To Professor, with Love (Forbidden Men #2)(111)

Holding her blankets up to her chin, she gaped at me from a pair of wide, water-stained eyes.

I froze as the air was pummeled from my chest. She was beautiful with long, streaming blonde hair and stunning features. It hurt to look at her.

Acid filled my stomach, and I thought I might be sick all over the floor. Tears filled the ducts in my eyes.

But he’d moved on. I was too late. He—

“Are you looking for Noel?” she asked before sniffing and wiping at her cheek. “I think...I think he’s in the living room, either sleeping on the floor or the couch. I’m not sure which.”

She seemed friendly. I couldn’t believe this girl—whom I didn’t know but hated more than everyone else on earth—would dare be friendly to me, as if she wasn’t crushing my soul into a thousand pieces. It took me a good five seconds to actually process what she’d just said.

Noel was sleeping in the living room. Not in here. Not with her.

The confusion must’ve painted my expression pretty obvious because she said, “You’re Aspen, right? I’ve heard about you. I’m Noel’s sister.”

“Caroline?” I breathed. Oh, Jesus. Oh, thank you, God. “I...oh! Well, I’ve heard about you, too.”

The relief left me dizzy and I had to reach for the doorframe and hold on to catch myself. And once again, my own overwhelming emotions kept me clueless from a few oblivious details for far too many seconds, otherwise it might not have taken me so long to realize Noel’s sister was crying...and here. Why was she here, and where were the two brothers?

“Are you okay?” I asked, stepping forward, concern for her overriding everything else.

“Yeah.” She nodded and hugged herself, dropping the sheet to reveal she was wearing one of Noel’s Ellamore Viking shirts. “I...I...no. No, I’m not okay. I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again.”

When she buried her face into her hands and dropped all pretenses of not bawling her eyes out, my heart broke for her. I crawled onto the mattress and pulled her into my embrace. As natural as breathing, she rested her head on my shoulder and accepted my solace. The smell of Noel on the sheets comforted me as I comforted his sister.

“Is it the baby?” I finally asked, smoothing her hair out of her face.

Her body shuddered as she cuddled closer to me. “There is no baby.” The hollow echo in her voice told me that was exactly what the problem was. Instead of asking what had happened, I said, “How’d you get here?”

“Noel came and got me.”

I nodded and continued to comb my fingers through her hair. I have no idea where this nurturing side of me came from, but this girl was a part of Noel, and she was hurting. I had to fix her. “Where are your younger brothers?”

“They’re sleeping in Oren’s room.” Finally, she lifted her face and blinked at me. “Does anything hurt worse than getting your heart broken?”

“I...” The diplomatic answer caught in my throat and wouldn’t come. So I went with honesty. “No, not in my experience.”

She opened her mouth to say something else, but footsteps in the hall jerked both our attentions to the doorway.

“Caroline?” Noel’s hushed voice woke every fiber of life inside me, making my muscles tense with anticipation. “Are you okay? I heard voices—” He entered the room and took a full step before seeing me. Jerking to a stop, he stared. And stared some more before rasping, “Aspen?”

I didn’t know what to say. I suddenly felt lame and insecure. When the word, “Hi,” fell from my lips in a tiny, uncertain voice, I internally winced.

“Hi,” he breathed, glancing back and forth between Caroline and me. His voice was flat when he added, “You’re back.”

I nodded, worried it had been a mistake to come here like this. “I...I came to talk to you, but...” I motioned to Caroline. “I met your sister instead.”

He turned his attention to his sister, and she scurried off the bed. “I’ll just...” She hooked her thumb toward the door. “I’ll let you two talk.”

“No.” Noel held up a hand. “You stay. We can go. You need your rest.” Tipping his face to the side, he finally seemed to notice her wet eyes. “You okay?”

She nodded and tried to wipe the evidence off her face. “Yeah. Better. With a little help from Aspen.”

When she glanced at me, I sent her a supportive smile. She started back toward the bed, so I took that as my cue to climb off it. But as we traded places, she gave me one last impulsive hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered into my ear.

I nodded, gave her a farewell smile, and turned toward Noel. He stared at me, his eyes swirling with emotion but his expression hard. Then he spun away and stalked from the room. I followed him, down the hall and to the front door. He didn’t slow down or hold out his hand for me, and that hurt. But I really couldn’t expect less, could I?

Once we were outside the apartment, the dim lights from the exterior halls showed how stiff and uncompromising his shoulders were.

He kept walking, so I kept following down the stairwell. Hurrying to keep up, I finally called, “You didn’t tell me Caroline had lost her baby in any of your messages.”

Jerking to a stop, he whirled around. We’d just reached the landing between floors, where the stairs turned. He grasped my arm and urged me toward the wall until cool brick met my spine.