Chapter 476 Chapter 476
He paused in step and looked at the plate then back to her. He’d forgotten to eat. Again. He nodded, “thanks,” he looked at the clothes bunched up in his arms, “I’ll just drop this off in my room.” He took long strides to his room and basically tossed them in the door and then closed it. She’d made eye contact with him, and he couldn’t get back fast enough to see if she did it again. As he reached the kitchen, the image of Julian teasing him popped into his head. He wasn’t like that, he’d never been like that, distracted by relationship—things.
He was both pleased and shocked that she was still in the kitchen when he walked in. She’d sat at the table and put his plate on it as well. His cat was alert now. Were they the only ones up?
“You disappeared when dinner was ready.” She said quietly.
Noah took the long way around the counter to get to that end of the table. “Yeah, I, uh, went over to Blair’s to ask about bricks to make a firepit.”
Her expression didn’t change one way or the other. “Did he have any?”
Noah sat down in the chair across from her and slid his plate closer. “Yeah, he had some, then we got distracted doing things in the new houses.”
“Everyone must be excited about them.”
He nodded, even though he had no idea. He knew Blair was thrilled to get some of the people out of the house. He focused on his plate for a second. House. He had to talk to her about the house. Set that straight. He took a bite and then chewed it fast because it burned his tongue. Pushing back from the table, “listen, I wanted to talk to you,” he went to the fridge.
“I need to speak to you too.”
He grabbed a bottle of water and then closed the door. “Okay.” He took the cap off and had a big enough drink that it stopped the pain on his tongue. What could she need to speak with him about? He tried to read her thoughts from her expression and couldn’t. Why he’d suddenly think he could figure out what a woman was thinking, he had no idea. Going back to the table he sat down.
“You go first.” She said and then clasped her hands on the table and looked at him.
Noah picked up his fork and then looked at her, she didn’t look mad or upset. Turning his attention to the plate, he stabbed the closest thing on the plate. She wasn’t mad or upset, so that was good, right? He chewed and then swallowed it before he looked back at her. “When, uh, when I said you and Aspyn should move into the little house,” she held his look with a patient expression on her face, which made him nervous all over again, “I didn’t—well, I meant that-that I was thinking I would too.” He sucked in a breath and continued before he changed his mind, “I mean I could stay in one of the little rooms, you and Aspyn can have the big one,” he shrugged, “I don’t-don’t need a lot of space really—” She smiled at him and then nodded, and he just stopped talking. What did that mean?
“That’s part of what I wanted to talk to you about,” she motioned to the plate, “please finish your meal and then we’ll talk about it.”
Noah nodded, even though inside his head he was screaming. How was he supposed to eat when he had no idea what she wanted to say? Part of what she wanted to talk about? Like what part? What else did she want to talk about? He stabbed something with his fork. And why was she sitting there looking so calm? What had she talked about with Kobie and Shaelan? What did they tell her? As he chewed, he glanced her way and then looked away again. She was sitting there looking so patient and-and calm. He’d already thought calm, but it was true.
She laughed softly and he jerked his chin up to look at her, “I can almost see the monologue scrolling across your forehead, Noah.”
He almost reached to touch his forehead like it was happening. “Just thinking.” He mumbled and then took another bite.
“I can see that, and you can stop panicking, nothing bad is going on.” Emersyn put her elbows on the table and leaned her chin on her hands. “Promise.”
He noticed she said it the way she did when she told her daughter the same thing, but just nodded and took another bite. When he first sat down, he wanted to eat slowly and spend a few minutes with her before attempting to sleep—now he wanted to hurry so he could find out what she wanted to talk about.
“Did you,” he almost choked as he swallowed and had to take a drink to recover, “did you have a good day?”
“I did.” She glanced around the room, “it was odd not having to chase Aspyn down for bed though.”
“She’s probably being spoiled over there.” Was that an encouraging thing to say?
“I’m sure she is.”
He looked at her for a second and then nodded. What made him think he could stay in a house with her? He couldn’t even come up with enough conversation while he ate.
“I could make you something else if you’re still hungry.”
He blinked, he’d been sitting here staring at her and not even realizing it. Looking down he saw his plate was empty and didn’t remember eating most of it. “Um, no. I’m good.” He stood up and picked up the plate. Going over to the sink, he rinsed it off and then went to open the dishwasher when her hand touched his to stop him.
“They’re clean, just leave it in the sink.”
He almost dropped it in the sink and winced at how loud it sounded. She was slow to move her hand from his and he had to fight the urge to grab her hand and put it back. Being touched freaked him out, but with her, he found he wanted to feel the warmth of her touch.
“I was going to go out and get some fresh air,” she looked up at him, “I’m getting better about being inside, but just knowing I can go out—” she shrugged.
He nodded, then stopped because he just kept doing it like an idiot. “It’s cool out there, you should grab your jacket.”
Her smile was slow as she looked up at him. “I wanted you to come with me.”
Again, the only response he could navigate was to nod. He motioned to the door off the kitchen. Fresh air might help to restore his brain to fully functioning again.
“I’ll get my jacket.” She looked down at his feet, “you should get your boots at least.”
Noah looked down at his bare feet and frowned. “I’ll be right back.”