Unknown (The Secret Life of Cassie Martin #1)(13)

Maybe he’s not as perceptive as I thought. What do I say? I don’t want company, but it’s not like I can tell him to go away. At least the guys I’ve met so far today have been decent.

“Please sit wherever you are most comfortable.” I try to be as formal as possible. If I’m not overly friendly, he might stop talking to me.

“Thanks. I’m Noah.” He sits down and turns his chair to face me. No luck on him ignoring me.

“Cassie.” One-word answers might clue him in.

“I just want to warn you that Mindy is going to be forced to apologize to you. She claims she just bumped into you as you were bending over, but several people saw her actually push you. You can probably get her kicked out if you wanted to.”

Why is he telling me? These people confuse me.

“How do you know that?” I turn to face him and study him. Noah has a square jaw, his thick eyebrows darker than his hair.

“I know things, or at least, I have a way of finding them out.” When he shrugs, his broad shoulders stretch the thin material of his white t-shirt. “After I heard what happened, I decided to check on the situation. This place can be challenging enough without someone purposely making it harder.”

Noah avoids answering my question, so I take a different route. I’ll loop back around to question one in a minute. “Do you help out all the new kids this way? Why would you want to tell me all this? I’m guessing this isn’t your first year here, so you must know Mindy. You don’t know anything about me. You may be throwing your hat into the wrong ring.” Growing up, I had a tendency to avoid all things male, so having four guys intercede on my behalf makes me weary.

“I’ve never liked Mindy. She picks one person to be her target each year. Most people are afraid of her, or at least of her dad. He doesn’t have any pull, but new kids don’t know that. Kelly was going to put a stop to it this year, but until the pool, you seemed to be taking care of it yourself.” Pride and awe fill his voice.

I try one more tactic to get him to open up about his source of knowledge. “Did Kelly tell you what the plan was for Mindy? Not just for Mindy’s treatment of new kids but specifically for apologizing to me?”

Noah’s narrow lips kick up on one side, not fooled by my bid for more information. “Would you accept that I’ll tell you more tomorrow? We’re going to run out of time tonight. People will start coming in for dinner in about ten minutes.”

I read a book on tells and lying once, and he doesn’t display any of those signs.

“Agreed, but I want to know everything tomorrow. I’m tired of being in the dark around here.” I instantly regret adding that last part; I didn’t mean to acknowledge it out loud.

“You’ll find out so much tomorrow your head will hurt.” He winks at me as if he knows a secret but isn’t ready to share it yet. Such a tease.

“My head hurts now from all of this, but we’ll see tomorrow. I may ask you so many questions, you’ll think I’m a two-year-old.” I don’t understand why, but I want him to like me. Being nice is the best way to accomplish that.

“Now, that that’s settled. What were you going to look up before I rudely interrupted you?” Noah’s voice lightens now. Is it because of the change of subject, or because I agreed to not harass him anymore tonight?

“Just checking out the flora and fauna of the area. I don’t want to step into any poison oak on accident.” That wasn’t so hard. I didn’t lie to him either.

Noah leans forward, his elbows on his knees. “If you want to know about that stuff, you should check with Jay. He knows this area like the back of his hand.”

My hand flies to my mouth to hold back the laughter. “Jay’s the one who tried to get me covered in poison oak earlier today.” I shake my head at the memory. My introduction packet is probably still sitting in the weeds.

“Jay wouldn’t do that.” Noah shakes his head, his blond hair flopping over his forehead. “I’d say I’d kick his ass, but that will never happen. Do you want me to talk to him?”

“He didn’t really do anything. I was trying to read the rules packet we received, and he told me I didn’t need it. He swiped it from my hand and threw it into the poison oak. He warned me not to grab for it because of where it was.” Now, I’m defending Jay. Not that I shouldn’t defend him, but it confuses me since we only met today.

“That sounds more like him.” He leans back in his chair, one arm propped on the back. “You don’t need the rules. I don’t know anyone that’s actually read them.”

Noah’s relaxed posture means he intends to stay, so my plan to review the area won’t work. Not having the packet limits my understanding of the rules to know where the boundaries are. I might as well spend the rest of our time talking to him. If I ask the right questions, I’m bound to learn something.

As I open my mouth to ask a question, voices from across the room reach us. People arrive and get in line for dinner.

Noah stands and offers me his hand. “We should go claim the table we want before they’re all taken.”

I planned on eating with Fallon and the girls, but Noah’s offer works well enough. Grabbing my melted bag of ice and water bottle from the desktop, I put my hand in his and let him pull me up. “Do people claim tables here?”