“I can actually,” I tell him with a fond smile. “You would have been a great father.”
“What makes you say that?” he asks, curiously.
I pull my hand back down over his chest where the tattoo he has dedicated for his little sister rests against his heart. “Because of this,” I tell him. “It’s clear to me that you loved her fiercely, just the way you love Tully. I see it in all the pictures around here,” I tell him, specifically looking towards the picture of him giving his baby sister a piggyback ride along Haven Falls beach with her laughing her little head off. “So, why wouldn’t it be the same for your children? You would have given that baby the world and it would have been incredible to watch.”
“You’re incredible,” he shoots back.
I shake my head. “I’m just me, but you…you’re the reason my world isn’t covered in darkness anymore.”
His lips come down on mine and I draw him back into me as his fingers squeeze my waist. “Come here,” he tells me, dropping back down beside me and pulling me into his side. “You need to get some sleep and then I have to go to school to kick Monica’s ass.”
“No way. I’m kicking her ass.”
“What?” he grunts. “You’re staying right here and sleeping. You’re not going anywhere until you’re better, and I’ll bet anything that my mom will stay right here with you, making every kind of soup she knows how to make.”
I grin at how right he is about his mom. She’s taken me in like her own daughter over the past few weeks. I’ll have to make a point of spending more time with her. Get to know her a little better. “As much as your mom would love making me soup all day, I can’t let her. I’m the one who was jumped by the bitch. I get to do the ass kicking.”
“She told me I was having a kid. As if that doesn’t trump the jumping?”
“Are you kidding?” I shriek. “Fake baby does not trump getting beaten up. I get revenge first.”
He groans. “Nope. Sorry. I’ll chain you to the fucking bed if I have to. Besides, your ass kicking will be more effective if you could actually move without cringing and grunting. She’ll hear you coming from a mile away.”
Damn it. The bastard’s right. I let out a huff. “Fine, but I’m not staying here all day. I’m going to school with you. I want to watch her go down.”
Tully’s voice screams from up the hallway. “Both you dickheads shut up or I’m going to be the one doing the ass kicking, and believe me, it won’t be Monica getting beat.”
I can’t help but laugh and cringe, realizing if Tully can hear us talking then their parents probably could too. How freaking embarrassing.
Noah holds his hand out. “Do we have a deal?” he questions, not giving a shit that he’s waking her up.
I take his hand in mine and give it a firm shake. “Deal.”
“Now, go to sleep. We can maybe get an hour or two if we’re lucky before we have to get ready.”
I shake my head and climb up until I’m straddling him and looking down at that masterpiece of a body. “I can sleep when I’m dead,” I tell him before crashing down into him and starting my morning off in the best possible way.
Chapter 20
We walk into school only a few short hours later, and Noah was right. I should have slept. My body is aching from being jumped and then spending the night getting nasty. Though I can’t really tell which I’m more sore from.
A yawn rips out of me and Noah looks down at me with a knowing ‘I told you so’ smirk that makes me want to crash tackle him to the ground and throat punch him while also screwing his brains out…again.
I know, my priorities are fucked up. I never claimed to have my shit together.
Noah takes my hand before looping his arm over my shoulder and leading me down the hallway towards my locker. He kisses my temple. “Now, this feels fucking right to me, Spitfire.”
I can’t help but beam up at him. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
Every single student we pass either gawks at my face or gawks at the way Noah holds onto me. To be honest, he’s holding me pretty tight making sure nobody gets close enough to bump into me or cause any more damage.
During the night, there were times he treated me as though the roughest kind of conditions couldn’t break me, but here, amongst the other students, I’m fucking precious. I’m breakable and in need of his protection… he should know better than that. But then, maybe he’s just holding onto me because he’s not ready to let go.