Page 209 of I Never Stopped Loving You

She places the other half of her burger on the side table, then lies down. When her head rests against my chest and I feel her against me, the rest of the world starts to fade. I slowly close my eyes letting my body calmly drift to sleep. I wasn’t feeling tired earlier, but it was like as soon as she was connected to me again, I was relaxed.

Fuck, I love this woman.

CHAPTER 89

WILLOW

ONE WEEK LATER

“Hold on. Damnit, Noah. Just wait a second,” I shout as I try to grab my purse out of the backseat of the truck, but he ignores me.

I swear, this man is hell-bent on ending up back in the hospital. He got discharged this morning and as soon as the papers were signed, he became Mr. Do it myself. He wouldn’t let the nurse or us wheel him down to the truck. He walked all the way to the elevator and out of the lobby. He got up into the truck on his own, which I personally had to nearly jump to get up into. If Jeremy wasn’t already sitting in the driver’s seat, I swear he would have driven himself home. Currently he has one small bag over his shoulder and is limping into the house.

This man is a pain in my ass, but damn it, I love him.

“I’ll grab your bags, Willow. Just get in there with him,” Jeremy says as he opens up the tailgate to grab my bag and Noah’s other one.

“Thank you,” I say quietly as I rush after Noah.

We haven’t talked more about that night in the labyrinth at all since he woke up. I never knew how much anyone could hear at the hospital or if someone would come walking in, so all of us decided to wait until we got home to discuss that night. There is one thing though that is going to come as a shock to Noah, and that is that Jenna is fully aware of everything that happened that night.

“Noah?” I call out as I walk into the house.

Not a single sound gives away where he’s at. The bag he carried in is set on the staircase, and his shoes are on the mat next to the door.

“Noah. Where are you at?”

“Kitchen,” he calls back.

When I walk into the kitchen, he’s standing just down the hallway and is staring into the laundry room. There isn’t a single trace of blood anywhere up here. The blood trail from the hidden staircase to the foyer was wiped clean, and the rags were burned in the backyard before the ashes were scattered into the river. No one will ever know except for us four.

“Noah? Are you okay?” I ask hesitantly as I take a step closer.

“I need to know what happened, Willow…Where is he?”

“Gone. Come on. Let me get you something to drink, and we can sit on the couch. Jeremy will be inside in a second and Jenna…”

“What about Jenna?”

“She…” I hesitate because from the tone in his voice, he isn’t happy.

“Jenna knows everything,” a woman’s voice calls from the hall before Jenna appears with Jeremy right behind her.

Noah snaps his attention to me. He doesn’t look angry. He looks afraid. To be honest, I am too. I’m terrified of what this means. The secret that the four of us will take to our graves…I hope.

“Hey, don’t look so shocked, big guy. I told you I accept your skeletons in your closet…I just didn’t realize there would be actual fucking skeletons.”

She walks over to Noah and places a hand on his shoulder. He’s staring at her with a look in his eyes I can’t read.

Is it fear? Irritation? Hesitation? Or relief? I get my answer when she opens her arms for a hug, and he wraps an arm around her. He’s relieved.

“Can I have a drink? Like an actual drink. I think I’m going to need it,” he says as he releases Jenna, and she steps back into Jeremy’s embrace.

Noah walks back over to me and kisses me on the head before looking back toward the laundry room as if the ghost of that night still lingers in the doorway, staring back at him. Taunting him with the cold fingers of death that nearly took him from us.

“You can have water, juice, or a protein shake. Doctor’s orders,” I say as I lean up and kiss him on the cheek before taking his hand and leading him to the couch.

“I guess a protein shake.”