Page 22 of The Love Bus

IT’S COMPLICATED…

A fter climbing off the bus, the WonderWorld Tour group scattered into smaller parties.

It was natural, the way large groups seemed to divide themselves up for one reason or another.

Marla and Josie huddled together with Patty and Denise, already debating which café looked like it would have the best pie.

The married couples wandered toward the first restaurant they spotted, Ed lamenting to Roger that he wished this were a casino town.

I glanced around, not entirely sure where I wanted to go. I’d told Noah I was warm enough, but outside again, the cold seemed to penetrate my bones.

“Christine, come with me!” Babs had taken Mrs. Grady by the arm, veering them toward the opposite side of the street. “I’ll bet that diner has homemade cobbler. Didn’t you mention wanting something sweet? And then we can see if one of these cute little stores sell yarn.”

Mrs. Grady hesitated, glancing at her son. “Noah?”

He waved her off with a faint smile. “I’ll pass on the cobbler. You go on.”

Hadn’t Babs said the two of us, as the only singles on the tour, would stick together? I mean, not that I expected anything, but watching Babs dragging the other woman away, I felt oddly…abandoned.

Before I could feel offended, I remembered what she’d said earlier—that she was going to dig up the story about Mother and Son Grady. And then as she arrived on the opposite side of the street, Babs twisted around and sent me a not-at-all-subtle wink.

There was no chance the man standing behind me hadn’t seen it.

I chanced a quick glance up at him. He didn’t say a word, but I could see the laughter in his eyes. Of course, he wasn’t oblivious to Babs’s antics.

A person would have to be blind and deaf not to notice.

“Good gravy,” I said, watching Babs and Mrs. Grady disappear into a small café across the street. “She knows I’m single, and of course, she assumes you are too, you know...”

In other words. I had nothing to do with that.

Noah lifted an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth twitching like he was fighting a smirk.

I should have stopped there. Really. But I didn't.

“Because you're here with your mother.” Still nothing from him. So naturally, I kept going. “That is, unless your wife is perfectly fine with you running off to complete the Southwest Bucket List Adventure with a busload of senior citizens?”

Noah exhaled a short laugh, shaking his head.

I let out my own laugh, the sound a little shaky. When a few seconds went by and he still didn’t answer my super subtle question, I found myself scanning the street, looking anywhere but at him.

Despite Babs’s meddling, I refused to assume I’d be having lunch with Noah Grady.

And yet…as I stood there, adrift in a strange little mountain town, the full weight of alone hit harder than expected. It didn’t crash in like a wave. It snuck in silently, tightening the space under my ribs in an all-too-familiar sensation.

For two days, I’d been surrounded by voices and laughter, of people sharing pictures of grandchildren, who had liked what on Facebook, and also crazy-long lists of daily medications. But now, in the sudden quiet, it was like the noise had been holding me together. And without it, I felt untethered.

My skin felt a little too sensitive to the breeze. My breath, a little too shallow.

A dozen cafes lined this street. A dozen places I could go. But I couldn’t seem to move toward any of them.

Oh. My. God! Why was I afraid to be alone?

I’d spent so long anchored to Leo, to us, that without him, I was just…floating. Gran was gone. Dad was gone. Ashley was busy with her family. Mom and I were…

I folded my arms and tugged my jacket around me, oddly frozen despite a sudden urge to… Run? Run where?

Back to the bus?

“Luna?”

I lifted my gaze and stared almost unseeing up at Noah.

He hadn’t moved. While I was spiraling, he was just standing there, watching me.

“Are you all right?” I watched his mouth move and heard the question, but my lips felt oddly numb, so I just nodded instead of trying to speak.

Before I could shake myself out of this feeling, his hand gripped my elbow, steady and warm. In something of a daze, I let him guide me down the sidewalk and through a heavy wooden door.

The scent of fried food and grill smoke hit me immediately, snapping me back to the present. The faint clang of dishes, the low hum of conversation was…familiar.

Grounding.

Noah didn’t say anything as he found us a booth, and after I sat down on one side, he took the opposite seat, so he was facing me.

Silence.

He met my eyes for a second. “You all right?”

I nodded, wondering why this silence was so comfortable, until a lanky guy with his hair in a ponytail and a tie-dye T-shirt dropped two single-page menus in front of us.

“Welcome to The Rusty Pint. Name’s Bodie. Can I grab you guys a drink real quick?” He sounded super mellow, like he could sleep through a rock concert. Or like he was always just a little bit high.

“Two waters,” Noah ordered for us both while casually sliding his arms out of his coat.

Was it high-handedness or chivalry? Obviously, I didn’t even try arguing this time, still struggling to regain my footing as our waiter dude disappeared.

I stared at the menu, the words blurring together, not really seeing them.

If he didn’t think I was a nutcase before, I couldn’t blame him for thinking that now…

“Sorry about that.” My voice was little more than a whisper.

Noah leaned back against the booth, and I felt his gaze flicking over me, assessing.

“Does that happen often?”

I blinked up at him, the movement of my eyelids slow, still not quite completely unfrozen. “What?”

“Outside.” He gestured vaguely and then crossed his arms. “Your breathing changed, and you just…froze up. It wasn't the cold, though, was it?”

I winced a little, but before I could answer, our waiter rematerialized with two glasses of ice water. “Be back in a shake to take your orders.” As quickly as he’d appeared, Bodie drifted away again.

“Drink,” Noah ordered.

I narrowed my eyes jokingly, even though my insides were still shaking. “You sound like Tay.”

“You'd be surprised how many people ignore the symptoms of altitude sickness until they're sitting in an ER.”

Of course. The doctor thing.

I scrubbed a shaky hand down my face, hating that my arms felt so heavy. “I’m okay. Really.” I shook my head. “I just had…a moment.”

“A moment?”

His gaze didn’t waver, and it was unsettling, being looked at like that.

The last thing I wanted was to fall apart on this trip. I mean, I was one of the only two young people on this group, and up until a few weeks ago, I’d thought I had my shit together.

Yeah, no. Not anymore.

“It’s just a…recent thing. I’m not sick or anything.”

Noah gave me a break from his intense stare and took a drink of his water.

I did the same.

“So…” Noah set his glass down. “A recent thing?” His gaze wasn’t pinned on me, but on his thumb, which was sliding around the rim of his glass in an absentminded but mesmerizing way.

“A breakup.” I admitted, groaning a little. Because, calling it a breakup was like calling World War II a little skirmish. “My fiancé and I—my ex-fiancé … We worked together.”

“Is that why it’s complicated?”

I’d said that, hadn’t I?

“Partly. But you don’t want to hear this…”

He was looking at me again, and something in his expression loosened the tangled knot in my chest. He shrugged and a wayward lock of his hair slipped down, curving around his face.

In some ways, I could totally imagine Noah Grady as a doctor, but he could just as easily be an artist. If his hands weren’t so elegant, I could see him being a lumberjack or a construction worker too. How could one man manage to look hot in so many different ways?

I shook the thought off.

“I’ll leave it up to you but…” His voice was low. “I don’t mind listening.”

“You sure about that?” I didn’t want to come across as desperate, especially since he and I had kind of been going around in circles ever since our flight into Denver.

“Isn’t that what friends do?”

“We’re friends then?”

Noah searched my face for a moment and then dipped his chin. “Of course.”

It was such a simple, matter-of-fact statement, but my chest loosened even more.

As sweet as Babs was, I wouldn’t mind knowing Noah Grady.

As a friend.

Definitely not anything more than that though, because, as I’d already established with Babs, I wasn’t ready for anything more.

Something in me eased just a little, and I gave up the pretense of pretending to be some version of myself that didn’t exist anymore.

“Have you ever thought you were completely fine, only to wake up one day and realize nothing was what you thought it was?” I hadn’t thought through my question.

I was pretty sure he knew it wasn’t just a question.

His lips parted slightly, like I’d caught him off guard, then he nodded.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice quieter than before.

But before he could say more, Bodie appeared again.

I ordered a cup of soup—anything to stop the shaking inside—and a half sandwich. Noah ordered a burger and fries.

Sitting here, in a place that felt like a million miles from home, I suddenly desperately wanted to talk to someone about it.

The Incident.

I wanted to talk to someone who didn’t know Leo or our history or the facade of what we’d built together.

And I knew, somehow, that Noah Grady wouldn’t gossip about me. Maybe it was the doctor-patient confidentiality vibes, or maybe it was just his natural disposition. He definitely fell under the category of the strong, silent type.

“So, what happened?” he asked, almost like he could see this need to get it off my chest.

I hesitated, then pulled my phone from my bag. “Last chance. You’re sure you don’t mind?”

“I’m sure.” He took another drink from his water.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. I was gonna do this.

I took a deep breath.

“I didn’t come on this trip because I want to be here.

Not that it hasn’t been…interesting. And beautiful, you know?

Because it has. But, yeah, that’s not why I came.

I mean, it’s not really my thing. It was my mom’s.

” I was rambling but Noah didn’t seem bothered or bored yet, so I kept right on going.

“She was already signed up when she broke her hip. And my mom hates wasting money. She was really upset to think that her ticket wouldn’t be used, so they—she and my sister—transferred it into my name because…

they thought I needed to get away from Newport. ” I paused. “They weren’t wrong.”

Noah tilted his head, one side of his mouth lifting into a half-grin. “Are the cops after you or something?” I tried not to be affected by the look in his eyes. He was just teasing me. Definitely not flirting.

I laughed. “Not that I’m aware of, no. I—” Good gravy, where to start? “When I met Leo, six years ago, I was working in a restaurant. He was hired on as head chef, and I was a line cook, but I waitressed too.”

“Did you like it?” he asked.

“I did.” I was encouraged because I didn’t hear any judgment in his question—or see any in his eyes. Just genuine interest.

“Anyway, I’d started a little YouTube channel—just for fun, you know? But after a few years at the restaurant, Leo thought we could make something of it if we worked together.”

“Were you dating already?”

“Yeah. We got serious pretty fast.” I felt my brows furrow, remembering.

“Leo was—well, he still is—really charismatic and an amazing chef. Between the two of us, it kind of took off. Then two years ago, Leo signed a deal with the local TV station, and between our exposure on YouTube and the show, we kind of became, like, small-time celebrities.”

When I brought my water to my mouth, I realized my hands were shaking.

“Wow,” Noah said, his stormy eyes oddly understanding. “That’s a big deal. Isn’t it? I mean, aren’t there like, millions of YouTube people… What’s it called?”

“Content creators.” I huffed out a breath. “And yeah. I wasn’t thrilled about giving up so much creative control but…” I shrugged. “There were syndication deals in the works.”

After totally falling apart and disengaging from my professional life over the last two weeks, it felt odd to be sitting here, discussing the ashes of my career with…not a total stranger.

Not really.

“There were ?” Noah prodded. “I take it those aren’t in the works anymore?”

“I mean, they might be? Just not for me. I’ve been…” What was the right word to describe what happened? I mean, technically, I had breached the contract. The legal team was supposed to send me some paperwork. Meanwhile, pretty sure I’d been terminated.

“Why?”

I winced. “Uh, it might be easier to just show you.”

Noah, understandably, looked like I’d lost him, but, I mean, there were some things you just couldn’t explain. And if a picture was worth a thousand words, well…

I pulled out my phone, tapped the screen, scrolled to the video, and before I could change my mind, I slid it across the table.