Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Lu

Time floated by like a dream, and I floated with it. Weeks had passed with Noah. We'd made memories in Cozy Creek this autumn: the Fall Festival at Sutton Farms, trick-or-treating in the town square, costume contests, and pet parades downtown with the locals. We were all in with Cozy Creek and with each other.

It was early November, and the weather was changing, but things with Noah were steady. I loved our routine and all the time we were able to carve out for ourselves. The late nights in bed and sharing the same space. We grabbed drinks with Cody when he was free, and Noah joined me on Fridays at the farmers' market throughout the last month.

The part I loved about having a new relationship was how it seamlessly eased its way into comfort and domesticity. We were still getting to know each other, but there was depth and contentment. It wasn't settling but rather settling in.

Our lives were stitching themselves together. He was my best friend, and I was his. This was everything I'd ever wanted in a relationship. Someone to hold my hand as well as my heart.

Everything was great. So I wasn't sure why I was so nervous about bringing Noah to meet my family.

I'd texted my dad to check in earlier in the week, and he mentioned Ginny's upcoming return to work at the ski resort. We'd chatted for a bit back and forth, and he'd invited Noah and me over for dinner this weekend. Dad had seemed interested in meeting my boyfriend, but something about sharing the spotlight with Ginny made me feel uneasy. I'd never brought a guy home before. My last real relationship had been years ago in college, and he'd never made it back to Cozy Creek to meet my dad before we'd broken up.

Part of me worried that Ginny would make things uncomfortable or try to make me look bad in front of Noah. I hadn't confessed our turbulent history or the extent of Ginny's animosity toward me. The shameful part of me that couldn't make my stepsister like me was embarrassed. Not to mention the fact that I knew how Noah felt about maintaining unhealthy relationships.

But I was slightly reassured by the fact that she generally behaved herself in front of Kimberly and my dad.

Still, my hands fidgeted restlessly on the steering wheel of the Jeep as I drove us across town to Dad and Kimberly's house.

"Hey, so I gave Jimmy my notice."

I turned in surprise at Noah's declaration. I knew that his web design business had picked up, but I hadn't known he was this close to going it on his own. "Oh my gosh! That's amazing. I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks." Noah's grin was pleased, if a little embarrassed. He was going to need to get used to receiving compliments. He'd really put himself out there with his own business, and I was so proud of all his hard work.

I couldn't imagine showing up in a small town with nothing—no support, no friends, no place to live. But Noah hadn't shut down or backtracked. He'd moved forward and taken control.

"How did Jimmy take it?" I asked, focusing back on the road when all I really wanted to do was bail on dinner and go get celebratory tacos and margaritas.

Noah turned a little in his seat to face me. I noticed the scruff on his jaw was gone. He was clean-shaven for the first time since I'd met him. He'd taken care with the longer dark strands on the top of his head. Maybe I wasn't the only one nervous about tonight.

"He was mostly okay about it," Noah replied. "I showed him the app I built."

"The guilt app," I clarified. "The please-don't-murder-me app."

Noah laughed. "Yeah, that. He clicked around a lot before narrowing his eyes at me and saying he'd think about it while he looked for my replacement. I'm pretty sure he's going to go for it. He's called me twice since to ask questions about it. I'm fairly confident he won't put a horse head in my bed."

I snorted at that.

Peeking in the rearview mirror, I braked at the stop sign in my dad's neighborhood. Then I leaned over and pulled Noah in for a big hug. "I'm really proud of you. It's going to be great. You don't have to worry."

I felt his arms squeeze me as he let out a breath, one I thought he'd been holding for a long, long time.

I had some experience starting my own business. It involved a lot of second-guessing and fear. Impostor syndrome was real. But at some point, you had to let the results speak for themselves. If you worked hard and put in the effort to make something a success, then you had to own it when success actually came calling.

Noah had clients. Noah had so many clients, he had a waiting list of people who wanted to work with him. There would always be a little bit of fear and a voice asking if those opportunities would dry up on down the road. But that's where the work came in. And I believed that Noah could do this. Quitting Huber had been like cutting the cord on a safety net. That job had been guaranteed income and the backup parachute in his Colorado free fall. But Noah was in a good place. He could focus his energy on making Ungoliant Web Design his priority.

The site he'd built for me was amazing. Direct sales had already made an impact on my bottom line.

"Thanks, Beluga."

I smiled against the fabric of his dark jacket, wondering if he'd ever run out of Lu nicknames for me, unbearably grateful for his sweet teasing.

We spent the remainder of the drive talking about Noah's current clients and some of the cool things he was working on. I tried not to let my nerves get the best of me and really focus on what Noah was saying.

But when I pulled into the driveway and shifted the Jeep into park, Noah pried my hands off the steering wheel. "What's going on, Lu? Why are you so nervous?"

I shook my head, unable to meet his gaze. "I don't know."

"Are you . . . worried they won't like me?"

I pivoted so quickly, I thought my neck might crack. "No! God, No. That's not it at all. I'm just— It's not—" I stopped and took a deep breath and tried again. "I know how they are. And I'm just scared for you to see it."

Noah frowned, his dark eyebrows drawing together. "What do you mean?"

Sighing, I let the admission come. "I just wish things were different. We're going to go in there, and it's going to be awkward. It's never not been awkward, ever, in ten years. My dad . . . he means well. And he loves me. He just doesn't really know me anymore. And he doesn't put in a whole lot of effort. And my stepfamily will ignore you at best or try to embarrass me in front of you at worst. I don't know. I just know how you feel about me wasting my time on them and?—"

"Lu, hey." He quickly interrupted my frantic rambling. He reached for my hand and held it, drawing my attention. "I'm not judging you, or whatever you're thinking. There is nothing wrong with wishing for the family life you've always wanted. You are so positive and optimistic. If anyone could make it happen, it's you. We will go in there together and do this. Teammates, okay? It might be awkward and uncomfortable, but I won't judge you for their behavior. I'm here for you. Not them."

I nodded. Closing my eyes, I forced myself to take another deep breath.

A hand cupped my cheek and guided me closer. Noah's lips slotted themselves between mine, and he kissed me tenderly. It was a kiss of partnership. One filled with reassurance for all the words he'd just said. I returned his promise and affection, knowing that everything would be okay.

When Noah finally pulled away, he made sure to meet my eyes. His hand smoothed back the hair at my temples, and he nodded. "Good?"

"Good," I promised, feeling the truth of it settle all the restless energy I'd been fighting on the drive over.

We got out of the Jeep, and I led Noah in through the open garage door. Dad had music on, like always. It was the Joni Mitchell record I'd given him for his birthday. That knowledge helped to calm me even more.

But Dad wasn't in the kitchen when we entered. Neither was Kimberly. My stepsister, Ginny, sat on one of the barstools at the center island, looking at something on her phone. She didn't even glance up as I said hello and tension coiled. It was going to be how it always was with her.

But then my attention was diverted because I felt Noah stop moving abruptly. His hand pulled out of mine.

I glanced back over my shoulder in confusion to see him frozen on the threshold, staring forward, face stricken like he'd seen a ghost.

And that was when I heard Ginny say, "Is this, like, some kind of joke?"

Looking back and forth between a stunned Noah and an incredulous Ginny, I felt my stomach drop. Realization hadn't claimed me, but it was starting to creep in at the edges. My body got the message first and dread pooled in my belly. Something was very wrong.

Noah ran a hand across his smooth jaw as Ginny looked at me with delight. "You really brought my sloppy seconds to dinner, Luanne? Holy shit."

Kimberly and my dad chose that moment to enter the kitchen amid this tense standoff.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I could hardly breathe through my dawning comprehension.

Ginny. It was her. My stepsister was the reason Noah was in Cozy Creek. She had been the girl who'd catfished him and messed with his head. The person he thought cared about him. The reason he'd shut down his instincts and punished himself and pushed me away.

I felt sick.

Turning my back on my family, I begged, "Noah."

But he was already taking a step back in retreat, his head shaking in disbelief.

"Lu, what's the matter?" My dad's voice was concerned, but I couldn't deal with that right now.

In the next blink, Noah was out the door and gone.

Noah

Blood rushing in my ears, I took off down the driveway, bypassing the Jeep and going straight for the road.

"Noah, please!" Lu called from behind me, but I couldn't turn back.

Mortification churned in my gut. What were the fucking odds?

When I'd seen Virginia sitting in that kitchen, completely unexpected and out of context, everything had just sort of ground to a halt. My body stopped moving forward as if I'd hit a force field. Warnings blared in the back of my mind as I fought to make sense of my ex-girlfriend's presence in that house.

I had a vague recollection of Lu calling her stepsister Ginny. But the Virginia I'd known had never once mentioned a nickname or any family beyond her mom and dad. I thought she was an only child.

Part of me considered that this whole dinner might have been arranged as some sort of sick joke, but one look at Lu and I could see her putting the pieces together. The realization was stark on her pale face. No cunning or deception there. She was as blindsided as I was.

Quick shuffling footsteps reached me a moment before Lu snagged my arm and moved to block my path. "Noah, wait. I didn't know. I didn't know."

I stopped walking, but I couldn't look at her. Shame and humiliation over this fucked-up situation kept me from meeting her gaze. At the knowing I'd see there. The pity, the understanding. She'd be sorry for something that wasn't even her fault. Uncomfortable once again among her family for an entirely different reason.

"I can't talk about this right now, Lu." My voice was dead, utterly devoid of emotion. I needed to shut it all down so I could get out of here and process this on my own—figure out where to go from here.

"Okay," she agreed. "Let's go. I'll take us home."

Us.

Jesus.

Discomfort had me pulling away from her touch. Didn't she see how unbelievably messed up this was? Her stepsister was my ex-girlfriend. Her stepsister was the girl who'd tricked me and lied to me for months, for sport. She was the whole damn reason I was in this town in the first place. Virginia—Ginny—was the family that Lu was so desperate to win over.

I ran a shaking hand down my face. "I need to be alone right now."

"No," Lu begged. "Just let me take you away from here."

But I needed to be away from her, too. Couldn't she see that?

A new layer of pain and regret had just wrapped itself around my life in Cozy Creek. My presence here was a literal disaster. Lu wasn't getting it. How did we come back from something as twisted and wrong as this? I really didn't know. I needed time.

I shook my head, but Lu ignored me, reaching for my hand again. "Noah, I had no idea that Ginny was your ex."

I nodded. It was all I could manage. The words were white noise vibrating against my skull as I grew more and more agitated and overwhelmed.

"You never told me her name," she continued. "I didn't know, I swear. I never would have set you up that way."

I knew she hadn't. But I couldn't get the words out. A phantom hand gripped my throat. It wouldn't allow the words to escape, and I could hardly breathe around them.

I started walking again, but Lu clung to me and kept right on going. "I'm so sorry for what she did. I'll never forgive her. I'll?—"

"Lu!" I exploded. The swirling mass of anger and disbelief ricocheting around inside me had found an outlet. She wasn't a fair target, and I knew it. But desperation and proximity put the bullseye on her back just the same. "Just stop. I need some time. I can't think."

"But I want to help."

"I don't want you to," I snapped in irritation. Then I jerked free of her grip. "I need you to stop. Stop pushing and pushing. Just back off right now and let me go. Forcing this isn't going to make it any better."

She absorbed the words like a blow, her face stricken in the orange glow of the streetlight.

I had a moment to regret what I'd said but self-preservation won out before I could make myself fix what I'd broken.

I stepped back as her head dropped to stare at the ground beneath her ballet flats.

I opened my mouth to say . . . something. But when the words wouldn't come—when I couldn't make myself be the person she needed—I moved around her instead.

And then I walked away.

Anger at myself and Virginia and this whole ruined night fueled my steps. I needed to get away from the humiliation burning a path through me. The farther away I got from that house, the better.

I hadn't known what to expect tonight when Lu had invited me to meet her family, but it hadn't been that.

I'd wanted her to be proud and excited to introduce me to her dad and stepfamily. That was why I'd given Jimmy my notice yesterday. It was time, and I was ready to move forward in my web design business, but I'd been stalling, using Huber as a backup.

But I didn't want Lu to have to introduce me tonight as her boyfriend, the ride-share driver. I knew how much she sought her father's approval. And when you didn't believe in yourself, other people wouldn't either. So I'd made the change.

Meeting my girlfriend's family for the first time was sure to be awkward as hell, but it was important to Lu. She wanted a perfect dynamic and better relationships with these people, so tonight had been important for me, too. I'd foolishly thought I could be a bridge, some new common ground to ease the tension Lu had lived with for so long.

But fuck. There was no coming back from this. Dated one daughter who was a certifiable monster. In love with the other, who was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I'd walked away from her because I'd been too mortified over my mistakes to let her help.

What a mess.

I didn't know how far I made it before stopping at an intersection in a residential area and pulling out my phone. My breath came out in white puffs of frustration in the cold night air, and I was grateful that Lu hadn't come after me again. I couldn't think with her there. Couldn't put into perspective what a colossal fucking disaster I was when she was trying to make things right. I wouldn't be able to stand in her positive light right now, not when everything had gone to hell.

I was cold, and it was late, and my head pounded.

For the first time since coming to Cozy Creek, I called the rider request number for Huber. And ten minutes later, Jimmy pulled up in an old Chevy Impala looking like a knight in shining armor.

"Hop in, kid."