Cara turned her way. She’d left two voice mails before simply coming over and knocking on Noelle’s door. “I wouldn’t call it upset. Confusion is a better word. I thought we were friends. You never even mentioned you were dating someone, and now you have two guys living with you? It’s not like you. Did you run that past management?”
She didn’t have to. “I have two bedrooms. I can have up to four people stay for six weeks. By then Kyle will have gotten his own place, and all I have to do in order to be in compliance is put Hutch on my records.”
“You never even mentioned his name before.” Cara seemed to relax, the brittle look on her face softening. “We’ve talked a lot.”
They’d talked about work and movies and the way the guy in 408 shouldn’t wear a speedo. She wasn’t comfortable with lying. She kind of hated it, but she’d agreed to keep their cover. “It was hard to talk about Hutch.”
No lies there. She wanted to call her stepmom and talk about him, but she was worried her dad would overhear and go into protective mode. Of course she was also worried her incredibly sensible stepmother would tell her she’d been reckless when she’d fallen into bed with him.
“Because you were so close?” Cara asked.
Maybe she could get something out of this. She couldn’t talk to her family, and she hadn’t made friends at the office. Cara was way more experienced than she was, and she seemed level-headed. “We were high school sweethearts, but we’ve changed a lot. It’s been years since I really spent time with him.”
Cara studied her for a moment. “So you do know him. You’ve known him for a long time. He’s not someone you recently met?”
Now she did have to lie. “We met in high school, but even then it was pretty fast. I met him and we clicked.”
Cara’s eyes narrowed. “See, I thought you told me you didn’t date a lot until college because of the accident.”
She wasn’t good at this. “Like I said, it was hard to talk about him. I cared about him and he was a good boyfriend. I left him behind when I went to college and it seemed better to concentrate on my studies. I missed him, but we were young. Those relationships, well, I watched one of those relationships disintegrate. My mom and dad were high school sweethearts, but they grew apart over the years. I used to look at pictures of them when they were young and they looked happy. I don’t remember those times. I remember fighting. I remember my mom hating moving out of Papillon and to New Orleans for my dad’s job. And then refusing to leave New Orleans because she would never move back to a small town. She changed so much over the years that they didn’t fit together anymore.”
“We make a lot of mistakes when we’re immature. I think it can be a terrible idea to get too serious when you’re young. But sometimes the heart wants what it wants, if you know what I mean,” Cara replied with a sigh. “I think you were smart to choose your career.”
She’d pursued her dream, and it had been easy because she hadn’t been leaving her dad alone. He’d married Lila by then. He’d been old enough to know what he truly wanted, and she was sure this time was forever for her dad.
Had he felt a deep need when he’d met her mom? Like the one she felt for Hutch? She was fascinated by him and yet also comforted by his presence. Had it been the same for her parents? How long had that feeling lasted before it had died out? Before they couldn’t even stand to be around each other anymore? They’d both loved her. She’d never had a doubt in her mind, but they hadn’t even liked each other at the end.
“I couldn’t stay home. I love Papillon, but I couldn’t do the things I feel like I was born to do there.” And she wouldn’t have met Hutch. She wouldn’t have found out that sex was so much better when the man was focused on her, devoted to her pleasure. When her lover didn’t treat her like she was something he could break.
“So you went home this time and reconnected with him?”
This was where Cara’s advice might help. “Yeah. We were both at the same restaurant my first night in town and we ended up sitting at the bar together. I went back to his place. It was like a flash fire. It was like no time had passed at all, but it was also different.”
“It was hotter because you’re both older and more experienced.”
Noelle nodded. “Yeah.”
Cara gave her a smile. “So the sex is good.”