough to actually touch the water and has me sighing in disappointment. A bit of cool water would be refreshing right about now.
I lean into him and realize that at this moment, I could die a happy woman. I never want this to change but unfortunately, it has to. The summer is going to be over in another month and I’ll be going to college nearly every day while Noah’s working. Hell, it might not even be like that. Noah might be heading somewhere else while I’ll be headed for a lifetime of slavery under Anton’s thumb.
I let out a sigh. “Is it really over? The cops don’t need you anymore?”
“I wouldn’t say it’s over, but yeah. It’s out of our hands now. We’ve done everything we could possible do and now we just sit back and watch it all unfold.”
Noah’s hand slips into mine, lacing our fingers together. “So, what actually happens now? What’s the first step of putting him away?”
“I don’t really know to be honest. I’m assuming they’ll have to corroborate my story and then do their own private investigations, but once they have everything they need, they’ll make a move and take him down.”
“Well, shit. What about the cops though? The dirty ones? I’m not going to lie, that makes me nervous. I mean, how can you be sure that they haven’t already said something to Anton about seeing you at the station so much?”
“I guess I can’t be sure, but Langston and Thomas have been spreading the word that I’ve been in there for a separate investigation, so I’m hoping they buy it, but if not, the only way they can get evidence is if they physically take it from Langston and Thomas. Besides, if someone has told Anton that they suspected I was ratting, I doubt I’d be here right now. I’d probably be hanging by my ankles in some dirty meat locker.”
My face scrunches up and I do my best to ignore those last comments. “What about when it comes time to raid his warehouses? Surely, they can’t keep that quiet. Someone is bound to give Anton the heads up.”
“It’s possible, but they told me that they’ll be using the SWAT team from Broken Hill because they don’t want shit like that getting out. Besides, they already have their suspicions on who the dirty cops are and it’s exactly the same as who I thought. They’ve already opened investigations on them too. Even dirty judges, lawyers, and half of the city council.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh.”
“This is going to get messy isn’t it?”
“Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, Spitfire,” he murmurs. “But once this is finally over and Anton’s put away like he deserves, you and me will be free to live the rest of our lives how we see fit.”
I grin up at him. “You’re planning for our future?” I question, getting way too giddy over the idea and grabbing my cocktail that I’d nearly forgotten about.
“I’m always thinking of our future,” he tells me, taking the drink from my hand and quickly tipping it down his throat before grinning wide in his own irritating way of letting me know that I’ve probably drunk more than my fair share.
Noah grabs me and hauls me up onto his lap and I shuffle around so I’m straddling him with my arms wrapped securely around his neck, terrified of letting go because one tiny movement backward could have me sailing down into the depths of the lake to be swimming with the fish.
“I fucking love you, Spitfire,” he murmurs, curling his hand around the back of my neck and holding me close. “One of these days, after all this Anton shit is over and we have our lives figured out, I’m going to make you mine.”
I lean into him, resting my forehead against his. “I thought I already was.”
“Not even close,” he tells me. “I want you in every possible way and I don’t just mean the way we are now. I want a ring on your finger and I want to come home from work every day knowing that I’ll be coming home to you.” He pushes hair back off my face, curling it behind my ear and making sure to skim his fingertips across my skin in the process, spreading goosebumps all over me. “I’ve never wanted anything more, Henley. You’re it for me.”
My heart races and I can’t resist him any longer. I press my lips to his, closing my eyes with the satisfaction of having his lips on mine.
I don’t know what it is about this man, but he owns me completely. Every little fiber within me is his. My heart beats for him, I breathe for him, I wake up every day purely for him, and I’ll never get enough of it.
He’s the light in my sky and the warmth in my heart. He’s the whole fucking world and I’m the luckiest girl on earth to be blessed with his love and affection. I’ll never do a damn thing to risk that because that future he speaks of, the one where I have his ring on my finger and share his bed every single night is the future that I crave. It’s the life I want to live and I
couldn’t possibly bear it without him beside me.
Noah Cage is going to be my husband one day and despite us being only eighteen years old, it’s our absolute truth; one that I will stand by until my dying days.
Chapter 14
I push the cart down the aisle, stopping by the huge selection of pastas and groaning impatiently as dad goes over all the labels, checking to see which is the healthiest option and has the best value for money when we all know that in the end, he’s going to pick the one that he picks up every week; the unhealthy one that cost a bomb but is certainly the yummiest.
I have to commend him though; he’s trying to make healthier choices. He’s still exercising and eating better foods, but I’m not going to lie, there’s been more than a few times where I’ve watched him unload the garbage from his truck to hide the evidence from me, but I catch him every time. Old habits die hard.
He finally makes a decision and throws the pasta into the cart. Aria climbs on the end and I give the cart a big push, trying to get it going under the weight of all the groceries plus the six year old hanging on with everything that she’s got.
We manage to get through the next aisle without any major issues but as the next one comes; dad begins asking questions about Anton and how things are going. I give him as many details as I can and cringe with every answer. There’s nothing worse than discussing my real father with dad, knowing just how much each word cuts him up inside. I’m not going to lie, when I first came to dad and explained what Noah was going to do, dad was on cloud nine. He even looked as though he was about to escort Noah down to the station himself, just to make sure the job gets done.
Ever since then, he’s constantly looking for updates which only serves to make me regret the decision of tagging along to the grocery store with them. Here I thought we’d have a great time, Ari and I could sneak a few extra treats into the cart to hide in our rooms, and give dad a hard time for being so slow, but noooo, here we are discussing Anton. Again.
This sucks.
I park the cart at the side of the aisle to let others pass as dad stops once again to silently debate over which body wash to pick out. As he distracts himself, it takes all of a few seconds for me and Ari to start screwing around. “Hey,” I murmur, catching her attention with a wicked grin as I begin to back the cart up to the top of the aisle.
Ari looks to me and the smirk on my face tells her exactly what she needs to know. “Hold on.” She tries to smother a giggle but fails miserably as she refuses to let go of the cart, knowing better than anybody that now is not the time to fall off.
I wait until the last person has left the aisle, leaving only dad behind, still comparing body washes. “Are you ready?”
Aria’s head nods up and down so freaking fast that she looks like one of those bobblehead toys that you put in the back window of your car.
I step one foot up onto the cart and hold on tight as I push off with the other like a skateboard. I give three massive pushes and before I know it, we’re flying down the aisle, the two of us giggling like children.
Damn, where’s Tully when you need her? She’d love this.
Ari’s giggles quickly turn into full-blown laughs that has dad spinning around with urgency. “Henley,” he scolds under his breath, trying to be discreet as to not point out to the rest of the store that all this disruptive noise is coming from his kids. “Cut that shit out.”
I slam my foot down at the end of the aisle and bring the cart to a stop, narrowly avoiding sending Ari into a display of produce. “What do you say, Squirt? Should we stop?”
She shakes her head violently. “Nope.” She even pops the ‘p’ for good measure.
I grin back at dad as I make a U-turn with the full shopping cart. “Sorry dad, the child has spoken.”
“Henley,” dad reprimands but it’s too late as I start pushing with everything that I have. We fly back up the aisle with Ari’s howling laugh most likely heard from every corner of the store.
We’re just about at the other end when a lady turns the corner, placing herself right in the path of our oncoming cart. “HENLEY! STOP!,” Dad screams out as I slam my feet down while screeching out as the woman looks on in horror. She darts aside, her basket full of groceries spilling out beside her as I desperately bring the cart to a stop.
The woman throws a hand to her chest, clearly having the scare of her life as I jump off the cart and begin apologizing profusely. “I’m so, so sorry,” I tell her, dropping to my knees and instantly beginning to find her groceries that seem to be scattered all over aisle eight.
“Oh,” she laughs, hand still on her chest as she attempts to calm her racing heart. “It’s alright, dear. If I still had the strength to hold myself up like that, I would have been on there with you.”
I laugh but it’s wiped away the second dad comes up behind me. "I’m so sorry, ma’am. Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”
“No, no,” she says, waving dad off. “I have two boys, about the same age as your girls so I’m certainly immune to their games. This is nothing, you should have seen them at the drive through car wash last week.”
“I can only imagine,” dad says as he raises a scolding eyebrow at me, making me move a little faster to pick up the woman’s groceries. “You’d think by eighteen they would have outgrown these ridiculous stunts.”
“Not even close. In fact, I think my eldest son is getting worse, only now it involves cars. Who knows what kind of things he’s going to be teaching his little brother!”
I grab the last item and quickly tidy up the basket as it looks like a hot mess before getting to my feet and handing it over with a smile. “Here you are,” I tell her. “Hopefully the rest of your trip will be a little less exciting.”
“Oh, no dear. Don’t worry about it. The excitement keeps me young.”
I look over at dad and find him smiling like some kind of fool. What the hell? His eyes are soft and he’s laughing along with her in a tone I’ve never quite heard before.
“Well, thanks for not hating on us, otherwise we would never have heard the end of it from dad.” She laughs as dad rolls his eyes, probably silently cursing me out. “I, uh…didn’t catch your name?”
“Oh, how rude of me,” she says, passing me her hand. “I’m Jacqueline Frazer but prefer Jackie.”
“Wait. Frazer? Are you Jared’s mom by any chance?”
“I am, indeed. Do you know him?”
“Yeah, I’m Henley. Jared is a friend of mine, though he spends a little more time with my boyfriend, Noah.”
“Ah, yes,” she says. “Jared speaks fondly of you two, but there’s one other, isn’t there. Um…what’s her name? Tilly?”
Ari grins wide. “Tully.”
“That’s it,” Jackie beams turning back to me. “My Jared says you and your friends are magnets for trouble.”
“What?” I gasp, feigning outrage. “Surely you must have the wrong people.”
Dad shakes his head. “Surely, she mustn’t. I’ve never heard a truer statement in my life.”
Jackie laughs as I gape at the way dad seems to melt over it. Seriously? What the hell is happening here? Does daddy dearest have a little crush on Jared’s mom?
Hmm, she seems nice enough and from the way she’s encouraging dad and not shutting him down, I’d dare say she might even be interested. I wonder if she’s single?
The two get carried away chatting and I slowly back the cart out, wanting to give them a little time to get to know each other. I hold my finger to my lips, letting Ari know to keep quiet so we can make our escape and she nods along, thinking it’s some kind of game.
I wait until we’re in the next aisle before pulling out my phone and sending off a quick text to Jared.
Henley – Hey, what’s the deal with your mom? We just bumped into her in the grocery store and my dad is vibing hard!! Is she single?
I get busy getting the groceries as I wait for a reply and am just skipping past the baby products when his text fi
nally comes through.
Jared – What the fuck, dude? You’re not seriously thinking about setting our parents up, are you?
I laugh to myself as I read over his text before hurrying down to the bottom of the aisle that they’re busy flirting in and take a quick picture, making sure I get one that shows just how happy Jackie looks.
I send him the picture before hashing out a response.
Henley – Download Attachment
Henley – Is she single or what? I mean…look at that smile!!!!! They’d make a cute couple, don’t you think? Besides, I don’t think I need to set them up, they seem to be doing a good job all on their own!
I can just picture Jared’s face as he reads this.
Jared – Shit. She’s giving him ‘the look.’
Jared – Fine, she’s single and lonely. She could really use someone, but he needs my approval first and if he even thinks about treating her badly, he’ll be dealing with me.
Henley – My dad would rather jump off a cliff than treat a woman badly. Trust me, she’s in good hands! Now, I just need to convince my dad to man up and ask her out!
Jared – I’m not calling you my sister.
Henley – Yeah, you will!!!! This is going to be great! You’ll see!
Jared – I’m going to regret this!
I grin to myself as I put my phone away and get busy with the groceries. This is going to be great. Dad clearly likes her and seeing as though he’s not come searching for me and she’s not desperately looking for an escape plan, I’d dare say they’re really into each other.
They’re both single and ready to mingle. They both have two kids and they’re both in Haven Falls. It’s too freaking perfect to be true. I just hope they click like me and Noah. I’d love nothing more than for dad to finally find someone to treasure. Besides, it’d be healthy for Aria to experience having someone in her life to love her the way a mother should.
We have Violet in our lives but it’s not quite the same as dad finding someone and making her his. Aria needs that in her life and I think I might just need it too.
Unbreakable: Haven Falls (Book 6) Page 13