9
Noah
“ARE YOU DONE yet?”
“No.”
“What about now?” I threw a daisy over the top of Laurel’s book, and when it landed on her page, she picked it up and twirled it between her fingers.
“Still no.”
“But you’ve been reading for—”
“Ten minutes?”
That was about nine minutes more than I ever liked to read, but Laurel? That was her thing, and since I was the one who’d suggested doing our homework together, I was stuck, whether I liked it or not.
“That’s enough time, right? I mean, how much more could you possibly need to read today?” I plucked the book from her hands and rolled to my back. We’d picked a sunny spot under one of the large oaks at the end of Willow Lane.
It was Laurel’s favorite place to come, because there was only one house at the end of the road—that was currently empty—and other than that, the place was secluded. Perfect for reading and relaxing, according to her.
Me, however? I was getting restless. I hated sitting still, even for ten minutes.
“Noah, give it back. I want to be finished before next class, and—”
“We only have to read to chapter twenty. You’re already up to”—I flicked through the pages of her book—“chapter twenty-five.”
She leaned over to take the book, and I dropped it to the grass to grab her arm, pulling her down over me. She landed with a cute little oomph, and her long blonde hair fell forward to curtain our faces.
“Now this is better.”
“How is it better? We have an exam tomorrow, and I need to study. You need to study.”
“I am studying.” I kissed her gently, her soft lips always so tempting. “I’m studying the shape of your mouth. The color of your hair in the sun. The way you feel squirming around on me the way you are.”
“I’m not squirming.” She planted her hands on either side of my head and pushed up from me. “I’m trying to get away from you so I can study. I need this grade if I’m going to have a chance at that scholarship.”
She was right, and suddenly I felt like a total asshole for interfering with that.
“Sorry,” I said, and reluctantly let her go. “I wasn’t thinking.” I picked up the book and handed it back to her, before settling in against the trunk of the tree.
“Don’t be sorry for wanting to kiss me.” She laughed. “That’s why I’m working so hard. I want you to be able to kiss me for the rest of my life, and you won’t be able to do that if I’m stuck here and you’re—”
I placed a finger to her lips and grinned. “What did you just say?”
She frowned, and I swear I could see the wheels in her head rewinding. Then a rosy flush hit her cheeks. Yep, there it is.
“I didn’t mean that like it sounded.”
“You didn’t? ’Cause I kind of like the idea of you and me for the rest of our lives.”
Laurel looked down in her lap as she fiddled with the edge of her book. “You do? I mean, I know we talked about going to USC together and getting out of here, but—”
“But what? You don’t think I’m going to let you go once we get there, do you?”
She raised her head so we were eye to eye.
“I’m not letting someone else have you. You’re mine, Bonnie. We go together, you and me. Forever.”
Her shy smile made my heart thump. Laurel put her book to the side and moved to her knees next to me. “Give me your keys.”
“What?”
“Your car keys. Give them to me.”
I handed them over and watched as she began to carve something into the trunk of the tree, and when she was finally done, she sat back and grinned.
“There.”
I looked at her handiwork, and when I saw what she’d written, I smiled. Bonnie & Clyde, and under that, Together Forever.
“Come here.”
Laurel nodded and closed her eyes as she moved into my arms and snuggled into me. “I don’t want to read any more.”
“No? I thought you wanted to finish the book.”
She shrugged and tipped her face up to mine. “You were right. We only have to read to chapter twenty. I was being ambitious. Overreaching, as always. I just don’t want to mess this up for us.”
“Stop worrying. You could never mess this up.”
She smiled at me, and with the sun in her hair and her blue eyes twinkling, I knew I was done. Laurel was my forever, and I knew I’d love her—always.
YEAH… FOREVER HADN’T really worked out for us, and it seemed Laurel was content to leave anything we did have well in the past.
In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever seen a woman run away from me so fast in my life. But as Laurel had shoved out the door of Dave’s Coffee House, you could all but see the cloud of dust in her wake.
Not that I could blame her—up until she’d asked about Italy, we’d slipped back into familiar territory as we tried to reacquaint ourselves with one another. There was too much history there, however, too many landmines to dodge. So it wasn’t that much of a surprise when one of them blew up in my face.
I finished off my coffee and headed back to where I’d parked my car behind the courthouse, and when I climbed inside, I pulled out my cell. For a minute I just sat there staring at the screen, trying to come up with a solution to the problem facing me.
I had one of two choices. I could say fuck it and Harry and go back to Italy, and in the process screw over my mom and siblings, giving them every reason in the world to hate me. Or I could call up Sergio, explain to him what had just gone down, and see what kind of options we had.
Honestly, it didn’t feel like I had any. It was like déjà vu: Harry blackmailing me and threatening me with something he knew I would never say no to.
He’d put me in a horrible position, one I’d never actually wanted. CEO of Chamberlin Winery? I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to carry on his legacy. Not to mention that it was so much fucking work running a business that size. Not only were you in charge of making sure the vineyard was a success, you were also in charge of the lives of the people working for you, and unless you were all in, it was a job that would make you truly miserable.
I was no stranger to hard work, so that wasn’t the problem here. The problem was that I’d have to give up my life in exchange for the one Harry had decided for me, and that was the exact same thing he’d done to me all those years ago.
Not seeing any other choice, however, I called my mom and waited for it to connect. I needed to sit down with her and see where her head was about all of this. I also wanted to know where the business was. How it was doing? It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Harry had left me a sinking ship just to be spiteful. But if that were the case, I would do everything I could to turn it around for Mom, just so he could roll over in his damn grave.
One year. That wasn’t all that long in the scheme of things, right?
“Noah?”
“Yeah, hi, Mom. Are you back at the winery or still here in town?”
“I’m back. Ryan drove me.”