Page 126
“I’m his mom, I should protect him,” she mumbles.
“Baby, your family does a great job doing that,” I remind her. “I can leave tonight for Anaheim happy to know that you’re perfectly safe. Something in Zayn’s mind is on red alert. To be fair, Alastair, Dray, and I are big fuckers. He’s right to be a little apprehensive. I would say it’s also healthy. I kind of hate that it’s toward us.”
“Gotta earn it,” she murmurs as we walk. “Here’s some back story. Arran recently learned where we live, and that’s because I had a migraine that knocked me on my ass during Zayn’s birthday this year. For the past two years, he’s walked us three blocks away if he’s been carrying my groceries and I went the rest of the way alone with Zayn.
“I’m a single mother who isn’t stupid. Even now, only Arran knows where I live outside of my family. It’s very possible that Zayn has retained some of my paranoia.”
“I don’t think you’re paranoid,” I say automatically. “You’re careful. It’s going to take effort on our part to gain his trust. That’s okay.”
“Did you think it was just you?” she asks, hiding her face.
“Are you laughing at me?” I ask, my hand moving from her shoulders to swat her ass.
Her squeal is loud, and I chuckle as I hug her. I don’t fucking care if people look.
“Yeah, I am. It’s not just you. Zayn watches everyone when we’re doing our errands, weighing their words and intentions. As he gets older, I think he’s going to be very outspoken when he faces injustice. I have a feeling I’m going to be in the principal's office often,” she explains.
“If things were different, he’s basically you,” I realize. “You don’t like to make waves because it makes things harder, but he is so well loved, he doesn’t have to think about that.”
“If something happens, we ride at dawn,” she agrees. “I’m getting better at advocating for myself with doctors, but the world is harder to manage for me. Hell, I know I can even do it for Zayn.”
Not once has Noor really cringed at us causing waves together. I complained to the manager about the waitress’ insensitivity, and she took that in stride. The bathroom incident is something else she laughed off, and now here she is walking with me, not realizing that people are smiling here and there as they watch us talk.
We’re just two people on a date, and I’m utterly infatuated with her. It’s not the attention that embarrasses her. It’s worrying about what people think in regards to her chronic illnesses.
My hope is that one day, she’ll be able to confidently tell the world to fuck off for herself, not just for her son.
“Where are you parked?” I ask. “My hotel is around the corner, not that we’ll be sleeping there tonight.”
“You’re leaving for your next city?” she confirms, pointing in the direction where I expect she parked.
“Mmhmm, and we’ll be back next week. The cool thing is that we have a Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off from games at the beginning of December. We’ll fly out Tuesday afternoon for Denver so we’ll be fresh for practice, but have more time to spend with you and Zayn,” I explain.
I’m beginning to feel anxious as I get closer to saying goodbye, and I slide my fingers into her hair as I devour her lips.
“I don’t want to let you go yet,” I breathe, my nose rubbing against hers. “Why am I like this?”
“Drive me home,” she murmurs. “You’ll have to take a cab home…”
“Done,” I grunt, snapping her purse open as if it’ll tell me its secrets. “How do you find anything in here?”
Her smile tells me I’m being silly and she lifts the pen light hanging from the handle.
“I have two bags,” she says, turning the light on. I nod, listening as if there’s going to be a test on this. Noor isn’t one to babble. If she’s telling me something, it’s important. “One is a big tote, and the other is a mini backpack, but they both have flashlights and fans permanently attached to them. Otherwise I won’t find shit. My keys are always in this pocket.”
She plucks them out and hands them to me, but I still get a good glance at how organized the bag is. Damn, her entire life is here.
I help her into the passenger side seat and then come around and turn on the car. Noor pushes a couple of buttons on her phone’s GPS and then sets it on the mount to allow me to follow the directions.
“I learned how to drive when Zayn was tiny,” she says, fixing her seatbelt as I pull the vehicle into drive. “Emil decided I wasn’t getting enough road experience and had me drive us to the beach for my birthday dinner. He surprised me. I honestly figured I would spend it alone since everyone was busy.”
“Which birthday was this?” I ask, shifting in my seat.
“My nineteenth,” she says.
“No way would you have spent that alone,” I snort. “Theo marked your birthday by scaring the fuck out of us in the woods. We were all thinking about you, even if some were tracking a dot on a screen from an implant in my ass.”
“It’s a really nice ass,” Noor says wistfully as I chuckle.
