About twenty minutes after Noah goes into the other room with April, Heather gets a call from one of the women who works at the shelter, and she steps outside to take it.
I grab a handful of potato chips and head off in the direction Noah and my niece went, on my way to rescue him if need be. I find them both in the family room, sitting at a little pink table that once belonged to Heather and me. Noah’s back is to me, and April hasn’t noticed me enter the room yet either, so I stand off to the side for a bit and watch the two of them.
“Okay, you’re going to have to start over again,” Noah is saying. “The mountain rescue dog is named Everest. That makes sense. But then there’s another dog named Rocky, right? But he has nothing to do with mountains?”
“No! Rocky is the recycling dog,” she declares.
“Ah, okay.” He nods seriously, his brows furrowed as if he’s working hard to retain it all. “But why is he named Rocky? Why wouldn’t they name him something like, I don’t know… Eco?”
“Rocky is a better name,” April says, as if it’s an empirical fact.
Noah shrugs, a grin tugging at his full lips. “Fair enough.”
“There are other dogs too.” April is in her element, clearly loving having a rapt audience. “I haven’t even told you about Sky yet. Her vest is pink.”
“And pink is your favorite color.”
She gasps. “How did you know that?”
“Lucky guess,” he murmurs, chuckling.
Watching them interact, and seeing this side of Noah, makes something in my chest ache in a pleasant way. I bite my lip as a sudden rush of emotion wells up in me, then clear my throat and step forward. April catches sight of me and leaps to her feet, running over to give me a hug. Noah glances up and flushes, then stands and walks over.
“We were just having a tea party and talking about the complicated world of Paw Police.”
“It’s called Paw Patrol,” April corrects him.
“Right.” He nods. “Paw Patrol. My bad.”
“It’s an honest mistake,” I say with a smile. He smiles back, and it’s an easy, happy expression that nearly knocks me off my feet. “But you two better put away the tea party for now. Grandma is about to bring the cake out, and if you keep having all these sweets, you’ll spoil your real dessert.”
“The cookies aren’t real, Auntie Margo,” April tells me.
“Yeah.” Noah holds his hands up. “And I didn’t even put cream or sugar in my tea, so I haven’t spoiled anything.”
He and April grin at one another, and I laugh, then send her to wash up before we have cake and ice cream.
Noah and I walk into the dining room, where my brother Josh has apparently been hiding out for the entirety of the party. He’s sitting at the edge of the table, chatting with my dad, and he offers me a wave when he sees me. I wave back and come to sit on his right side just as my dad gets up to go help my mom in the kitchen. Noah sits down next to me and introduces himself to Josh.
Josh is definitely the least social of all my siblings, so I’m surprised how easily he chats with Noah as my mom and dad reappear with bowls and tubs of ice cream in tow.
Is there anyone on earth this man can’t charm?
That thought makes me grin to myself as I scoop ice cream into bowls for the party guests. All that time I spent trying to resist the pull I felt toward Noah was pretty much an exercise in futility. I never meant to fall for him, but he made it impossible not to.
A few minutes later, everyone gathers to sing “Happy Birthday” to Josh, who flushes bright red but takes it like a champ. Once we’ve finished our cake and ice cream, I take the opportunity to pull Noah away from the party, leading him into the hall and up the stairs.
“Where are we going?” he asks.
“I want to show you something.”
On the second level of the house, I jump up and grab hold of a string that’s hanging down from the ceiling. The hidden door to the attic comes loose, and I pull down the rickety ladder.
“Let’s go,” I say, heading up the ladder before anyone can see me and Noah sneaking away. He follows hot on my heels, and once we’re inside the attic, I pull the ladder up behind us and shut the door.
“Whoa,” he murmurs, looking around the room. “This is not what I expected.”
The space is just like I remembered it. There isn’t enough room for us to stand upright, but we can walk around with our backs bent. There’s a worn out sofa pushed to one side of the room, a shag carpet on the floor in front of it, and two beanbags. Behind the couch is a small, circular window that looks out at the front lawn, and on the floor by the couch is a lamp with a purple tinted bulb inside. I pull the cord, and even though it’s decades old, the damn thing turns on.
“I swear, we’ve never changed this bulb in our lives,” I tell Noah. “I honestly think this lamp might be magic or something, because it always turns on. No matter how long it’s been.”
He grins wryly. “I take it you used to spend a lot of time up here with you siblings?”
“Oh, yeah.” I sigh, sitting on the couch. “This was our unofficial clubhouse of sorts. Heather and I would come up here when we wanted to talk about boys or just get away from our brothers if they were bugging us. Other times, the boys would call dibs, and they’d come up to play with Legos and stuff. After Sebastian died, Derek ended up sleeping up here for nearly a year. He and Sebastian used to share a room, and he didn’t like sleeping in there alone after we lost him, so he came up here every night instead.”
Noah sits down on the couch next to me, tucking me close against his side. “This room does sound a little magical. I’m honored that you trusted me enough to bring me here.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve proven your worthiness today.” Tilting my face to look up at him, I reach up and remove the little tiara from Noah’s head. His eyes flare wide, and he blushes.
“Shit. Has that been on my head this whole time?”
I smirk. “Maybe.”
“Oh my god, I can’t believe you let me sit there eating cake with your mom and didn’t tell me!”
“It was cute,” I say, putting up my hands in defense. “And it’s not like anyone thought you were wearing it as a fashion statement. Everyone knows April made you wear it. She loves giving people things to wear. Last Christmas, she tied a massive ribbon around Josh’s neck and made him keep it on the entire day.”
Noah snorts. “Yeah, that sounds about right. She seems like a kid who’s good at getting what she wants. I mean, how do you say no to that adorable little face?”
“I know.” I shake my head ruefully. “That’s how she gets you. Heather told me that April almost convinced her to have another baby just by pouting about it and giving puppy-dog eyes for long enough.”
“That’s power.” Noah whistles low. He rests his head against mine, idly stroking my hair. “You mentioned something about April’s dad once. He’s not in the picture?”
“No,” I say, my tone darkening a little. “Absolutely not.”
“Oh.” He grimaces. “I see.”
“Sorry.” I sit up with a sigh. “I just—I don’t like to talk about him. He was a really awful person. Or, he might still be an awful person, I don’t know anything about his life these days. Heather has no contact with him whatsoever, which is for the best.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, reaching for one of my hands. “We don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”
“No, that’s okay.” I thread my fingers through his, brushing my fingertips over his knuckles. “I can talk about it. It’s just been a while since that man has even crossed my mind. And I fucking hate him.”
“What happened?”
I blow out a breath. “He and Heather got married after only dating for a few months. It started off good, and then everything changed. He got a job in this little town in Montana a few weeks after the wedding, so they packed up the car and headed out west. We kept in touch pretty well at first. She kept telling me how happy she was, and that Steven was giving her everything she could ever want. Then she got pregnant, and I asked if I could come out to visit her. She said no, and she started pushing me away for reasons I didn’t understand. But now I know why. She didn’t want me to come around because she didn’t want me to see her bruises, or to hear him shouting insults at her.”
“Fuck.” Anger passes over Noah’s handsome features.
“He was abusing her,” I go on. “Even after he found out she was pregnant, he didn’t stop. Still, Heather was afraid to leave him. It wasn’t until after she had April that she realized she needed to get out of there. She didn’t want him to hurt her child like he was hurting her. At that point, he had managed to cut her off from almost all of her friends and family, but she reached out to me. That’s when I learned the truth about everything that had been going on.”
I fall quiet for a moment or two, and Noah releases a heavy exhale, shaking his head. “I can’t even imagine how terrified she must’ve been.”
“It was awful. She had no job. No money. The day her ex-husband found out she had gone, he canceled all her credit cards, so she had nothing except whatever small amount of cash she had on her when she left. That’s how she ended up on the street for a couple days, and then in a shelter for a while.”
“So that’s why she cares so much about that women’s shelter in town,” Noah murmurs.
“Exactly. She’s seen firsthand how those shelters can literally save lives, just by providing women and children with a warm place to sleep for the night. You should hear some of the stories of the women who come through that shelter. They’ve had to overcome such horrible things, but they are all so strong. And Heather? She’s the strongest person I know. She would’ve kept fighting until her dying breath to keep April safe.”
“I believe it.” Warmth gleams in Noah’s eyes. “If she’s anything like you, then I totally believe she wouldn’t give up.”
I give him a shaky smile, then glance down at the worn shag carpet. He’s more right than he knows. Heather didn’t give up on April, and I didn’t give up on Heather, which is how between the two of us, we managed to get her and her daughter out of a bad situation.
Even though I had to break the law to do it.
Very few people in the world know about what I did, and I hesitate for a moment, unsure if I’m ready to tell Noah. But I trust him, and I want him to know me. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
“Do you remember when you brought me home from that root canal, and you said that while I was loopy, I told you a secret?” I ask quietly.
Noah looks totally confused by the random question, but he nods anyway. “Uh, yeah, I remember.”
“Well, I got so freaked out when you said that, because I thought I might’ve accidentally told you something really bad. Something that almost nobody knows.”
Surprise registers on his face, almost like he didn’t think I was capable of doing anything bad. His eyes bounce between mine as if he’s trying to read my thoughts, but before he can ask, I answer his unspoken question.
“I stole some money,” I confess, getting the worst part of the story out in the open first. “Actually, I stole a lot of money. I was working as a personal assistant at the time, for this rich prick named Nathaniel Osborn, and he had so much damn money, he would just toss it around without a care in the world.”
My stomach starts to twist itself up in knots, and I plow ahead before I can lose my nerve.
“So I did a little finagling,” I whisper. “Changed around some numbers on a few forms, made it seem like he had spent a little bit more money on this, a little bit more on that. Then I pocketed about twenty thousand dollars and quit. I used the money to bring Heather home and to help her get back on her feet.”
Noah’s been watching me closely, and when I finish speaking, he untangles his fingers from mine and shifts his weight on the couch to face me more fully.
“Margo…”
He trails off, and my stomach clenches even tighter.
“Before you say anything,” I tell him. “I just want you to know I understand that I did something wrong. I did something illegal, and I have to live with that for the rest of my life. But you also have to know that I don’t regret doing it, and that I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. That’s how much I care about Heather and April, and if this is something you can’t get past… well… I don’t know what to say, because I’m not apologizing for it.”
I may sound confident as I blurt the words out, but in truth, I feel like I’m going to throw up. I wait in nerve-wracking suspense as Noah seems to take all of this in, twisting my fingers together on my lap.
Then a gentle, affectionate smile breaks out across his face, and he trails his fingertips down the side of my cheek.
“You shouldn’t regret a thing,” he tells me, cupping my jaw. “You did what you had to do to take care of your family, to protect your sister, and I would never judge you for that.” He leans in and brushes his lips softly against mine. “You’re the best person I know, Margo Lucas.”
His words land right in my heart, filling a space I didn’t even realize was empty until now. I let out a little noise against his lips, fisting the front of his shirt to bring him closer. He kisses me again and again, and when we can’t seem to get as close as we want like this, he tugs me onto his lap, sliding his tongue into my mouth to dance with my own.
He knows.
He knows my worst secret, my biggest pride and my biggest shame all rolled into one. And he isn’t judging me for it. He isn’t running for the hills. He’s kissing me like he never wants to stop, and god, I don’t want him to either.
I can feel him hardening beneath me, and I can’t stop myself from rubbing against him, grinding my clit against the thickening length of his cock through our clothes.
“How soundproof is this room?” he murmurs thickly, breaking our kiss to draw my earlobe into his mouth.
He nibbles at the sensitive skin, and my eyelids flutter.
“Soundproof enough. Plus, everyone else is on the first floor. Just don’t make me scream too loud.”
“No promises,” he teases, sliding his hands down to palm my ass. Then he groans. “Fuck. I don’t have a condom. I forgot to replace the one in my wallet last time I used it.”
He pulls back, grimacing, but I don’t get off his lap. My fingers slide through the hair at his temples, and my heart flutters as he looks up at me.
“Noah,” I whisper. “I’m on the pill.”
“You are?” His eyes bounce between mine. “Since when?”
“Since we got back from Dallas.” I swallow. “I didn’t mention it because I wasn’t sure I was ready to go without protection. I know you said you’re clean and tested, and I am too. I just… wasn’t quite ready.”
He nods. “I get that.”
“But…” I bite my lip, so many emotions filling my chest, mixing with the ever-present desire for this man. “I think I’m ready now.”
