morning run, moving with a measured pace as if he wasn’t affected at all by what had just happened. As if Noah wasn’t even a blip on his radar.
Noah looked after him, determined to catch even the tiniest glimpse of Alex. He was ready to stand and stare after the man until he was nothing but a dot in the distance.
“That was weird, right?” Hannah said.
Noah waited until Alex disappeared behind a bend in the road, and only then did he turn toward Hannah.
“How’s the ankle?” he asked, praying that just this once, Hannah would take the hint and curb her nosy, meddling tendencies because Noah didn’t think he had it in him to discuss what had just happened. All he wanted to do was to go home and hide away from the world. Maybe get rip-roaring drunk for a change to help him silence the regret he’d felt every day for the last decade.
Noah didn’t usually drink. As with a lot of other things, it was too dangerous. Accidents happened so easily when a person was incapacitated, but if there’d ever been a reason to skirt that rule of his, he hadn’t encountered a more appropriate moment.
Thankfully, Hannah seemed to get that Noah was not interested in talking about Alex. “It hurts, but I’ll live.”
“So… a piggyback ride to my car?” Noah suggested, forcing some lightness into his tone.
Hannah’s eyes lit up. “Now that sounds like an excellent plan.”
Noah helped her onto the park bench and turned his back toward Hannah. “Hop on.”
The whole way to his car, Noah took backward glances toward where Alex had disappeared to, hoping against hope to catch another glimpse.
15
Christ! What the hell are you doing?
Alex paced back and forth, unable to justify the sheer stupidity of the act he was about to commit even to himself. Was he really going to go to Noah’s place of business and… do what exactly? He had no clue what the plan was. He only knew the facts.
Yesterday morning, he’d gone back to the hotel.
He’d opened his laptop.
He’d stared at the screen for exactly 2.5 seconds before he typed in Noah’s name and added the keywords Seattle and vet.
He’d hit bingo immediately. Green Park Animal Hospital. Shit, it was in walking distance from Alex’s hotel. How long had he lived practically next door to Noah, without there ever being a slightest inkling that the other man was near? This wasn’t even his first stay at that hotel. He’d stayed there several times over the course of the last four years.
And now he was standing in front of the building that housed Noah’s clinic. He rubbed at his forehead. He should walk away like he did yesterday and then just keep walking. Nothing good would come from seeing Noah again. They’d had a fling ten years ago. Why was he still this obsessed with the man? Why had his heart skipped a hundred beats when he’d realized exactly who was standing in front of him on that running trail? He should have been immune by now. He’d done everything he could to erase all memories of Noah from his mind. There had been plenty of men and women and plenty of booze after that summer. For years, Alex had tried to extinguish the ghost of Noah that stubbornly kept hovering in Alex’s heart, refusing to leave Alex alone, refusing to stop haunting him with his lingering presence.
It had been a tough battle, but in the last few years, it had gotten marginally easier not to think about Noah. There were still moments where the memories crept up like unwanted guests, but Alex had gotten good at abolishing them from his mind.
Was he really going to risk all the progress he’d made? And for what? A look at Noah? Lunch? A few awkward words exchanged in front of Noah’s business?
“Fuck!” Alex muttered as he turned around. This had been a colossally bad idea. Extremely dumb even by Alex’s standards, and he’d done some fucked-up shit in his day.
He started toward his car, but before he could get far away from the clinic, somebody called his name. Alex turned around.
The woman.
The one with the busted ankle.
Hannah.
She looked left and right before she limped across the street. “Another coincidence?” she asked with a huge grin.
“Would you believe me if I said my car broke down right in front of this building?” Alex asked.
“Not really. Listen, Noah doesn’t like it when I meddle, so of course I respect that.” She winked and