I choke on my coffee. A full-on coughing, eye-watering, gasping-for-air choke.
Noah—the asshole—laughs. “Calm down. I didn’t mean it to come out like a threat.” He’s maybe the only person in the world who could make me feel threatened. I’ve stared down some pretty terrifying people, but Noah has this quiet confidence about him that tells me he could make my life hell if he wanted to.
I take another drink of coffee to try to ease my coughing and press the back of my hand to my mouth. After my life has stopped flashing before my eyes, I look at Noah. “How else am I supposed to take that question?”
He doesn’t say anything, just smirks into his coffee. Not a threat, my ass. He knew what he was doing when he said it, and I won’t dare lie to him or try to convince him I didn’t spend the night with Annie. But I at least can be honestly innocent in front of him. A first for me.
“I didn’t sleep with her, just so you know.” I pause. “Well…we did fall asleep together, but I didn’t—”
Noah holds up his hand, cutting me off. “I don’t need to know details. It’s none of my business.”
I eye him skeptically. “It isn’t?”
From what I’ve seen, it seems like everything in this town is everyone’s business.
Noah smiles from under his beard—and I would damn well trade all of my tattoos for the ability to grow a beard like that man’s. It isn’t fair. I’m the former military man turned bodyguard—I should have the manly beard. The only facial hair I can grow excellently are eyelashes. They’re long and thick, and women always note them. A damn shame. Note my muscles, note my square jaw, note my ass for goodness’ sake—but please, for the love of God, do not comment on the length and volume of my lashes.
“Annie is a grown woman. I don’t need to keep tabs on her or monitor who she does or doesn’t date.” Noah turns his casual gaze to me and tips a shoulder. He takes a drink of his coffee, and then sets the mug down and stares into it. I’ve seen him and Amelia together and it’s hard not to root for them. To be wildly jealous of them. They’re good for each other.
Would I be good for Annie?
Instinctively, I know she would be good for me. But I worry that I would drag her down. I wouldn’t know how to communicate well, or I’d feel an itch to leave when things got tough—because I’m self-aware enough to know that I avoid all confrontation and discomfort like they’re diseases. It’s why I haven’t called my brother back. It’s why I haven’t been home to visit either of my parents in years. It’s why I chose a career that allows me to be a happy-go-lucky nomad, where I can float from woman to woman and place to place, and never get attached enough to have to deal with real life.
Jeanine glides through the swinging kitchen door and sets my eggs in front of me with a smile and a wink. Only after she crosses the diner to take another table’s order do I ask Noah, “How did you know? That I spent the night with Annie, I mean.”
“Saw your truck.”
“You live on the opposite side of town.”
“Didn’t say I saw your truck.” He looks at me and grins—reminding me that this town’s meddling goes deeper than I can even imagine. “James saw it on his way out for deliveries this morning. Considering the gossip around the town that y’all have started dating and then seeing your truck down the road from my sisters’ house…it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together.”
I’m not sure whether this is good or bad. Annie confirmed she’s a virgin last night—and I’m not sure how many other people in her life know that or if it even matters to her at the end of the day. But I’m not the kind of guy you hear has been sleeping in a woman’s room and assume nothing happened. Then again, she did want to change her reputation around this town.
“Do you think James told anyone else?”
Noah stifles a laugh and gives me a face that says, you poor dipshit. “Don’t let the farmer look fool you. James is every bit the gossip that Mabel is.” He pauses and tips his head sideways and then back like he’s remembering something. “Plus there’s the fact that Tony—our sheriff—saw you climbing out of Annie’s bedroom window this morning.”
“Shit.”
“Yep.”
Speaking of James, a minute later he walks into the diner, whistling. James has the most open smile I’ve ever seen on anyone. There’s no ulterior motive to it—it’s like he’s just genuinely happy all the time. Strange.