she asks again, an edge to her voice I don’t like.
Like she’s asking for someone else.
“Something I have to deliver,” I tell her truthfully.
“So, it doesn’t belong to you?” she asks, her eyes changing again, her shoulders sagging.
“No. No, it doesn’t. I’m delivering it for someone. A promise I made them if you must know,” I tell her, not minding I’m showing my own irritation now.
“Faith, I don’t know what’s happened since I went outside, but like I told you earlier, I have to go soon. I have something I need to do and I thought you were going to come with me.”
I can’t see it, but can sure as hell feel it.
An invisible wedge between us.
If it had a shape or a face, oh, I’d say it was part Preacher part Sheriff and maybe even part pig-nosed repairman.
I could tell her everything, but I don’t know if we’ve even got that much time.
Plus, my past, both recent and ancient isn’t a place I like to revisit.
“I mean it, Faith,” I tell her. “I want you with me, but I’ll have to be on the road and soon.”
Chapter Eleven
Faith
Seeing Noah again, his truck behind him, and weighing it up against all the emotions of the past few hours.
I freak out.
I don’t know what happens, but I’m suddenly so mad with him and at the same time, I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my whole life.
I thought that truck was a stranger’s, that it was those fugitives my Dad was talking about. I thought they’d come to-
I don’t want to ever think like that again.
Trouble is, I end up coming off like a psycho witch from hell. But Noah’s so sweet, he puts up with all of it, sits me down until I can try to explain, but I can’t.
It’s all too much for me to deal with.
I don’t believe he’s a criminal, I don’t believe he’s stolen anything. And yet there it is, that case he takes everywhere.
And now he won’t tell me what’s in it.
Only tells me he has to go and he wants me with him.
I ask him what’s in the case a third and final time. He doesn’t get mad, just looks hurt.
“Faith, do you trust me?” he asks, those dark brooding eyes suddenly calm and clear looking.
I feel my head nodding. “Of course, I trust you, Noah,” I tell him honestly, without a doubt I trust him.
“Then trust me when I tell you that what’s in the case isn’t mine and I promised to deliver it to someone, with no questions asked,” he says firmly but calmly.
I want to tell him all about what Dad said, to tell him the Sheriff will probably be here any minute, but he only puts a finger to his lips and then to mine before he kisses me, making me forget everything again.
I forget how crazy I was just now, the magic of his lips on mine takes me away from everything like it really is just Noah and me.
Always will be.
On the one hand, it breaks my heart to think about just leaving without even seeing Dad. But when he kisses me, when he holds me like this, I know it’s all I really want.
It’s all I really need.
“I promise you, Faith,” he says, “That soon it’ll be over. That soon it’ll make sense. But for now, I just need you to trust me, okay?”
I chew my lip for a moment until I realize he’s only waiting for me to say what I’ve already decided.
“Of course,” I blurt out, knowing I’d go anywhere, do anything he asked of me.
Not because I can’t think for myself or because I’m afraid.
But because I love him.
I’m not just in love with Noah Templeton.
I know I actually do love him, mind, body, and soul.
Wanting to tell him so, I miss my moment, and in a second he’s making us both something to eat.
“Is there really time for that?” I ask, still not wanting to worry him with the Sheriff thing, but not wanting to hold us up any more than is needed either.
“There’s always time to eat,” he says jovially, reminding me I need to eat as well and he wants to see me eating three meals a day from now on.
Seeing Noah relaxed again, happy; it makes me relaxed and happy.
Sort of.
I want to apologize for acting so crazy just now but I know it wouldn’t matter. Noah takes me as I am, every mood, and every moment.
I can