Page 116 of Something Like Hail

“I’ve moved on,” Noahassured him. “I still get a little butthurt from time to time, butit’s easier when you find someone who loves you the rightway.”

“Yeah,” Tim said, a smiletugging at his cheek. “It is.”

Noah noticed the wedding ring. Rather thanit filling his stomach with warmth, he felt guilt sloshing aroundinstead. “I’m really sorry for what happened. I had no idea whatRyan was going to do. I don’t think he planned it. We lost touchbefore the shooting happened and—”

“It’s not your fault,” Timinterrupted. “If I seem crabby, it’s just because I’m nervous ashell. Part of me wants to see him again, but the rest—most of meactually—never wants to. Ever.”

“I appreciate what you’redoing today. He will too.”

The silence between them was suffocating,and it was Tim who chose to break it. “So you’ve moved on, huh?Found a guy who appreciates you?”

“Yeah! Sure looks thatway.” Noah thought of a sunlit bed and wished they were already onthe way back. “He acts like I’m… Well, he acts like I’myou!”

Tim laughed. “I hope for his sake that youaren’t. At least not how I was at your age. So I’m guessing he’salso a, uh… Tell me about him.”

“He’s a few years youngerthan me,” Noah said, unable to contain his smile. “You know howpuppies are when they’re halfway to becoming adult dogs? They’reall gangly legs and oversized paws, and they barge into your lifeand knock everything over, but you can’t help but love them becausethey’re so adorably enthusiastic. That’s what he’slike.”

“Sounds nice,” Tim said.“What’s he do for a living?”

“He’s a waiter. And acollege student.”

“Oh. That makes itespecially cool that he’s so cool.” Tim laughed. “You know what Imean.”

Except he didn’t. “Huh?”

“With your line of work.Relationships must be tricky.”

Noah was quiet.

Enough that Tim looked over and cringed.“Sorry. I should mind my own business.”

“No, you’re right,” Noahsaid with a sigh. “It is tricky.”

“But he knows.”

“We’re not in a committedrelationship, and he’s said that he doesn’t want to know if I doanything with other guys.”

Tim shrugged. “Fair enough. If my husbandgot a job as an escort, I wouldn’t want to know the detailseither.”

That would be fine and dandy if Felix wasaware of his true occupation. Noah had been intentionally dancingaround that information so far. “Would you stay with him? Say youfound out your husband started working as an escort because that’swhat he needed to do to survive. Would you still want to be withhim?”

“Ben? Man… We’re doing okayfinancially, so it’s not like he would ever need to. But if forsome weird reason he did, I wouldn’t stop loving him. I’d probablytry to get him away from that sort of work somehow. Nooffense.”

“None taken,” Noahsaid.

“Ryan cheated on me,” Timcontinued. “I don’t know if he ever told you that. When ithappened, the worst part was that I felt like I didn’t really knowhim anymore. If he wasn’t the person I thought he was, then who thehell did I fall in love with? Someone I made up in my own head?That’s the lesson I had to learn with him. Ryan kept on betrayingme, and I took freaking forever to finally leave him. Even then Icouldn’t do it on my own. I needed help.”

Noah wasn’t sure what hemeant by help and didn’t ask, because he was still fixated on onephrase Tim had spoken.Who the hell did Ifall in love with?Noah knew how that felt.The same sensation had overtaken him on the day Ryan broke into ahouse and shot the man currently sitting next to him in thedriver’s seat.

“Maybe it’s like that witheveryone,” Noah said. “We meet someone, make a bunch ofassumptions, then feel hurt when it turns out we got itwrong.”

“True,” Tim conceded, “Butwhen you’re in a relationship with someone, when you shareeverything with them including your home, there shouldn’t be anybig surprises. Not like that.”

Noah focused on the landscape whizzing byoutside. Tim was right. When entering a serious relationship, theother person should gently place bombshells on the table forinspection instead of carelessly dropping them at some later date.“Felix doesn’t know.”

“That’s your boyfriend?”Tim asked.

“Yeah. When we first met, Iwas trying to be discrete. Marcello wants us tobecause…”