RUSH (City Lights, #3)(67)

He waved his hand in front of Noah’s eyes again and my knee involuntarily bumped the table.

“Stop doing that,” I snapped.

Noah jerked his head. “Doing what?” The scowl that had been absent from his lips was back and I sort of hated Deacon for that.

“Oooh, she’s a spitfire!” Deacon laughed. “I like that. Hey, I’m just playing. Noah knows how I roll. You got a feisty one on your hands, my man.” He glanced at the window where the two friends he’d ditched were impatiently waiting. “Shit, I gotta bail.” He fished a card out of his wallet and gave it to me. “Charlotte, this is HQ’s main phone. If you want to go to the Ball—you and your plus-one” he added with a wink, “just call and tell them, and it’s a done deal. Okay?”

I knew Deacon was teasing but I didn’t feel up to humoring him. “That’s up to Noah.”

Deacon swiveled. “What’ll it be, my man?”

“I’ll think about it,” Noah said, and to my dismay, I could tell he meant it.

“Fuckin’-A,” Deacon said, and then he studied Noah for a moment again, shaking his head. “After those photos I saw of you in the hospital, bro? With your back all torn up and shit? You’re one tough bastard, but don’t go disappearing on me again, okay? I miss you, man.”

“Yeah, you too, Deacon,” Noah said dully. The scowl was gone. He sounded like someone lost in a fog.

Deacon gave me a final once over as he stood up. “Sweet Charlotte. A pleasure. Get this guy to the party, all right?” He leaned over me, and said in a stage whisper, intentionally loud enough for Noah to hear, “Make sure his pants match his jacket.”

He laughed loudly, his hand stealing a caress of my shoulder before finally leaving.

A silence fell and I was waiting for Noah to tell me how sorry he was his old friend was such a jerk, and that he wasn’t even going to think about going to that party. Instead, he turned his coffee mug around and around.

“What did he mean by the hospital photos?” he asked, his voice low.

My stomach dropped. I saw no point in deflecting so I told him the truth about the illicit cell phone pics.

“When did you see them? Before you worked for me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Are they…bad?” He snorted. “What am I saying, of course they’re bad. What else?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is there anything else floating around out there I don’t know about?”

“No. But Lucien told me you had a Camaro. In storage, in Florida. That it was the love of your life, and that you can’t bring yourself to sell it.”

“Anything else?”

“No. I promise.”

He nodded, his mouth down-turned, his eyes hidden behind the glasses.

“Are you angry with me?” I asked.

“No, babe,” he said. “Three months ago, yeah, probably. But that would’ve been unfair anyway. The photos are out there. Nothing I can do about it. And my car…” He pursed his lips in a wistful smile. “Not much I can do about that either.”

I reached over and gave his hand a squeeze.

He raised my fingers to his lips. “Let’s get out of here.”

I ushered Noah out of the restaurant after giving Anthony a hug good-bye and a promise to call him later.

We walked back to the townhouse in silence, and the silence stretched throughout the rest of the day, with Noah only speaking a handful of distracted words to me. He’d taken off the sunglasses, and I could see his eyes were full of thoughts, thoughts that he wasn’t sharing with me.

That night, we lay on his bed and I read from The Origin of Silence by Mendón. Noah lay on his back, his gaze cast up, his hands laced behind his head.

“Eduardo pressed on the stone and wasn’t surprised when the rock shifted, a door opening on a black chamber. Eduardo took a step and Sara clutched his arm. ‘Don’t.’

“He touched her cheek. ‘I can’t go back and I can’t stay here. Come with me.’”

I shut the book with a snap, and Noah—finally—turned his face to me.

“Charlotte?”

“Not in the mood for it, I guess.”

Noah turned on his side towards me, and for the first time since Annabelle’s, I felt he was really with me. “I’m sorry I’ve been out of it all day. Hearing Deacon talk about Planet X and Yuri—my old editor—and all of our friends…Hell, just hearing Deacon’s voice… It was like being catapulted back in time and I’ve been submerged in memories ever since.”

“Understandable,” I said, my fingers flipping the pages of the book, making them flutter. “Are you going to go to that party?”

“You don’t want me to. I can hear it.”

“I don’t like Deacon. I’m sorry, but I don’t, and the whole idea of that Global Ball, or whatever it is, makes me nervous. For you.”

“I’m sorry Deacon was an ass to you. He’s a good guy, actually, but he comes on strong.”

“A lot strong. And I didn’t like the way he talked about your blindness. Is everyone at the party going to be like that? Just so…crude?”

Noah shrugged. “Maybe. But I can take it. I have to take it, and move on. Isn’t that the end game?”