Still, I didn’t want to miss the final game of the indoor season.
West pulled into the parking lot three minutes after the game started. My fuzzy pink dice swinging dangerously from the rearview window.
“We made good time,” I said, dropping out of the passenger seat and hurrying around to the driver’s side to grab my bag from the back.
West stepped out next to me. “Before you go.” He snagged my arm, pulling me toward him.
“I don’t have time.”
“I know,” he said as he pushed my back against the SUV.
My heart rate accelerated as he took control of my body. His lips descended on mine, and I gave in, wrapping my arms around his neck and letting him kiss me breathless. He was distracting me from my nerves in the same way I’d done for him in New York City. He could kiss me here without anyone around to see.
And I wanted this. God, I wanted this.
The kiss turned feverish, and for one delirious moment, I wondered if we had time for a quickie in the parking lot. It couldn’t possibly happen. Not with the game beckoning. But it was a glorious fantasy.
“West,” I groaned.
“I know. I know. You have to go.”
“I really do.”
And then I kissed him again for good measure.
The crunch of gravel under feet should have been the indication that someone was getting nearer, but I was lost to West’s lips.
It wasn’t until a throat cleared and someone said, “Nora?” that I pulled back.
I’d know that voice anywhere.
“August?” I gasped in surprise.
He froze, looking between me and West in shock. He saw straight through what was happening here. West’s arm was still around my waist. My back braced against the SUV. I stumbled forward.
I didn’t have to justify myself. August had hurt me in the worst way possible. He’d demolished my heart and then kept right on rolling over it. He had no right to look at me as if I were the person doing something wrong.
“What are you doing here?” I forced out.
“I…I came to talk to you.” He glanced back toward the indoor facility. “I knew you’d be at the championship game.”
“And why would you think I’d want to talk to you? I told you that I didn’t want to see you anymore. Multiple times actually.”
He nodded. His eyes shifting to West, who still had said nothing, and back to me. “Can we have a moment…alone?”
“That doesn’t sound like a good idea,” I said at the same time West growled, “No.”
I put my hand on his chest to stop him. I could handle this. I could handle August.
“I said all I needed to say to you. Go back to your fiancée,” I said with venom in my voice.
He swallowed. “I see.”
“I don’t think you do. I’m not the same girl that you abused, August,” I told him.
“Abused?” he asked in a straggled gasp. “Nora, I would never…”
“The woman said what she said,” Weston said.
“Why don’t you stay out of this?” August snapped at him.
“I don’t think I have to do that. You heard her.” West straightened to his considerable height and crossed his arms over his chest. “She doesn’t want anything to do with you.”
August looked ready to argue, but since when did he fight for what he wanted? When had he ever fought for me? No, he gave me one more pleading look and then slunk away.
“I have no idea what that was about.”
West shook his head. “He’s up to something.”
“Well, whatever it is, I don’t want any part of it.”
“Good,” he said, pressing a kiss to my hair.
I wasn’t sure he even realized that he’d done it. How intimate it was. It wasn’t about sex…or anything with our little fling. It was just what he’d wanted in that moment. I glanced up at him, and my stomach flipped at the look still on his face. The one that said he’d do anything to keep me from being hurt by that ass again.
But who was going to protect my heart from him?
23
Weston
A few days later, my fingers flew across the piano. I was lost in the music, humming the lyrics I’d put to my beat. It wasn’t something that Cosmere would ever sing. Those were exclusively Campbell’s songs, but this was something else. Something important to me.
And something I could currently drive all my anxiety about said band into.
“I like that,” a voice said from behind me.
I cut off playing and found Nora in the doorway to my music room. She was in a white dress with green flowers on it and nude high heels. She leaned her hip against the doorframe and crossed her arms. She’d been swamped with work, and I’d hardly seen her since the championship.
“You’re home early,” I noted.
“Tessi started full-time yesterday. She told me to take the afternoon off,” she explained as she walked over to my upright piano.
“Thank God for Tessi.”
I reached for her, pulling her down into my lap. She laughed but settled into place as I played the simplified chords of the song.
“You’ve played that for me before, haven’t you?”
“I have.” I pressed a kiss into her shoulder. “It’s your song.”
She startled. “My song?”
“Uh-huh,” I said, moving smoothly up the keys and then back down. “I call it ‘Nora’s Melody.’ ”
Her cheeks flushed. “I didn’t know I had my own melody.”
“Just something I’ve been working on.”
All the tension left her body, and we sat there, not speaking. I let the music speak for itself. Said all the things about her that I couldn’t get into words. The things that were too tangled up with the fact that I was going back to LA. And that we had an expiration date. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I couldn’t stop writing about her.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, swiping at her eye. “I’ve never had a song written about me. Does it have lyrics?”
I shrugged. “Something I’m still working on. The keys are easier for me than words. I’ve always understood the music.”
“I can tell. It almost doesn’t need words.”
I moved back up the keys as I came toward the conclusion. When I landed on middle C, the note long and mournful, I pulled my hands back and wrapped my arms around her.
“Can we stay like this?”
She dropped her head back and tilted it to look at me. “If only.”
I drew her mouth to me, pressing down firmly. “What’s your plan for today? A whole afternoon off.”
“I’m not sure. I was thinking of going to see Apple.”
I blinked at her. “Apple?”
She laughed. “She owns the nursery I frequent. She’s probably confused as to why she hasn’t seen me in months.”
“Of course you’re on a first-name basis with the nursery owner.”
“You’d like her.”
“I think you’re right.”
“You could come with me.”