Tabby bit her arm. “You loved Jacob. You loved Jacob and now you love Noah. Your life is Twilight, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, naaaah.”
“Bella ends up…with…Edward,” Nicole panted, trying and failing to extract herself from her sisters or the mounds of puppy flesh.
“Yeah, but he’s not what you wanted,” Sam said, digging her long fingers into her side. “You wanted Bella to marry Jacob and now you’re the Bella!”
“You just said Bella is a lady-drip!”
“Yeah, but you’re fine.”
She glared at her twin. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
“I can’t believe how synchronistic this is,” Tabby said, raising Lilah high in the air. “Noah’s in a gang like Jacob, he has tattoos and a motorbike like Jacob. And he abs, at least that’s what it felt like when I gave him a hug. What is his actual muscle situation? He cut?”
Nicole shoved her sister away with such force, she managed to get her away from her. “Stop it! Noah and I aren’t a couple, we haven’t been on a date, nothing between us has been sorted out.”
“Yet,” Sam and Tabby said at once.
“Yet,” she agreed. “But it might not.”
“But it might,” Tabby said. “I have faith in the universe.”
So do I, Nicole thought, then she punched her little sister on the shoulder. “I do not look like Bella.”
“It’s a compliment, Kristen Stewart’s banging!”
Sam knelt up, looking out of the bedroom window. “Yeah, so I think the universe is doing its thing ahead of schedule.”
“Why? What can you see?” Nicole asked.
Sam smiled. “Come look.”
She stood and saw a guy on a motorbike parked by the curb, his heavy arms were flexed, his shaved head bent against the sun. Her heart squeezed tight, sending bright flutters down her body. “Did you know he was coming?”
“No, but he’s here.”
Tabby appeared at her elbow. “And he’s not even wearing a helmet. So badass.”
“It’s not safe.”
“Fuck safety. Go down there.”
Nicole chewed her lip. “Do you think I should?”
Sam and Tabby nodded.
“But I’m not dressed! I didn’t want to jinx seeing Noah by wearing nice clothes, but now he’s here and I’m in my pajamas!”
“So, change!” Sam picked up her pink cotton dress. “Put this on! Tabby, find her sandals!”
With her sisters’ help, Nicole whipped off her pjs and put on the dress, dragging the comb Tabby found through her hair and applying Sam’s chapstick.
“You look great,” Sam said, shoving her out of the door. “Good luck. And don’t worry, I’ll stop Tabby from yelling shit out of the window.”
“Thanks.” But she didn’t head for the stairs, instead she held her twin’s gaze. The mirror she was born looking into. “Sammy…do you think this will work? Me and Noah? Really?”
Sam didn’t smile. She didn’t roll her eyes. She seemed to take her question as seriously as she’d asked it.
“I knew you were crushed out on each other,” she said slowly. “But I didn’t think anything would come of it. Noah’s so closed off, I didn’t think you could handle that.”
Nicole’s heart sank. “Oh.”
Sam shrugged. “But I clearly don’t know shit. I didn’t know that Gil was stealing from me and I didn’t clock Noah for a crook, but you did. You see shit I don’t, so without turning it back on you, I think you’re the best person to decide if Noah can be what you want in a partner.”
Nicole nodded. “He said he doesn’t want to be a dad.”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t want to have kids with you.” Sam smiled. “People do change, Nix.
“But—”
Sam held up her hand. “You asked me what I think, and here it is—when you’re around, Noah’s paying attention. He’s there for you in a way he was never there for me or Tabby or even dad.”
“Oh, Sammy, I’m sure that’s not true.”
“I’m not being self-pitying,” she said loudly. “But Scott showed me being loved is about being seen, and you and Noah see each other. In ways we just don’t, and we’re fucking twins. So the takeaway on my end is you should give it a shot. Also, he’s your Jacob. That’s clear to me now.”
“Great, thanks.” Nicole pinched her side and they both laughed, then they hugged.
“I love you,” Sam whispered. “I’m proud of you.”
The backs of Nicole’s eyes prickled. “I love you, too. I’m so glad I came home.”
“He’s coming to the door,” Tabby shrieked. “What are you cunts waiting for? Are you trying to make me lose my fucking mind?”
Nicole let go of Sam. “See you soon.”
“Always.”
And she flew down the stairs toward him, not thinking, just feeling. But maybe she should have been thinking, because when she opened the door, she did the most Bella Swan thing possible, she tripped over the front doorstep and hit her chin on the wooden steps.
Noah swore, crouched so their eyes were level. “Nikki! Are you okay?”
“No.” Her right knee and chin were throbbing, but her pride hurt the worst. “I can’t believe I fell again. Sam didn’t see, did she?”
Noah’s silence said that she had, and Nicole was sure she could hear giggling from behind and above her. She stood up, brushing her burning palms against her dress. “So, you were with Scott and Toby, right? You went to see Gil?”
“Nikki…” He shook his head. “I didn’t come here to talk about Gil.”
“Are you sure, because isn’t that his motorbike?”
“Maybe. Look, do you think I could get a kiss before we get into that?” He was grinning and she wanted to be mad at him, but the relief that coursed through her at the sight of him just felt too good.
She smiled, betraying her ego. “Maybe.”
“Close enough.” He pulled her close, but they didn’t kiss. Instead they swayed against each other slowly, drinking each other in.
“I’m sorry about…everything,” he said.
“You don’t have to be sorry.”
“I do. I never gave you the full picture and you had faith in me when the shit hit the fan with Paula and Gil, anyway.”
“Of course, I did. Noah, I want you. I want us.”
She hadn’t meant to say it so desperately, so earnestly, but it came tumbling out, as uncensored as her teenage crush on the fictional werewolf, Jacob Black. Before Greyson, before the horrible doctor’s office, before she gave up on feelings and put her faith in The Plan. And it felt good to be that vulnerable. That wide open.
Noah’s arms tightened around her like steel bands. “I still don’t know how to be with you the way you want.”
“You don’t need to! We’ll just take it a day at a time for a bit. Figure it out. There’s no rush.”
He looked at her with his insanely green eyes. “You mean that? You can give me some time?”
“Yes,” Nicole said without hesitation. “All the time.”
“I still don’t know how I’ll go talking about everything. Not just about you, but about heaps of shit. That’s why I never showed anyone my…” He looked around, as though searching for witnesses. “My paintings.”
“Because it makes you feel vulnerable?”
He shuddered. “See, even hearing you say that makes me wanna leave the state.”
“The word is cringe. And you’re going to have to get over that because your paintings are beautiful and a condition of us going out together is that I want to show them to people. Sam, at least. And Tabby.”
Noah looked at the sky. “Yeah, that might be a problem.”
“Why?”
“Long story.”
Nicole pressed a palm to his lovely mouth. “Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?”
He smirked, pulling back and biting her fingers. “You might. One day. If I can figure out how to tell you how I feel.”
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She smiled, eyes burning with unshed tears. “I missed you.”
He ducked his head. “You don’t have to. I’m not going anywhere.” Noah bent his head, his mouth close to hers. “I can’t say it yet, but I…and you. Get it?”
She nodded furiously and for the first time in a long time, it felt like everything might be o—
“Kiss! Fuckin’ kiss!” Tabby’s head was sticking out of her bedroom window. When they looked at her, she shook her fist at them. “Kiss, you plebs! I’m sick of waiting!”
Sam appeared and put Tabby in a headlock. “Sorry, I tried to hold her back but she’s stronger than she looks. Hey, Noah.”
Noah raised a hand, a flush weaving down his neck.
Gosh, he’s adorable. Nicole raised her middle finger to her sisters. “Get out of here.”
They didn’t budge. They stood in the window as they stood in her mind, watching, ready to cast their loving, snappy judgement. She sighed and turned to Noah. “You can put me down if you want to. They’re going to keep watching us until we—”
He kissed her, his mouth as warm and hot as the sun on her back. Sam and Tabby cheered above them, and as Noah’s arms tightened around her, Nicole felt really, truly, temporarily perfect.
Chapter 22
Five and a half months later
“Fuck!” Noah pulled his thumb away from the barbecue, examining the bright red line he’d just singed into his skin. He sucked it, irritated.
“Oh no, civilian casualty!” Tabby dumped the salad she was carrying on the table and came over to inspect his burn. “Want me to take over?”
Noah glared at her. “No one’s taking over.”
Tabby threw up her hands. “I’m just offering to help. You know, Nix already fucks you, you don’t have to impress her.”
“Aren’t you single?”
“Aren’t the sausages burning?”
Noah returned his attention to the barbecue. Tabby was fucking with him, the sausages looked fine, browning nicely, although maybe that was just on the outside? Who the fuck knew what was going on inside them.
Tabby patted him on the back. “Don’t stress. Dad burned everything to shit and we never complained.”
Noah nodded, then remembered his ongoing effort to verbally respond whenever anyone talked to him. “Thanks.”
“No probs.” Tabby tipped her purple snapback at him. “Like my hat?”
He squinted. “Is that one of Gil’s?”
“Sure is.”
“Shouldn’t it have gone up in the sale?”
“It wasn’t a sale; it was a boutique lifestyle experience.”
Noah rolled his eyes. Tabby had taken the wheel in pawning off Gil’s things, posing in the clothes and auctioning them off two at a time, claiming she was doing a Marie Kondo cleanout. That made no fucking sense considering it was all men’s clothes, but it worked. The returns had been twice what Nikki had predicted. Nowhere near eighty grand, but combined with the sale of the Fat Boy, it went a long way toward filling the money pit Gil had dug for them.
Tabby pulled the hat off her head and showed him the lining. “I couldn’t have sold the hat. It’s a fake. See?”
He couldn’t see shit but he trusted Tabby’s judgement. “Huh.”
“Yep, ole Gil wasn’t as classy as he made out.”
“He never made out classy.” It felt like too long since he’d turned a sausage, so he turned a sausage. He’d forgiven Tabby for believing he was a bikie. As Nicole pointed out, her little sisters anger had been about not tweaking his secret as much as anything else. Tabby liked to be the one with all the information and solutions. He wondered if Toby had figured that out yet.
“Any word on what Gil’s up to?” Tabby asked.
“Nah, far as I can tell he’s not inking right now.”
Tabby gave him a hard look. “Would that be because someone by the name of N. Newcomb called the places where Gil was inking and told the owners he’s got light fingers and expensive taste?”
Noah turned another sausage, feeling fully justified in staying quiet.
Toby walked toward them carrying a big stack of plates. “Sam wants to know if you’re ready for the chicken?”
“Jesus, I don’t know.”
Noah studied the barbecue, panic rising. In the months that Nicole had slipped into his heart, his feelings had changed. Or more accurately, the way he felt changed. Art used to be the only thing that got under his skin, now he felt the little stuff. When Nicole didn’t call, he got nervous. When he inked an important piece, his nerves pounded. When Lilah got an ear infection and had to get a white cone around her head, he felt so fucking bad for her, he bought her a whole bag of chicken necks. It was fucking unnerving, feeling so much shit, but it was worth it. He was painting like a fucking virtuoso and he got Nicole in his bed every night.
Yesterday she’d turned to him, sweat glossing her perfect breasts, and moaned, “How is it always so good?”
“Um, Noah?” Toby said. “The chicken?”
He shook his head, snapping back into the moment. “Bring it out. Not like this situation can get any more fucked.”
“Sure.”
He expected Tabby to say something, but she wasn’t listening. She was opening a cider she’d pulled from nowhere and staring at Toby’s ass. He wanted to call her out, but he knew she’d deny looking. No one knew what her and Toby’s deal was.
“Should we be worried?” Nikki had asked him a week ago. “Tabby might destroy him. She does that, you know, and Toby’s so nice.”
Noah told her not to worry. He had a feeling Toby’s niceness had limits. And even if it didn’t, caring less about what other people were doing was something his girl was trying to work on. She was doing great at it, too, and whenever she slipped up and tried to overcontrol herself or others, he spanked her. It seemed to be working for them.
As though summoned by his thoughts, Nicole walked toward him, her smile like a punch to the chest.
“How are things going out here?” she asked.
“They’d be better without the audience.”
“Quit your bitching,” Tabby said distractedly. “The snags are burning.”
Nikki poked her sister. “No, they’re not.”
She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him, slipping her cool little tongue into his mouth. She was fucking fire, his girl. Last night, she’d screamed so loud while he was bending her over, it was lucky no one called the cops. Their kiss deepened and he nipped her lower lip, reminding her of what a dirty little thing she was.
He’d been right, she came to him when she was too horny to think straight. And he fucked her back to concentration. A job he’d happily do forever.
Nikki backed away, flushing and smoothing her sundress. “It’s a beautiful evening.”
“Yeah,” Noah said. “You’re here.”
Tabby made a face. “Pukeasaurus Rex. I’m going inside.”
She left and Noah turned the sausages because someone had to.
Nicole looked around the yard, bouncing on her toes. “I hope everyone has a good time tonight.”
“Who gives a shit if they don’t?”
She laughed and slipped her arm around his waist. “They’re my family, I have to give a shit.”
“No, you don’t. It was Sam’s idea to have a DaSilva barbecue.”
“But they’re my crazy aunts and uncles, too! And I haven’t seen any of them since the mistletoe disaster of ’08.”
“So, if they act up tonight, you can just shaft them for another decade.”
She smiled, but then her expression turned serious again. “Do you think it’s weird that we’re about to have this big family event when my dad’s still missing, and Sam and Tabby are walking tattoo factories and I’m a recovering control freak?”
God, she was fucking delightful. He kissed her forehead. “Yep, because it’s exactly like what we talked about.”
“We talk about things?”
“Sarcasm.” He clipped her
with the tongs. “We talk about how things don’t have to be perfect to be good, remember? Or that’s the bullshit you pulled out when you sent my fuckin’ painting to that art cunt.”
“Esteemed gallery owner,” Nicole corrected. “And I did that because it’s a crime to keep your paintings locked in your house like children you’re ashamed of. The world needs to see what you can do, and stop cringing. You’re not allowed to cringe, it’s an insult to everyone who’s dreamed of painting the way you do.”
Noah turned another sausage, trying to swallow the supernova that had opened in his throat.
“Anyway,” Nicole said, holding up her right wrist. “I’ve already atoned for my paint-stealing sins, remember?”
“How could I forget?”
A few weeks ago, they’d been in the studio, listening to Sticky Fingers and waiting for it to hit five so they could go out for an early dinner when she’d turned to him. “I’ve figured out how I can apologise for trying to show the world your immense talent.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I want you to tattoo me.”
He’d refused, told her it wasn’t necessary, that she didn’t need to prove how she felt about him or apologise. But she’d insisted, begged even. Then she’d told him that she loved him and after months of mental paper jams, it had come out. “I love you, too, Nikki.”
And she’d held up her wrist. “Prove it.”
Nicole dropped her arm back to her side and looked around. “I should go help Sam with the punch. Be back soon.”
“Sure,” he said and watched her leave, noting she’d sat in mustard or something and there was a yellow stain on the back of her pretty white dress. He opened his mouth to tell her about it, but Tabby slashed a hand across her throat. “It’s payback for throwing out my old Barbie playhouse. Tell her and I’ll slap the fuck out of you.”
Noah rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the barbecue, though he couldn’t stop smiling.
This was life, he realised. Filth and wholesomeness living side by side, crossing over and flipping back. There wasn’t anything purely pure or perfectly bad, they were colours melting together like they did in the sunset he’d tattooed into Nicole’s right wrist.
He looked up and saw Sam and Nikki laughing about something, their faces full of identical excitement. He was sure they were talking about Nikki’s new project. His girl was handling Silver Daughters finances and setting up a freelance accounting business, yet she’d still found the time to launch a women’s sexual health initiative. The Pink Party scheduled group visits to STD clinics, followed by high tea, mini golf or spa packages.
So Steady: Silver Daughters Ink, Book Two (Silver Daughters Ink Book Two) Page 27