Page 20 of Just My Type (The Boston Hearts #3)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NOAH
“ H ey, look who it is!”
I glance up from the most amazing steak sandwich I’ve ever had to see two guys who look like they walked straight off fraternity row standing at the edge of our table.
I ignore them, used to interruptions when I’m at a table with Jordan’s friends.
The rest of his best friends met us at lunch, which means our table now includes former NFL quarterback Asher Hansley, former NHL superstar Jeremy Wright, and Amelia’s brother, billionaire tech genius Gabe Sullivan.
This is not a group that moves around incognito.
Except these guys aren’t looking at Asher, Jeremy, or Gabe. They’re looking at me. More specifically, their gazes are bouncing between me and Hannah.
“Can I help you?” I ask, my hand falling to Hannah’s leg under the table in a protective gesture.
I’m not sure why I do it, but since I woke up this morning accidentally married to Hannah, I’m feeling all kinds of things I’ve never felt before, and one of them is a burning need to be touching her as often as possible .
“I can’t believe it’s you!” frat guy one says, smiling broadly. “You guys were amazing last night.”
Cooper snorts out a laugh. “I’m pretty sure you’ve got the wrong group, guys. No one here did anything last night that would be considered amazing.”
“Speak for yourself.” Elliot smirks at Cooper and then leans back, stretching his arm across the back of Amelia’s chair. “I think that thing I did with my…”
Amelia claps a hand over his mouth. “Let’s just keep that between us,” she says, a blush creeping over her face even as she smiles.
“Yes, lets,” Gabe grumbles, looking between Elliot and Amelia. “That’s my sister, dude.”
Elliot gives him a cheeky smile. “Your very, very hot sister.”
Jordan grins and picks up Jo’s hand, kissing her knuckles. “I’m pretty sure there was some amazingness going on in our room too.”
Jo laughs and leans up to kiss his jaw. “Pretty sure, nothing, J. It was definitely amazing.”
“Not you all!” frat guy two says. “Them.” He points to me and Hannah. “Danny and Sandy.”
“Uh, what?” I glance at Hannah, but she looks as befuddled as I feel.
Frat guy two looks at me like I’m crazy. “Your karaoke? ‘You’re the One That I Want’? It was fucking amazing. You guys brought down the house.”
“Sorry, guys,” I say, shaking my head. “I think you’ve got the wrong…
” I trail off as a memory from last night hits me full force.
Me and Hannah. A stage. Her sly, sexy smile over a microphone.
Her finger trailing down my chest. My hands cupping her face.
Her hands on my waist. Tugging her against me. The cheering crowd. My smile spreads.
“Noah, what is happening right now?” Hannah hisses.
“Yeah, Noah,” Cooper says, with a grin that means I’m stirring shit right now . “Sounds like some of the people around this table are keeping secrets about what really happened last night.”
“No one is keeping secrets,” Hannah says through gritted teeth. “It’s just that some of us don’t remember some of the things that happened last night. Like a karaoke performance that, apparently, brought down the house .”
I turn to Hannah, giving her my most delightful smile. “See, the thing is, Han…”
“You don’t remember?” Frat guy one interrupts. “I mean, I guess that makes sense. You guys were pretty wasted. Here!” His face lights up as he digs his phone out of his pocket and unlocks it. “I recorded it because it was so amazing.”
He clicks the screen and hands it over. Hannah takes it slowly, like the phone is a live bomb that could detonate at any moment. Before she has a chance to hit play, Jo, Amelia, and Hallie all jump up from their chairs to stand behind Hannah.
“Uh, what are you doing?” Hannah asks suspiciously.
Jo grins at her. “If you did something ridiculous last night, I need to see it.”
“What she said.” Hallie gives Hannah a twin grin.
“I’m with them,” Amelia says. “I love a good drunken antic. Let’s see it, Hans.”
Hannah heaves a sigh and glances at me. Her eyes hold a million questions, and I want to answer all of them. “It’s okay, Han,” I murmur to her. “We had some fun. That’s it.”
That’s not it, but I’m definitely not letting our family and friends in on the little matter of the wedding ring currently burning a hole in my pocket.
The trust I see in Hannah’s eyes almost knocks me over, and when she takes a deep breath and presses play on the video, something warm unfurls in my chest. Something far more complicated than an accidental, drunk Vegas marriage or the crush mixed with protectiveness I’ve had for her for all these years.
Something like want and need and other words that should scare me but don’t.
Words like always and forever, and she’s the one .
She’s the one. Suddenly there is absolutely no doubt in my mind.
The low strains of “You’re the One That I Want” playing from the phone yank me back to the present, and I tune back in. But I don’t watch the phone. Instead, I watch Hannah.
See her eyes widen when last night Hannah winks at me, running her tongue over her top teeth.
Hear her sharp intake of breath when she watches us circle each other, faces close, eyes locked.
See her squirm in her chair when I yank her close to me, her hands locked on my hips.
Watch her stare at the screen even when the video ends, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
“Well fuck, I need a cold shower after that. And a phone call with my wife.”
“Literally same. I knew we should have gotten a baby-sitter so Ems could come with me.”
Hannah whips around and levels a glare at Jordan’s friends Asher and Jeremy, who must have come to stand behind us at some point to watch the show.
“What the actual fuck is wrong with you?” Hannah demands. “This isn’t a locker room. Sit your asses down.”
Asher just grins, sauntering back to his seat, Jeremy following behind him. “I just call it like I see it and that, my friends, was hot as fuck. Hot. As. Fuck.”
“Right?” Frat boy two says, grabbing his friend’s phone. “You guys are a really hot couple.”
“We’re not a couple,” Hannah says a little too quickly for my liking.
He shrugs. “Well, you probably should be. Anyway, thanks for the show!”
“Hey,” I call as he turns. “Can you send me that video?”
“Why do you want that?” Hannah asks in a low voice.
I grin at her as I take the phone back and send myself the video, returning the phone and waving as they walk away. “Like he said, Gorgeous. Hot as fuck.”
“Gorgeous?” all three of my brothers ask in unison, and when I look up at them, they have matching wide grins.
I narrow my eyes at them, trying to convey shut the fuck up right the fuck now .
My brothers are unpredictable, and they’ve always suspected I have a thing for Hannah.
Mostly because no one knows me better than they do, and I’m incapable of subtlety even on my best day.
That, combined with the karaoke video, means they are capable of just about anything right now.
I’m usually all for some brotherly antics, but I’m pretty sure Hannah is wavering wildly between liking me and wanting to knee me repeatedly in the balls, and I want to keep the pendulum solidly on like until I have a chance to get her alone and talk more about this.
I’m saved from my brothers’ shit by Jo’s incredulous voice.
“Holy shit, Hans. I forgot how good you were at karaoke.” Jo sits back down and stares at Hannah like she’s seeing her for the first time.
“I knew you had to have done that before,” I say, bumping shoulders with Hannah. “You were too good to be a karaoke novice.”
“It’s been a while,” Hannah mumbles, staring down at her hands.
“Well, we definitely need to do that more often. I think it was the most fun I’ve ever had.”
“We?” Amelia grins maniacally from her seat across the table. “Are you a we ?”
Hannah’s head snaps up. “We are definitely not a we. There is absolutely no we here. We got drunk and did some karaoke. I don’t know why everyone is making such a big deal about it.”
Hannah’s shoulders are rigid, and her eyes are a little wild, like being in the center of attention like this is too much for her.
I drop my hand back to her leg, tapping three times—the same rhythm I tap on my ceiling back in Boston when I know she’s alone in her apartment.
I don’t know why I started doing it—just a little reminder to her that she’s not alone, I guess.
A reminder that I see her. That I’m here for her.
And when she started tapping back twice, I kept doing it, and it became our little thing.
We’ve never spoken about it, so I don’t know how I know she understands the significance of my tapping on her leg, but I do. Because she de-escalates immediately. She takes a deep breath, and her shoulders relax. She closes her eyes for a second, and when she opens them, the anxiety is gone.
And when she reaches down and taps a finger twice on my hand in response, my heart stutters in my chest. I realize here and now, in this crowded Vegas restaurant at a table full of our family and friends, that I would burn down the world for Hannah.
But right now, what she really needs is for everyone to change the subject.
I glance over at my brothers, and in the wordless kind of communication we’ve always had, they get me immediately.
“So, what’s the plan today?” Cooper asks, looking at Jordan, who has planned this entire weekend down to the minute because this is what Jo wanted, and when Jo wants something, Jordan delivers.
Jordan starts to rattle off the itinerary, and Jo’s excitement is contagious, so within minutes, no one is focusing on Hannah. Except for me.
“Thank you,” she says quietly, pressing her shoulder lightly to mine. “Too many eyes on me makes me twitchy.”
“Anything for you, Gorgeous. Literally anything.”
“Why?” she asks, like she can’t figure out why I would do anything in the world for her. Like no one else ever has, and god, her ex can really fuck right off. Even thinking about him makes me stabby.
There are a lot of things I could say in response to Hannah’s question, but almost none of them are appropriate for where we’re currently sitting, so I table all of those for later and go with something else instead.
“Because you’re my wife.”
When Hannah literally growls, I just grin at her, swinging an arm across the back of her chair, loving life when she doesn’t do one single thing to move away from me.