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The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach said otherwise.

If I’d learned nothing else in the past year it was that there was no such thing as permanence. So this hypothetical futurewithout either one of us in Bliss Peak shouldn’t be throwing me for a loop.

Where would Noah be in three years? Would all three of us be living completely different lives in that time?

My mouth ran dry and I tried to understand my reaction instead of pushing it aside.

But that got interrupted when Noah’s voice cut into the silence lapsing between us.

“What movie are we watching?”

After spending the night staring idly at my computer screen, I slept until 11 the next morning and woke up to my phone ringing on the pillow beside me.

Having Noah’s voice be the first thing I heard when I was still on the cusp of slumber was unfair.

His deep but soft timbre had a hypnotic effect and made me sink deeper into my sheets. I was halfway back in dream land before he caught on.

“Red! Get up, ma. I’ll be home in ten minutes. Don’t make me pull a Greyson and walk in your house to get you.”

“He told you that?”Of coursehe told him that. Greyson was texting the group chat before he let himself in last night.

“Ten minutes, Red.” I could hear the smile in his voice before the line went dead.

“Did he just hang up on me?” I allowed myself a second to look at my screen before I kicked the covers off my body and stood up to get dressed.

While the rest of the furniture in this house was on its last leg, my grandfather—saint that he was—made sure I had a brand new mattress before I moved in and it was the stuff dreams were made of, even if it was small.

After pulling out a pair of leggings, a sweatshirt and my favorite vest, I hopped in the shower and hopped back out five minutes later.

As soon as I rolled on my deodorant, I heard Noah’s truck rolling over the gravel outside. “Shit.”

I spent the next two minutes brushing my teeth, getting dressed and shoving my feet into the sneakers by my door.

I grabbed the first notebook I saw, my purse and makeup and rushed out the door.

When I climbed into the passenger seat of the Denali, Noah smirked at me.

“You know I’m not in a real rush, right?” He waited until my seatbelt was secure before putting the truck back in drive. “I mean, my boss ain’t gon’ do shit if I’m a little late from lunch.”

He looked at me with a smirk and his golds glinted in the sunlight streaming through the windshield.

Gold looked good on him. The only other jewelry he wore on the regular was a gold diamond, Cuban-link chain that drew my attention to his neck more than I wanted to admit.

The tattoos, the corded muscles in his neck, the way his hair perfectly framed his face and…

Nope.

Trying to steer my thoughts away from him, I swallowed and unzipped my make up bag while shooting him a sidelong glance.

“Greyson know you talk about him like this?”

My voice was teasing and I relaxed when Noah effortlessly matched my energy.

He gave me a lazy, one-shouldered shrug as he drove us back to the main road.

“You can tell him.”

I snickered, pulling my visor down and flipping the cover on the mirror up. I didn’t have enough time to do a full face, but tinted moisturizer, blush, mascara and a red lip would do. A red lip wouldalwaysdo.