Saving Rain(76)

I quelled my laughter when I saw the hurt flash across his face and heard the rejection in his voice. Noah had been, first and foremost, my friend, and it hadn’t occurred to me that since I’d started seeing his mom as something more than, well, his mom, I might’ve also, in turn, put our friendship on the back burner. Sure, I’d taken the time to teach him some self-defense, and I had dinner with him and Ray most nights. But we rarely took time for us nowadays, and that was my fault.

“So, hey, maybe I should get a TV,” I said as we approached our respective houses. “And you can bring your Switch over for us to play.”

“You’d have to get a controller too,” he pointed out, immediately perking up. “That way, we can play together.”

“You wanna come with me to pick them out?”

Noah grinned as he walked backward up the porch steps. “Yeah, sure! When do you wanna go?”

“This weekend?”

His face lit up like the lamp hanging from the porch ceiling. Relief and contentment wrapped themselves around me, only to unravel quickly when Noah pushed the door open without needing his key.

We entered the house to find Ray standing in the kitchen and washing dishes, her back to the door.

“Hey, Mom!”

“Hi!” she called happily without even a glance over her shoulder. “How was—”

I thrust a hand toward the door as Noah pushed it shut. “You left this unlocked?”

“What?” Ray turned off the faucet and grabbed a towel to dry her hands with. She looked over to see my impatient expression and hand, still gesturing toward the door. “Oh, yeah. I figured you guys were coming—”

“But you didn’t know.”

Her lips pressed into a terse line as her hands stilled within the towel. She swallowed before addressing the boy frozen at my side. “Hey, honey, go get in the shower, okay? You can tell me about your night after.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw him turn toward me, then back to her before nodding. But I didn’t look at him. I stared at his mother with only one thing on my mind.

What if it hadn’t been us?

Noah left us alone, and once I heard the bathroom door close behind him, I took a few steps toward Ray, slowly closing the gap between us.

“Ray, you can’t be like that,” I said, keeping my voice down. The last thing I wanted was to freak Noah out. But, shit …

“Like what?” She was exasperated, laughing incredulously and shaking her head. “I knew you guys were coming back, so I unlocked the door. What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that Seth is out there, and you have no idea when—”

“He’s not coming back.”

I scoffed. “Oh, he’s not, huh?”

She wet her lips and dropped her gaze to the towel in her hands. “No.”

“How do you know that? Is he dead?”

Her jaw shifted as she shook her head. “No, but …”

“Then, you can’t assume that he’s not coming back. And you don’t know when that’s going to happen, if it does, and if I’m not here—”

“Jesus, Soldier.” She rolled her eyes back to mine. “You’re being freakin’ ridiculous.”

“Am I though?”

She laughed again, unraveling her hands and letting the towel hang limp as she walked toward me. “Yes.” She outstretched her arms, and I met her halfway, bending at the waist to wrap my arms around her hips for hers to wrap around my neck. “I told him to stay away, and he will. It’s been months.”

“Oh, so you think he’s going to just start listening to you now?”

“Yes,” she replied, stern and serious. “I told him I’d call the cops if he ever came back, and the last thing he wants is to be arrested again.”

She pressed her body to mine as her lips touched my cheek, then my neck. “You’re sweet for being so worried though.”

“Someone has to worry about you,” I muttered, burying my nose in her hair and taking a deep breath. “And Noah.”

“We’re fine,” she assured me as her fingers tangled in my hair and curled to grip the back of my neck. “As long as you’re here, I know we’re fine. And if I’m not worried, you shouldn’t be either.”

Resignation didn’t come easily, but I pretended as I sighed and nodded. The bathroom door opened, telling us that Noah was done in the shower. Ray released me from her grasp and kissed my lips before heading in the direction of his room.

I helped myself to some dinner and sat at the table as the sickening churn of foreboding made itself at home in my gut. The fork poked around at the ravioli, blazing trails through a sea of sauce, while I thought about Ray and her willingness to trust despite the hell she’d been through. How could my presence alone give her so much confidence in that asshole staying gone?

“He must’ve been exhausted,” Ray said, breaking through my thoughts. “He told me about his time at Jay’s house and could barely keep his eyes open.”

I glanced up to watch her approach. “Yeah, he had a good time,” I agreed, nodding. Then, I held her gaze firmly in a proverbial grasp and said, “Ray, please do me a favor and promise you’ll keep that door locked whenever you’re here.”