“Ow.” Michael put a hand on his chest as though Theo had wounded him. “But maybe fair. I wasn’t as thoughtful as I should have been.”
“Because you weren’t in love with Tessa and she wasn’t in love with you,” Theo replied. “You were both impatient. You see your brother with his wife and two kiddos and you want that for yourself, but you can’t force it. The same way Hutch can’t force Noelle to see that he’s right for her.”
“I’m not trying to force her to do anything.” He hated this, hated that she was out there and probably looked gorgeous, and he wouldn’t be the man who greeted her. He wouldn’t be able to make sure the man who did treated her with respect. He didn’t have any rights at all where Noelle was concerned and that hurt.
He was a man who’d avoided responsibility for the most part, and now that he wanted it, he couldn’t have it.
“You can’t force her to do anything, but you can make her world so comfortable she doesn’t remember how she got along without you,” Theo advised.
“That’s what I’m trying to do. Kyle’s right. I feed her every day. I watch TV with her. I rub her feet, and every night she runs to her bedroom.”
“She runs to it?” Theo asked.
Hutch nodded. “Yeah. I think she’s afraid I’ll do something I shouldn’t.”
The idea that she might be afraid of him hurt more than anything.
“Or she’s scared she’s going to jump you,” Theo offered. “Does she seem comfortable around you before it’s time for bed?”
“Oh, yeah. She has no problem hanging out with me until Kyle is solidly in his room. Then it gets weird. Even though Kyle pays little attention to us at night. He comes and goes between the living room and his room.” Kyle wasn’t impressed with their taste in TV. He ended up watching sports on his laptop, and Hutch had heard him mention several times that this was a boring-ass assignment when he talked to his brother at night.
Boring was good. Boring was safe. Boring meant no one was shooting at them or choking out Noelle. Boring gave them time to research and try to understand why anyone would want to hurt her.
“Then Kyle’s right and you should be patient. She’s not going to take one look at this Jeffrey guy and forget you exist,” Theo said. “You need to give her a couple of days. The class is once a week, and there won’t be a ton of homework tonight. And hey, you’ll be right there when he comes over to do homework with her. You can scare the crap out of him then.”
Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. “What am I supposed to tell him? If he comes to her place, we risk him running into the people in the building who believe I’m Noelle’s boyfriend.”
Michael seemed to think about the problem. “This doesn’t work. She can’t take the class while she’s the object of an active investigation. I don’t know what Tag was thinking.”
He could shut this shit down right now. He could claim it was far too dangerous, and she would have to wait until they had another class if she insisted on doing this with a group. And then Noelle wouldn’t get what she needed. He didn’t understand it, but she seemed to need to be here. She needed to do this on her own terms. “I’ll make it work. I’ll ensure all the homework is done here at the club, and Noelle and I will come up with something to tell him. Maybe we can let him know I’m investigating something for her.”
“Big Tag might not like telling this guy anything at all,” Michael pointed out. “You shouldn’t say a thing until you run it by Tag.”
“Then I should talk to Noelle because we didn’t discuss this before.” He stood up. Why hadn’t he thought of this problem? Because he’d been too busy denying that she would actually go to the class. Because he’d been thinking of himself and not the case at hand.
“You’ve still got about ten minutes before they start the class.” Michael picked up his controller again.
“Don’t fuck it up,” Theo advised. “When you come back we can order some pizza and play some more, if you want. Back when I was chasing after my wife, it always helped to take out my frustrations in video games.”
Hutch wasn’t sure he would be able to concentrate on a game right now, but it wouldn’t hurt to hang out with friends and get through the next couple of hours. He rushed out. He would find Kyle and Kyle could talk to Noelle so she didn’t feel like he was trying to disrupt her class.
It would be better if he didn’t look at her because then he wouldn’t be able to think about anything but her boobs. They would be gorgeous in a corset, and he hoped she was wearing a miniskirt because if this Jeff asshole saw her in a thong he would likely be hard to lose.