“You and this guy Noah have been secretly dating for months, decided on a whim to get married at the courthouse, and now you’re moving out?”
“Yep.” Mia thought it best to give as little information as possible. It helped that she and Reagan had only known each other for a month—she could say almost anything about her and Noah’s history and Reagan wouldn’t know any better. But she had spent enough time with her new roommate that before last week, Reagan thought Mia was single. She was glad she and Noah had gone with the “secretly dating” thing. It seemed the most plausible.
The thing that would make things look less plausible would be getting married andnotspending her wedding night with her husband. Without thinking, she’d suggested she make the move over the weekend, but he’d pointed out how odd that would appear.
He was right. The safest way to go about it was to treat this like the real deal from the outside.
What will it be like on the inside?
She had no idea what it was like to live with a man. With her firm “not looking for anything serious” outlook on dating, she’d never gotten that far. And while she enjoyed meeting new guys and casually dating some of them for a few weeks, she’d never been tempted to amend her rule.
It had never been hard to walk away.
Something told her it wouldn’t be so easy to leave Noah at the end of this ruse, but she would.
She had to.
She finished cleaning out the drawer and her gaze snagged on the sealed envelope sitting there. On the front was her name, printed in her mother’s neat handwriting. She should have read it well before now, but some mixture of fear, guilt, and anger had so far kept the letter unopened, contents unknown. She hesitated for a beat and considered leaving it, but grabbed it and stuffed it in with her socks.
“I heard you talk about him a few times. Did I ever even meet him?” Reagan wondered aloud.
Mia thought back. “I’m not sure he’s come over since you moved in,” she said. Noah had always been more comfortable in his own space. “But he and I work together. And we’ve been friends since we were seven.”
“That’s adorable. It’s like it was meant to be.”
She glanced back at Reagan, who had a wistful look on her face. Mia forced herself to smile like a newlywed should. “It was.”
“I wish I had a man.” Reagan tucked her feet underneath her. “What’s he like?”
Mia zipped the duffel bag and turned around. She put her hands on the edge of the dresser behind her and leaned against it.
There were so many words to describe Noah.
Protective.
Observant.
Gentle.
Disciplined.
Intense.
All things she loved about him, but for reasons that were hard to explain to someone she barely knew.
“Noah is...wonderful. He’s the definition of kind. Thoughtful. He does everything with intention and purpose. He’s a gentleman. Intelligent, and even though he doesn’t show it much, he’s funny.”
She thought back to the years before his brother died. He’d always been reserved, but there was a noticeable difference in his personality from that point on. Noah had a before and an after. One wasn’t better than the other, but “before” Noah had been a little more carefree and easygoing. “After” Noah took a little coaxing to relax and let loose. “He’s adventurous. Loves to go rock climbing. He used to go all over the country with his brother to climb mountains.”
“Used to?”
Mia dropped her gaze, wishing she hadn’t mentioned that.As little information as possible.“He doesn’t travel as much anymore. He still climbs, but mostly around here.” She grabbed the bag and slung it over her shoulder, frowning a little.
She hadn’t thought about that in a while, but occasionally wondered—why didn’t he go on climbing expeditions anymore? At first, she figured it was just because he missed Nathan, and didn’t like the idea of going without his brother.
But that was a long time ago. Graham still went out of state, sometimes on multiweek trips to Canada or Wyoming. Noah never went unless it was nearby and was never gone for more than a few days.
“I guess that’s a good thing,” Reagan said, jumping off the bed to follow Mia out of the room. “He’s a married man now. Can’t be going out of town every weekend and leaving you alone.”