Getting Lucky (A Lucky Novella) (4 page)

“So, did you and Gabe have a good chat?” he asked with his face nearly completely buried in my neck.

“Yup. He’s going to take us to the airport in the morning. We have to leave here by 5:30 the latest by the way.”

Noah groaned.

“In the morning? We might as well not even go to bed then.”

I grinned flirtatious and said, “That’s fine by me.”

Noah didn’t skip a beat. In one swift move he had me pinned beneath him on the couch and was peppering my face with slow, soft kisses.

I was already losing myself in the moment when I remembered.

“Oh, before I forget, I told Gabe he could move back into the house with me.”

With my eyes still closed from enjoying the bliss that was Noah’s kissing, I lifted my head with puckered lips expecting them to be met by his only to be left hanging. Confused, I opened my eyes again to find him staring directly at me.

“What do you mean, Gabe is moving back into the house? Pearl’s house? Since the moment of passion had clearly passed for the time being, I shimmied my way into an upright position as best as I could with Noah still looming over me.

“Well, yeah, Pearl’s house. What other house would I be talking about?”

His brow was furrowed and his mouth was quickly sloping into a frown.

“Why would you do that?”

“Why wouldn’t I? His room is just sitting there empty anyway and he can’t keep crashing on Jason’s couch. Besides, I don’t want to live there all by myself.”

Noah had pulled himself completely off of me by now and was sitting on the opposite end of the couch looking back at me with an expression that told me he was trying really hard not to tell me what he really thought of me in that moment. Which only made me want to push him harder, but I refrained as well. Frustrated he ran his fingers through his hair and down over his face. Even all distorted and aggravated looking he was still ridiculously sexy to me. I was already ready to drop the subject all together and just climb on top of him, planting my lips firmly on his where they so desperately wanted to be and clearly belonged.

The sound of his voice snapped me out of the place where I was busy mauling him and brought me back to the present where he was still sitting way too far away from me and obviously annoyed with something I had done.

“Lucky, I thought you and
I
were going to live in that house together.”

“Oh.” Now that he mentioned it that did make more sense. “But you have this place…I don’t know, I just assumed you would keep your lease.”

“Why would I do that?”

I shrugged my shoulders in response.

“I don’t know. I mean, do you really think we’re ready to live together?”

Noah cocked his head to the side and stared at me probingly.

“You’re joking right? Lucky, we’ve lived together for years.”

“Yeah, but not as a couple!”

“I asked you to marry me less than five hours ago! Obviously I think we’re ready to live together.”

A smile had finally returned to his handsome face. And although I was fairly certain that it was only due to the fact that he felt like laughing at me at the time and had politely managed to limit it to this milder expression on his face, I graciously returned the gesture.

“Well, if you think we’re ready, then we must be ready,” I said as I moved forward and began to unbutton his shirt. He leaned into me and began to lower me down to the cushions again as he murmured, “Oh, we’re definitely ready.”

He was working his way down my neck with his mouth when I risked bringing the topic up one last time.

“But what about Gabe?”

Noah didn’t distract so easily this time. He just stayed right on course as he said, “Don’t worry about Gabe. I’ll take care of it.”

That was good enough for me.

Chapter 5

Baggage Claim

5 a
m
came quickly. Noah and I resembled a couple of zombies as we staggered around his condo trying to get dressed and collect the last of our belongings needed for the trip. Thankfully, I hadn’t unpacked much in the first place. It was 5:27 when I felt someone tapping my shoulder. I had fallen asleep sitting on the couch waiting for Gabe to show up. Now that he was there, he was slowly waving a hot and steaming cup of coffee back and forth in front of my nose.

“Hazelnut Macchiato?” I asked hopefully.

“Of course,” he said handing me the paper cup.

“You’re amazing,” I sighed as I inhaled the delicious sweet scent.

“Don’t read too much into it, she’s throwing that word around like it’s loose change these days. She must have told me I was amazing at least ten times last night,” Noah smirked as he said it. He was busy cradling his own hot cup, no doubt filled with straight black coffee and not an ounce of cream or sugar. The thought alone made me want to gag…not to mention the fact that he clearly hadn’t managed to tone down his massive ego while I was gone.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a stud. Can we go now? I don’t want to miss our flight.”

Gabe helped Noah carry our bags down to the car, while I trotted along behind them, happily sipping my coffee and pretending not to notice that it was still pitch black out. There was just something fundamentally wrong with getting up before the sun did.

The ride to the airport went by quietly, all of us still too tired to form multiple coherent sentences and waiting for the caffeine to take its effect. It wasn’t long before Gabe’s car was pulled up in the unloading zone and he and Noah were busy getting the bags back out of the trunk. I managed to score a trolley from a couple who had just
transferred their luggage into the back of a
cab in front of us. Feeling accomplished, I rolled it up to the boys and they proceeded to load it up.

When they were done, Gabe gave me a hug goodbye and turned to Noah. He in turn was holding out a set of keys for Gabe to take.

“What’s this?” Gabe took the keys and looked at them as though the answer was etched into the metal.

“They’re the keys to the condo. It’s yours if you want it.”

Gabe turned to glance at me before looking back at Noah.

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. I’ll just sublet the place to you. We can figure out rent and stuff when we get back. In the meantime, get your ass off of Jason’s couch!” Noah laughed as he patted Gabe on the shoulder. He just nodded his head, smiling.

“Thanks, man.”

The two hugged briefly, exchanging one of those guy embraces that consist of a third hug, third handshake and third pat on the back. I never got those, but it warmed my heart nonetheless.

Shortly after, Noah and I were walking through the airport like cows following the herd, in search of our ticket counter. When we finally found it, we were both relieved to see that there was next to no line. We checked in within minutes and then headed back out to join the herd and find our gate.

We had a half hour wait by the time we found it and people were already lining up to board. Since we were both perfectly content with being the last two people to board the plane as long as we got on, Noah and I opted for two seats near the window and dozily watched the airplanes while we waited for the line to shrivel up so we could go aboard and take the last two seats.

Once on the plane, Noah had to negotiate with several people just to get us two seats together. It wasn’t until he charmed the stewardess that he finally got his way, along with some OJ and a pastry. I nibbled on the apple cream cheese Danish he had scored us and watched out the window as the plane prepared for take-off. Having Noah around was going to come in handy in more ways than one.

Lifting off was beautiful. The plane rose smoothly into the air as though we were on our way to greet the sun, which had graciously decided to make an appearance at long last. We were gliding weightlessly over the fluffy white clouds when I reached out for Noah’s hand and intertwined my fingers with his. It felt good. There was something so simplistically lovely about holding hands with someone. The way his fingers fit around mine, molding our two hands into one and locking them into place naturally as though they had always been meant to be that way. Like two pieces of a puzzle that had finally found their match.

“That was really pretty great what you did for Gabe back there.”

Noah stretched his back a bit and groaned, “Not really. Him moving into the condo saves me the trouble of having to break my lease. More importantly, it means I won’t have to live down the hall from a guy who’s seen you naked.”

I playfully punched him in the arm with my free hand.

“Imagine if I was that concerned about being around people that had seen you naked. We’d never be able to leave the house!”

Noah laughed.

“We’d have to move.”

“I already tried that, didn’t pan out so well, remember?”

Noah looked over at me, grinning from ear to ear as I felt his hand squeeze mine. Then he leaned in close and whispered, “Hey, you know where I’ve never been naked? On an airplane.”

“Really?
Hm, that’s surprising. I have.”

Noah pulled his head back as far and as fast as it would go.

“Are you saying, what I think you’re saying?”

I lifted my brows innocently and said, “I don’t know. What do you think I’m saying?”

He quickly came in close again and hissed, “Have you had sex on a plane?”

I slapped my knee dramatically, “Oh that’s what you’re talking about! No, I was referring to back when my mother used to take me back home to see her parents. Even as a baby, I was making the flight a couple of times a year. So, yeah, I’m pretty sure my naked ass was exposed on a plane more than once.”

Noah wasn’t nearly as amused as I was, but I didn’t care. Mostly I was just glad that he had forgotten about wanting to indite me into the mile high club. I didn’t want to seem like a prude, but trying to have sex in a place the size of shoebox just didn’t seem practical to me at all.

The rest of the flight went by fairly uneventful. We finally managed to catch up on some much needed sleep, although it wasn’t nearly enough to make us feel all wide eyed and bushy tailed when we arrived at our three hour lay-over in Texas. How on earth they felt that passing through there was an efficient route to get to Idaho, I’ll never understand. Nevertheless, there we were, feeling slightly groggier than before our nap simply because we had fallen too deeply asleep too briefly.

To try and pass the time, we perused the countless gift shops that lined the halls of the airport and wound up with several shopping bags filled with nothing in particular. Just stuff that seemed like a great idea in the moment, but would likely serve little to no purpose later on, other than to provide three dimensional proof that we had in fact taken this journey together.

When we ran out of stores to rummage, we made our way to one of the many food courts and settled in for some lunch. I hadn’t even realized how hungry I was until I was sitting face to face with the juiciest turkey burger I have ever eaten in my life. I completely devoured the entire thing within
minutes and then went back to finish every last one of my fries. I was busy sucking the last of the ketchup and mayo mix from my fingertips when I had a brief moment of panic imagining what I must have looked like from Noah’s perspective. Had he been any other guy, I would have done what every sensible girl on a mission to lock down a man would have done and ordered a small salad with dressing on the side, most of which I would have left on my plate to wilt, just to prove that I needed next to no sustenance to survive. Why exactly women had convinced themselves that men found this to be an enticing trait, I had yet to understand, but as with most rules regarding men, I had opted to just follow along rather than question it. If it worked for the Tara’s of the world, it was bound to be in my favor to implement it for myself. Until now. Now I was sitting with a guy I had shared Nachos with. Cheesy, greasy nachos that resulted in salsa stains on my shirt and sour cream streaks on my cheek as I tried to get as much into my mouth as humanly possible every time in an attempt to always eat the perfect nacho bite. After that, what was a turkey burger in comparison?

“I did not need to eat all that,” I sighed as I tossed my napkin onto my Styrofoam plate.

Noah crumpled up the wrapper from his mega burrito and added it to my pile.

“Really? I’m
kinda thinking about grabbing a milkshake or something,” he said as he leaned back in his chair and craned his neck around to try and get a better look at the surrounding food options.

Actually, ice cream didn’t sound half bad. Who was I kidding? That stupid salad thing would never have worked on Noah anyway.

“I could go for something sweet,” I said as I perked up in my seat and started to scan the signs along with him. It wasn’t until our eyes traveled down to the very end that we finally spotted the frozen yogurt stand.

A few minutes later we were both headed back to our gate while sucking down thick, delicious milkshakes and satisfying our cravings for sugar and cream. It wasn’t long after and we were on a plane again, this time headed for our final destination of Boise, Idaho.

It was early evening when we arrived. After the last airport we’d seen, Boise’s seemed like a miniature version of the real deal. It was a welcome change to be able to move around without being completely overwhelmed and overstimulated by one’s surroundings and the sheer masses of people traveling alongside you. All in all, moving there hadn’t been a bad experience. Sure, the weather left room for improvement, and if you weren’t particularly impressed by the mountainside it was easy to get homesick for the beach. Of course, being in love with some jackass two thousand miles away was by far Boise’s biggest downfall and I could hardly hold that one against the city of trees.

I watched as Noah took in his new environment with a hesitant curiosity as though he found the mellow quiet of the little airport unnerving rather than calming.

“What were you thinking moving here?” he mumbled, afraid that someone else might hear him.

“What do you mean?” I asked, gently guiding him toward the escalators. I had only been there on one other occasion, but even I would be able to find their one and only baggage claim station again.

“I mean, look at the size of this airport! Clearly they don’t get a lot of visitors here!”

“Well, no. I definitely wouldn’t call this a tourist hot spot, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Just give it a chance.” I looked up at him where he stood two steps behind me on the escalator. His arms were folded stubbornly across his chest as he said, “That’s not really going to be an issue, is it? I mean, we’re only going to be here for a couple of days. How much am I going to be able to see other than the airport?”

I laughed.

“Oh, trust me, in two days, I’ll be able to show you all there is to see and still have time to spare.”

The escalator ride was ending and I didn’t want to miss my exit. Not that one could ‘miss their exit’ on an escalator, but someone had told me once that you could get your foot sucked in by the grid that swallowed the steps as they traveled the converter belt around and so, ever since then I had made it a point to leap off two steps prior to arriving at my destination. In hindsight, I realized that it was a highly unlikely scenario, but it was one of those seeds that got planted and continued to grow no matter how often I went through and ridded my brain of the wild weeds that grew there causing my mind to clutter with useless fears and information.

Noah watched me make my hop off to the ground floor, but he didn’t say anything. He had been through this with me more than once, repeatedly trying to convince me that it was entirely possible to simply step over the ledge where the moving stairs and floor met, like any reasonable adult would do, but there was no arguing with the theories of a mad woman, so he had eventually given up. Now a slight grin just crept over his mouth whenever we took an escalator together. I was pretty used to him laughing at me, although now I hoped it was less of a ‘she’s such an idiot’ laugh and more of an ‘oh look, she’s so adorable with her eccentricities’ sort of laugh. I was about to ask which it was when he pointed toward the baggage claim circle and the moving grid that encircled it.

“Look, our bags are out already.” He widened his stride and sped up, managing to reach our articles of luggage just before they were about to disappear again in the mysterious hole in the wall. With both of his hands full, he looked to me and said, “So, where to next?”

“My car. It’s parked over in their long-term lot.” If Noah was unimpressed with the inside of the airport he was slightly more appalled when he got outside and realized it took all of thirty seconds to cross the street and reach my car where it was parked among the few stragglers who used the lot while traveling for business. This time, rather than verbalize his thoughts, he simply forced a long, audible breath out through his teeth. It was sufficient in conveying his thoughts to me since I had become fluent in ‘Noah’ a long time ago and rarely required translating at this point.

The drive back to my place took about thirty minutes as we passed through Boise and the pretty town of Eagle before finally arriving in Star, my temporary hometown. A few months back when I was first house hunting, Star had been the most obvious choice. The school I taught at was located in the next town over called Meridian, but the extra drive had been worth it to me right from the start. In my quest to make changes, this one was easiest since it had obviously been opposite anything else I’d ever experienced. The entire town consisted of one main road, a gas station/convenience store/hardware store, a diner, a small car lot and a veterinarian. Aside from that, there really wasn’t much else to see. But the sights weren’t what had swayed me in Star’s favor anyway, it was the scent. After having spent the entire day driving around and looking at small houses and apartments, it had already been dark by the time I arrived in Star. If there hadn’t been much to see in the daylight, there was even less in the black of night. Although, the lack of manmade lights hadn’t been a bad thing. In fact, it made the night sky light up in all its galactic splendor. It was a beautiful sight to behold and it added to the country atmosphere already present in the general surrounding landscape. What really took things to the next level, however, was the smell of horses and hay that drifted through the cool night air. I hadn’t smelled anything like it since I had been a child. It was a homecoming of sorts as I stood there breathing in the heavenly scent and remembered what it had felt like to stand in my Aunt Linda’s barn. She had sold the place and moved to the city by the time I graduated high school and I’d never been back. Until that moment I’d never realized how much I had missed it. Not that I was likely to transform into a cowgirl anytime soon, but just knowing that I was close enough to see a horse if I so chose, was good enough.