Rare - Briar Prescott Page 0,70

stepped closer, took Alex’s hand in hers, and placed a piece of paper on his palm, curling Alex’s fingers around it.

“Oh, shoot. How did this get here?” she asked as she took a step back.

Alex couldn’t help but chuckle at her audacity.

“He’s not here for the week. Forced vacation,” Hannah called over her shoulder as she headed back toward the front door of the clinic. “I’d try the phone number that I definitely didn’t give you.”

Alex walked to his car and stood there for a long time, staring at the paper, not turning it over to read it as if not seeing the number would mean he wasn’t about to do another stupid thing.

He clutched the paper in his palm and tapped his fist against his forehead a couple of times before he muttered, “Fuck it.”

It seemed he was, once again, fully committed to being an idiot.

Alex played with his beer glass, turning it around and around on the bar counter. He peered toward the door as inconspicuously as possible. He’d chickened out about calling Noah, instead texting him to meet at a bar. Alex had no idea if Noah would even show. He hadn’t received a text back, so there was a good chance Noah hadn’t been as affected about their reunion as Alex was and was not planning to show up.

Images of Noah scoffing at his phone when Alex’s name appeared in the text barraged his mind. Alex motioned to the bartender for a new beer. Maybe he should have gone with whiskey instead of beer. The numbness that had been his constant companion for years now was gone just when he needed it the most.

Fuck, maybe he should just get out of there. Get out of Seattle, period. Go back to the East Coast. He and his father would drive each other crazy in the first few days, but it felt preferable to the torture of sitting there, waiting for Noah.

And then he didn’t have to wait any longer. A tingle at the back of his neck made him turn his head toward the door. Noah was standing in the dim light of the open door, eyes fixed on Alex like Alex was the only thing Noah could see. Alex watched as if in trance as Noah started walking, approaching Alex with a determination that hadn’t been there the previous morning.

Noah took a seat next to Alex and angled his body so that he was facing Alex. If Alex would have moved his leg just an inch to the right, their knees would have touched. All the while, Noah’s gaze stayed fixated on Alex, and his expression was pure hunger. Like he’d been starving and was now presented with a ten-course meal with all his favorite foods.

“You came.” The words slid out of Alex’s mouth without warning. It almost felt as if somebody else was doing the speaking, and Alex was hovering somewhere above, drinking in the sight of Noah.

God, it was good to see him, and Alex simultaneously wanted to stay in that moment forever and run toward the hills because what the fuck was that? He wasn’t supposed to itch with the need to reach out his hand and touch Noah. To pull Noah into his arms. To press his nose into Noah’s neck and breathe him in. He wasn’t supposed to feel the need to grab the back of Noah’s neck and smash their lips together, drink in Noah’s smell and taste. He wasn’t supposed to burn with the need to push Noah’s shirt up and let his hands wander over Noah’s skin. He wasn’t supposed to want any of it.

The evening was supposed to be about closure. Alex was supposed to come here and see that all these years he’d exaggerated the connection he’d felt between them in his mind. He was supposed to realize that nostalgia and youth and summer played a big part in why he still felt like he and Noah were somehow tethered to each other. The electricity and desire and need should not have been there, stronger and more desperate than ever.

It was pathetic, really, how affected Alex still was. He’d had a lot of people pass through his bed over the years, and he’d done a lot of experimenting in his quest to erase the memories of Noah from his mind, but somehow their fumbling kisses and soft touches, peppered with youthful naiveté that promised joy and happiness, had been seared into Alex’s brain, and nothing had