“Noah?”
“Yeah.”
“Will I see you again?”
“Doubt it.”
I keep driving, aiming along roads I know will lessen the traffic on the way. She stays quiet the entire time, no words after I’ve just told her the truth of the matter. Why would I see her again? No reason to after her decision, and if Landon even gets a fucking sniff that there’s been something going on, Stefan’s arse is going somewhere I’m not prepared to send him because of my own stupidity.
The eventual sight of the small village leading to the Tallington grounds is not fucking welcome, but again, that’s something I’m just gonna have to deal with. Whatever dream we’ve been playing with is well and truly over with no return journey.
She sits up straighter when we finally get to the huge stone pillars, then pulls in some deep breaths like she’s trying to brace herself. Guess she is. The onslaught of Landon in dick mode is probably scaring the fuck out of her. Add in Ivy possibly going batshit crazy on her arse, and she’s possibly ready to jump out of this car and run again.
“You’ll be alright, Neve,” I murmur, listening to the gravel crunching under us and staring at the two security guards roaming the outlying woods. “Just tell them the truth. I’ll back you up with info.”
Her head whips to look at me. “You’re staying?”
“For a while, yeah.”
“Oh. Okay.”
That seems to calm her down a bit. Don’t know why. It’s not like I can change how they’ll react to her or make the reality of what she set in motion alter, but I guess maybe she’s just realised she’s got a friend by her side for some of it.
No one’s there to greet us when we finally pull up outside. It’s just the old building and all the manicured shit that comes with it. I get out and grab her bag from the back, waiting for her to catch up on what needs to happen. She does eventually, her eyes looking at anything but the doorway she’s got to go through.
“Neve?” She looks back at me, expectant eyes all hopeful that I might be about to say something to help her out. I’m not going to, but I’ve only got one more chance to say something before this changes. “I enjoyed us.” She pulls in a breath and smiles a bit, nodding to herself. “I mean it. Pretty sure that doesn’t mean shit to you, but it does to me. If things were different then …” What? We might talk about more than this has been? Never happening again. I tried. She chose this instead.
I shake my head and shrug her backpack onto my shoulder. “Meant something, is all. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed you.”
That earns me a small smile, something I've only got a proper look at these last few days. Makes me smile in return at the memory, eyes softening at the thought of her lying on my chest, her bare legs kicking up behind her as we drank a beer and relaxed.
“It does mean something to me. Really it does, and if you’d just-”
“No, Neve. I gave you the choice. You chose them.”
She nods, sighs, and then goes quiet again for a minute, eyes looking between me and the house. “You’ve got a nice smile, Noah Locke. You should use it more.”
“You think?”
She walks closer. “Yes, and I wish you’d just see that this could work between us.”
I back off before she gets to me and turn to look at the house. No one needs to see what might happen if I let it, certainly not anyone in this mansion. There’s nothing more to say. It’s over now, and she needs to get her princess arse back inside somewhere she’s supposed to be.
Waiting for her to walk by me, I keep my head down, refusing to look at anything about her anymore. The moment she steps over the threshold in front of me, everything I’ve been trying to tell myself turns into a riot of fucking irritations. She glides through the space like she’s been bred for it, leaving me awkward as fuck in the place as usual.
I look around and dump her bag by the main entrance, gaze taking in the height of it all, the expense and privilege, the way everything smells of money and age-old generations. Paintings line the walls as we pass by them towards the main rooms, all of them probably good enough to be in some gallery in London. It's not for me. Nothing here is for me, especially the people in it.
“Where the hell have you been?” Ivy’s voice assaults us from somewhere. I look back at Neve, watching as she braces herself and tries to stay calm. It’s not working. I can already see her shaking from here. “How dare you run off and leave us with that!”
She comes right up into Neve’s face from the other end of the hall, her finger pointing and her scowl getting more hostile by the second. “Did you do it?”
“No.”
“And yet you left him for dead and with his blood all over your hands?” She shoves Neve as if no amount of talking is going to calm her down. “He was bleeding out on the ground, dying, and you ran away like a fucking coward?”
Blake comes into the fray, his hand attempting to pull Ivy away from Neve. “Ivy, come on-”
“No, Blake.” She swings her head back to Neve, eyes like fucking daggers getting more wound up by the second. “You better have a damn good explanation for this, Neve. I swear if you-”
