“I’ll always be here for you, Hannah. I promise, we’ll get throughthi.”
“I believeyou.”
After a few minutes, her breathing grew heavy. I laid there, holding her and staring up at the ceiling. I’d never let a girl get close enough to fall asleep on me. I fucked them and left them. Every single time. Not Hannah. There was something so intimate about holding her like that, something so vulnerable in the way she trusted me enough to fall asleep on my chest. I loved that I was safe to her. Moments like that were what life was about. I knew that more than anyone, because I’d missed out on so many of those moments. Sometimes you just want somebody to holdyou.
Sometimes that’s all youneed.
She was all Ineeded…
26
Hannah
It had been a week since I’d stayed at Noah’s for the first time, and I’d stayed there nearly every night since. The only time I felt okay was when I was with him. It didn’t mean that I forgot that Momma was sick, or that I accepted the fact that I would lose her, but when I was with him I didn’t have to pretend to be as strong, and I could fall asleep because I wasn’talone.
I was finishing up my shift at the hospital, gushing at the picture of us he’d sent along with thetext:
Miss you so muchI had to write a song foryou.
“What is that smile about?” Meg asked, rounding the corner and placing a lab kit on thecounter.
“Nothing.” I closed out of my messages and dropped my phone in the front pocket of myscrubs.
“Again, I’m offended that you think you can just lie to me like that. Some preacher’s daughter you are.” She sighed. “Come on. What’d loverboydo?”
“Nothing.”
“Look, if you want him to win over my cold black heart, you better start spilling. I mean the two of you aren’t bumping uglies, so I’m not sure what the hell you’redoing!”
“We just…talk.”
“Yep, no idea what that’slike.”
“DearGod.”
“I’m just saying, something’s messed up here. He has a bad reputation and yet… you’re still one with yourhymen.”
I laughed. “You are soeloquent.”
“I know. It’s a gift.” She walked behind me, playing with my hair. “Come on, humorme.”
“Fine, he said he wrote me asong.”
“Oh, now that”—she pointed at me with a wide grin—“that’s brownie points! Sappy as shit, but absolutely swoon-worthy.”
I smiled. “Right?”
She batted her lashes and sighed. “Imagine if he sang it to you at the bar, broken hearts would be left shattered all over the floor, and there you’d stand, the Virgin Hannah at the feet of Noah Greyson, former manwhore of theyear.”
“Wow. You didn’t snowball that oranything.”
Dr. Robbins stepped behind the nurses’ station and leaned over one of the computers. Meg tilted her head, and I watched her gaze land on hisbutt.
“Alright, well, I’m out. I’m taking Momma toJudy’s.”
She glanced at me. “Gonna catch up on Rockford’sgossip?”
“Is there a choice when you’re there?” I walked to the time clock on the far wall and swiped mybadge.
