"Give it to me." Noah pulls the paper from my grasp with a heavy swipe. "I'll give you a glowing reference."
"It's just that you're impressive." I realize the moment the words leave my lips that they sound misplaced. "I mean I know that people find your work really impressive."
"You don't?" A smirk accompanies his cocked brow.
"I do."
"Don’t lie," he teases, as his eyes stay glued to the paper.
"I appreciate you doing this." I mean it. I had considered asking Ben for no more than a brief second. Our connection was too new to ask him to provide something like this. It wasn't that I thought he'd balk at the idea. It was more that I didn't want to request something that made him uncomfortable. I was feeling enough of that myself after he brought up Parker in his post orgasmic state.
"Alexa got drunk at her bridal shower." A whisper of a smile floats over his mouth. "She was pretty funny when Sadie brought her home."
I can't help but smile too. "I saw her for a few minutes. She was definitely enjoying herself."
His eyes finally drift up from the paper to settle on my face. "She mentioned that you two talked about Ben."
I'm shocked that she remembered at all. I wasn’t sure she would but now that I know she brought it up, it's opened a door for me with Noah. "It was brief. I didn’t tell her anything."
"You've seen Ben since then, right?" The anger that would have been wrapped around that question days ago isn't there anymore.
"Yes."
"Did you talk to him about what we discussed?" His tone is low and direct.
I shake my head. "I didn't." Why would I? Ben was too busy trying to gather information on my asshole of an ex-boyfriend. Once that conversation ended we both drifted to sleep and in our morning rush to get to work, neither of us discussed anything beyond meeting for dinner later in the week.
"I don't have a lot of friends," he says softly. "I mean I have Alexa. I don't need a bunch of friends, but there's no one I can talk to about this."
I know that the this he's referring to is his brother. "What is it?"
He looks up and his eyes search my face momentarily. "It's about Ben and what we were talking about the other day."
I want to help Noah and it's not for purely selfish reasons. Obviously
listening to him talk about his brother gives me more insight into the man I'm sharing my body with, but it also is pulling me closer to Noah. I'm seeing a side of him that is strictly reserved for Alexa. I've only heard about it when she's confided in me about their relationship. "What about it?"
"I'm not sure how much Ben has told you about his arrest?"
It's an open-ended question. He wants me to fill in those blanks. "Not a lot," I offer back as a starting point.
"Did he tell you why they arrested him?"
I run my tongue over my top lip as Ben's words about Noah's discussion with the police pours through my memory. "He said there were a lot of things that contributed to that."
He taps his hand against the dining room table. We're sitting in exactly the same places we were when he grilled me about Sammy. "The police questioned me. They questioned our father too."
Even if I didn't know that information because Ben told me, I wouldn't be surprised. It was an investigation surrounding their mother's death. It only made sense that everyone in the home was interviewed. "He told me that, Noah."
He traces his index finger along the edge of the paper I handed to him. "Did he tell you what I said to the police?"
"Only bits and pieces."
"It was mostly about my perception of what happened. " He sighs. "I was pretty torn up about my mother's death."
"You all were," I say carefully. "I'm sure you were all distraught that day."
"I was pissed." His hand fists on the table. "I couldn't believe she was gone."