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.And Gio had obviously gotten hisstriking green eyes from her.Since Gio was twenty Veronica assumed his mother was in her earlyforties at least, yet she could pass for early thirties.By the end of the night, Veronica was completely stuffed and exhausted.The night had begunwith her dreading it and now she was so glad she’d gone.She really had a pleasant time and she hadto admit, it did beat staying home alone.When they got to the party she’d warned Noah that she might leave early but that he should stayas long as he wanted.Of course his response had been, “We’ll leave whenever you’re ready.”As sweet as that was it was also worrisome.Noah was becoming far too devoted to theirfriendship.As much as she appreciated his loyalty as a friend, she now knew he didn’t see it as justthat.For now, she had nothing to worry about.There was no one else in her life.But just like she’dnever dream of asking Noah to close that door in his life she wasn’t closing it in hers either.Judgingfrom the way he’d acted with Edward if she didn’t get a handle on this now, things could get uglylater.~*~After running his five miles Christmas morning, Noah got back to the house to find Roni stillasleep.Perfect.He made a pot of coffee before jumping in to take a quick shower.Her door was stillclosed when he got out of the shower.He changed into a pair of loose sweats and a t-shirt, grabbedthe gift bag from the closet and brought it out to the front room placing it under the tree.He was nervous as hell.It was something he’d thought of getting her before but was afraidshe’d think him corny.The doorknob to her room jiggled.She was up.Noah’s eyes shot back down to the bag underthe tree; there was still time.He could make a dive for it and get it before she saw it.But he took adeep breath and walked into the kitchen instead.“Merry Christmas.”The sound of her voice instantly made him smile.He turned from where he poured himself acup of coffee and smiled at her.“Merry Christmas.”He grabbed another cup out of the cupboard and poured her some coffee.“I don’t now about you, but I could go for some blueberry pancakes.”“Sounds good,” Noah said.Of all the Christmas mornings he’d ever had even as a child, he couldn’t remember one feelingmore satisfying than how he felt that very moment.Coffee and pancakes with Roni and the promisethat he’d have her all to himself for the entire day.He couldn’t think of a better present.Well, hecould think of one thing that could make this even better but he wouldn’t push it.Noah walked Roni’s mug over to where she stood by the stove and set it down for her.“Needany help?”“Nope,” she said cheerfully.“But you could turn on the Christmas music.”He did just that and walked back to lean against the counter.He tried not to stare at her profilebut at this point, she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen.Even right now in the morning.Especially right now in the morning, because this look—her tousled hair, her pajamas and big fuzzyslippers—were reserved for him.No one else could see her like this but him.She looked up and caught him staring at her like a lovesick puppy.The more he was around herthe less effort he put into concealing how he felt about her.Though he did take a sip of his coffeebefore he freaked her out and pulled her right out of her cheery mood.“Year is almost over, Noah.Any resolutions for the New Year?”“Nah, I don’t make resolutions.Or I guess I do but I call them goals and I don’t wait for theNew Year to start toward them.”She turned to him, her eyebrow arched.“You have a point.Why wait?”“Do you?” Noah asked genuinely curious.“Not really a goal but I want my life back.I’m just hoping that by going back to work andcatching up with my old friends I can back to the way things used to be.You know, before I let myselffall into this black hole I was in for so long.”Feeling a little annoyed by that last statement Noah asked.“But you haven’t been in it latelyright?”She now had a stack of pancakes ready and she flipped the last one onto the top of the stackadding a sliver of butter on top like she had with all the others.She picked up the tray with the stackand turned to him.“No.I haven’t and I have you and Nellie to thank for that.”They sat and ate as she told him more about her plans for the next year irritatingly adding thatshe was also going to slowly work on getting her social life back.“What does that mean?” Noah asked digging his fork into his pancakes.He noticed she stopped cutting into her pancakes for second before she responded.“I used todo things with my girlfriends from work.You know go out to dinner, the show.Believe it or not Iused to play tennis a couple of times a week.I haven’t done any of that in so long.I just buried myselfaway from everyone and everything.I’m anxious to go back to the way I once was.Feel normalagain.”“You should’ve said something; we could’ve gone to the show or played tennis.”Once again, he had to bite his tongue to not say more.He knew she had every right to go back tofeeling normal.She should, but the thought of her getting back to possibly going out with guys madethe food he swallowed go down like jagged rocks.She stared at him for moment then smiled.“That’s true.We could.But I’m still anxious aboutgetting back to work and getting my old life back.”Noah polished off his pancakes and saw that she was nearly done.What he was anxious aboutall of sudden was getting off this subject.“Ready to open up your gifts?”Her eyebrows pinched together.“Gifts?”She licked syrup off her bottom lip and it was all he could do to keep from leaning over andhelping her lick it all off.He managed to stop staring at her lips long enough to stand up and take hisplate over to the sink.Clearing his throat he said, “Yeah, you said your neighbor brought somethingover right? And Nellie?”Her expression eased up and she nodded in agreement.“And I got you a little something.”She stopped chewing and looked up at him.“You did?”“Yeah, I hope you don’t mind [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]