Morning Light: A Day of Pleasure, Book 1 (7 page)

“I think I knew, deep down, it was always Noah. When I saw you with him this morning… Well, it all came crashing down and I thought I’d lost you. I lashed out.” Reaching for her brought her rushing into his arms for a fierce hug. Everything clicked back into place. “Hey now, don’t cry.”

With a watery laugh she said, “I’m not.”

They stood hugging for a few minutes, hanging on to each other, before Chris pulled away.

“I’m going to head down to the pub and help out during the rush tonight. Why don’t you come down and we’ll grab a bite to eat before it gets too busy?”

She nodded, wiping the tears from her face.

“I’m sure Noah needs to make sure I apologized correctly.”

And with those final words, Tenn and Chris headed down to the Drunken Duck.

Chapter Eight

Chris was congratulating himself on a job well done as Tenn followed him downstairs to the pub. He had managed to apologize without doing further damage to their friendship or putting himself in the path of Noah’s wrath. No mean feat.

The pub noise greeted them as he pushed the thick oak door open with the flat of his palm. A quick glance at the scene before him had him gripping the door and reversing his steps immediately. His sudden move had Tenn bumping full-bodied into his back and uttering a soft curse before he swung around and steadied her with a hand to her waist.

“Hey, why don’t we skip the meal down here and ransack Noah’s kitchen. We can talk without anyone interrupting us.”

Apparently, his overly bright speech wasn’t fooling Tenn. “Are you avoiding Lexie again?” She offered him a bold stare before saying, “Chris, you promised that after last night you’d break it off with her.”

“It’s not Lexie.” She continued with her stare. “I swear, Tenn. It’s not that.”

“Well, what’s going on?”

“Look, before you get upset, I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

“Upset about what?”

Without waiting for an answer, Tenn pushed past him into the bar and he let her go without a fuss. Keeping her from what she was about to see wasn’t going to do her any favors. It might have done Noah some favors, but he couldn’t let Tenn be in the dark about the situation with Amber.

He watched Tenn take in the situation and her entire body snapped rigid. Amber, Noah’s old high-school girlfriend, had him cornered next to the walk-in coolers they used to store beer. It was a little-used space, closed off from normal foot traffic, but directly across from where they stood. She was pressed up against him, wearing little more than a bikini and a pair of worn denim shorts. Typical lake wear for this time of year, but not acceptable at the pub.

“Tenn, wait. Let’s go talk to Noah and sort this out. I know it’s not what it looks like.”

Reaching for her hand was useless, she was already stalking away.

“Tenn! Wait, dammit.”

Turning to face him she said, “Chris, you’d better let me go.” She had always been a woman of few words.

His best friend’s face right at that moment would haunt him. She looked broken. Earlier when he’d said all those awful things to her, she’d looked angry and hurt. In this moment, as she walked away from him for the second time in less than eight hours, he knew Noah had done Tenn more damage in five minutes than Chris could ever accomplish in a lifetime. For such a capable man, his brother could be particularly dense when it came to women.

He watched her leave through the main door of the pub and disappear into the parking lot beyond. Turning, he took in Noah and Amber. She was pressed up against his brother, practically dry humping his leg, with her blonde hair swinging down her back. She was the antithesis of Tenn, and always had been. With long legs and a thin build, she’d spent her high school years tying Noah in knots, until he’d finally wised up to her games and dropped her like a hot potato. Back then, she had moved on to another football player without looking back. But high school had been a long time ago, and when Noah arrived back in town as a local hero she’d all but thrown herself at him.

Anger built in Chris, boiling over as he stalked to the back of the pub. When he reached them, he physically pulled Amber off his brother and set her a few feet away. She staggered for a moment before wrapping her arms around Chris, pressing her small chest into him.

“Hey, baby.” Her words came out slurred and he could smell the alcohol coming off her in waves. “Wanna go somewhere?”

“Not with you.”

He turned to blast Noah with his temper but had to pull up short as Amber copped a feel of his crotch.

“Jesus, woman. Get your hands off me.” Pulling her hand away and stepping out of her reach was harder than he’d anticipated. He experienced a small twinge of sympathy for his brother; the woman had eight drunken-octopus hands.

Watching Chris fight off Amber brought a smile to Noah’s face, before he noticed Tenn wasn’t right behind Chris. Taking in the pub, no Tenn in sight, he caught Molly’s eye. She promptly offered him an evil glare and began making her way over to their threesome.

Chris was still battling Amber’s roving hands when Molly reached them. “Amber, honey, take your hands off of that man before I throw your perky little ass out.”

“You can’t do that.” She glanced at Noah, while still groping Chris, and said, “Tell her, Noah.”

“If Molly doesn’t take care of it, I will. Go on back to your friends and let them know you’re ready to go.” He waved over a group of women and made sure they had a sober driver before letting them pull Amber away.

She didn’t leave without trying to grope both him and Chris one last time.

He stood there and watched both Chris and Molly take a battle stance in front of him. It was a toss-up who was going to blast him first. Molly opened her mouth, but Chris beat her to it.

“You dirty son of a bitch. An hour ago you were telling me you wanted to marry my best friend. And we come downstairs to see Amber wrapped around you? What the hell?”

Instead of answering his brother, he looked to Molly and waited for her tirade.

She shrugged sheepishly. “What he said.”

“If you’d both use your heads for a second, you’d know I wasn’t wrapped around Amber. She was wrapped around me. I was not encouraging her and haven’t encouraged her since we were seventeen.”

“Oh, honey, you know nothing about women if you think that argument is going to hold water with Tenn.” Molly gave him a quick pat on the chest. “All she knows is she found you and her least-favorite person wrapped around each other in plain sight of everyone at this bar. You’re damn lucky she didn’t slash your tires on her way to her car.”

“What? This isn’t my fault. Amber was all over me and drunk.”

“Noah, you are a fully capable ex-Army Ranger. Are you telling me Amber backed you into a corner and you couldn’t escape? I call bullshit.”

Put like that, it did look bad. “She was drunk.
Fuck.
I
was
just trying to be nice.”

“You are a goddamn fool, is what you are. I’m out of here for the night. You two can handle closing.”

Noah wanted to be the one to run after Tenn and explain, but arguing with Molly wouldn’t get him anywhere. He had been wrong to not be more insistent with Amber. Gentlemanly manners shouldn’t have played a factor in dealing with a drunken woman, especially when it was this particular woman. Amber had always been grabby and demanding and he should have dealt with it better.

He needed to apologize to Tenn, but it would have to wait for their Sunday breakfast tomorrow. If she showed. She’d never missed a Sunday before, but everything had changed in the course of this one day.

“Wait, Molly, are you going after Tenn?”

“It’s none of your damned business.”

“Tell her I’ll see her tomorrow morning for breakfast.”

“Like hell I will. I’m not your errand girl, Noah. You’ll have to fix this all by yourself. You certainly fucked it all up by yourself.”

The men watched her leave, her tiny frame giving off enough angry energy to clear a path all on its own. The evening crowd was arriving and the pub was filling up, but everyone parted promptly as Molly weaved through the crowd and out the main door.

Molly Ryan was no fool. Noah might be, but it was more than obvious his heart belonged to Tenn, so she pulled out her cell in an effort to track Tenn down as quickly as possible. When there was no answer, Molly put her sporty little car into gear and left the Drunken Duck’s parking lot. It was a small town. She would find Tenn eventually.

Eventually came about fifteen minutes later as she spotted Tenn scooting through town on her mint-green Vespa. Molly gave a brief honk to get Tenn’s attention and waved her over in front of the town’s only coffee shop.

Molly waited, while Tenn pulled into an empty spot and removed her helmet, before opening her passenger-side door. “Get in the car, chick. Let’s go get that bottle of wine.”

“How about dinner instead? I was thinking about heading out of town to pick up some sushi. There’s this great place in Mumford I want to check out.” Tenn’s words were delivered with forced cheerfulness, but held a note of sadness.

“Sounds good. We can spend the next half hour bashing men.”

“Oh…well… I don’t have any bashing to do. Chris apologized and everything is back to normal.”

Molly watched Tenn fiddle with a long strand of hair, twirling it around a finger until it pulled tight, then releasing it to repeat the process.

“You, darling, are a terrible liar. Anyone ever tell you that? Any bashing you might want to do isn’t about Chris anyway. We are going to talk about Noah and the blonde hooker.”

“Molly, we are
not
talking about Noah. We had a quick fling and it’s over. Now we can get back to normal. Put this crazy weekend behind us.”

Molly couldn’t help but roll her eyes before saying, “Honey, I’m going to say this one more time. You are a terrible liar. I don’t know what’s worse, you lying to me, or to yourself. Noah asked you to come to the pub for a reason. He got ambushed by Amber while restocking the cooler.”

“Don’t try to convince me I didn’t see him and Amber all over each other in a dark corner. I might be in love with the man, but I’m not an idiot.”

“No, you’re not, but you are not thinking clearly right now. You’re running scared and looking for any excuse to walk away from Noah. You know him better than to think he’d be screwing around with Amber. She’s been chasing after him since he got back into town. You understand him better than that, Tenn. At least be honest with yourself right now.”

Her friend nodded and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “If I’m honest with myself, and you, I don’t know what to do. Everything changed today. And I wanted those changes. But what now? Molly, I’ve loved him for ten years. What comes next?”

“Well, doll face, sushi is what comes next. Then some more girl talk. And tomorrow you’re going to go to breakfast with Noah, like you always do, and work this out.”

“You’re right. I am.” Nodding in agreement with the words, Tenn wiped the last of the tears from her face before saying, “Thank you for making me braver than I am.”

“Honey, you are brave. Giving your heart to another person is the bravest thing you ever do in life.”

Chapter Nine

After an evening spent with Molly, enjoying sushi and plenty of girl-power cheerleading, it was time to put on her big-girl panties. Facing Noah for their regular Sunday-morning breakfast was easier said than done, though. Molly had called her bright and early this morning to remind her Noah would be waiting for her, alone, and chickening out was not an option. She was a great ally, but Molly did not mince words.

After feeding Bo and fussing over him as he got settled in the living room on his new dog bed, she ran out of excuses to avoid getting ready. Deciding on another casual sundress and a simple pair of sandals, she tossed her hair in a sloppy bun held together with a couple of chopsticks and headed out the door.

It was easier if she acted like this was any other Sunday breakfast with Noah. Not the life-changing, soul-baring one it was about to become. The drive to the pub took the normal ten minutes, but it felt much longer as she tried to remember all the reasons she wasn’t supposed to panic. If it went horribly wrong she was going to get back in her car and never stop driving. That sounded like a great plan.

Turning into the pub’s parking lot only increased the chances of a panic attack. Actually getting out of her car and using her key to enter the Drunken Duck caused her to break out in a cold sweat. Climbing the steps to his apartment brought on a strange calm. Well, until she noticed Noah at the top of the stairs, watching her climb to his apartment.

Tenn felt the panic well and rubbed her sweaty palms on the soft cotton of her dress. Noah eyed her from his spot at the top of the steps. Even with his casual stance, leaning against the wall with arms crossed, he looked exceptionally fine in his worn jeans and black tee. Now her heart was racing for entirely different reasons.

She reached the top step and paused before closing the distance between them.

Now was the time to lay it all out for him. She didn’t want a casual fling. Hell, she’d waited ten long years for him and it was time she let go of the fear. He’d obviously wanted her; every detail of their morning together was seared in her memory. He had pursued her, sought her out, and even attempted to carry on a normal conversation after the sex.