Chapter 19: Chapter 19
Brady pulled to a stop in front of Noelle’s apartment and turned the truck off, thinking he’d walk her to her doorstep so that she wouldn’t have to risk falling again. He hated to dwell on the fact that she’d slipped earlier. He doubted she’d ever fallen before, or at least not frequently, and had certainly traversed that section of walkway thousands of times, but now that he knew it was a possibility she might fall and hurt herself, he couldn’t help the compulsion to protect her.
Only Noelle wasn’t getting out of the truck. Maybe she was waiting for him to come around to open the door for her, like a gentleman. He reached for the door handle, but then she started talking. “Thanks for dinner,” Noelle said.
“Sure. Thank you. I’m sorry again that it got sprung on you at the last minute.”
She giggled. “That’s my mom.”
He’d gotten the impression Doris did what she wanted, which would be an asset for them when it came to the Christmas activities. “It was great talking to you.” He smiled, meaning it. Every moment he spent with Noelle, he enjoyed.
“Yeah, you, too,” she said with a genuine smile. “Do you think I’ll see you tomorrow?”
He saw the hope in her eyes and it made a giddiness well up inside of him like something he might’ve experienced in high school. She made him feel different than any girl he’d ever met, but it was reminiscent of the first time he’d seen Molly Parker in the cafeteria his junior year and knew he wanted to take her to prom.
Pressing those butterfly-in-the-stomach feelings aside for a few moments, he said “I have a meeting at lunchtime tomorrow.” Her eyes fell, and Brady immediately wished he could take it back and rearrange his schedule. “I can come by in the afternoon, though,” he offered. “I set up a lunch with Harry Green. I was hoping we could start getting some more council members on board, so I called him this afternoon, and he said he was free.”
“Oh, that makes perfect sense,” Noelle said, her face brightening slightly, though she still didn’t look happy, exactly. “I’ll definitely be there in the afternoon--and I imagine Pooch will be, too.”
“All right. Well, I’ll come by as soon as I can.”
“Okay then.” She smiled; he smiled back, and an awkward silence fell over the cab of his truck.
Without the heat on, it was beginning to get cold. Noelle shivered a little, and then said, “I guess I should go in.”
“Right!” he exclaimed, remembering himself. As she started to push open the door, he got out and came around to help her.
Brady offered his hand, and she took it. The feel of her fingers wrapped around his made him feel all warm and cozy despite the falling snow. He kept her hand in his as they made their way to the stairs that led to her door.
Releasing Noelle’s hand so she could head up the stairs felt like letting go of something precious, something he couldn’t live without. She walked in front of him, not holding onto the snow covered railing with her bare hand, but he was at the ready in case she slipped again. Of course, she didn’t.
When they got to the door, she turned to look at him. With the snow clinging to her blonde hair, the stars twinkling above them, and the lights from the Christmas decorations inside of her apartment, she looked like an angel, an absolutely gorgeous angel with the heart of a saint.
More than anything at that moment, Brady wanted to kiss her goodnight, and he got the impression she wanted to kiss him, too. She wasn’t retreating, wasn’t rushing to unlock the door and hide inside. How easy would it be to lean over and press his lips to hers? Just one, sweet, short kiss wouldn’t hurt anything would it?
Unless it did. Unless she didn’t actually want him to kiss her. Then what? Then… she’d think he was a horrible person and never want to see him again. The Christmas events would never happen. He’d never see Pooch again. No, he definitely shouldn’t just assume because she seemed to have a hopeful look in her eyes again, as she had when she’d asked about lunch. It was too soon. They hadn’t known each other that long, and this wasn’t even a date.
Reluctantly, Brady took a step backward toward the steps. “Goodnight, Noelle. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He watched the light in her eyes fade slightly as he backed away. “Goodnight, Brady. See you.” She gave him a small smile and then pulled her keys out of her pocket, unlocking the door, and giving him a wave before she disappeared inside.
With a heavy heart, Brady picked his way back down the stairs, hoping he hadn’t missed his only chance. If he got another chance to kiss Noelle, he’d do it. Hopefully, by then, he’d know for sure that she wanted to be kissed.
* * *
For the second time that night, Noelle entered her apartment, took her coat off, hanging it by the door, and put away her keys. She took a few deep breaths, feeling the cold for the first time. Before, when she’d been standing outside with Brady, she had only felt the warmth radiating off of him and hadn’t even realized just how freezing she was, especially her fingers.
She sank down in a chair and cupped her head with her hands, feeling so silly. For a moment, she’d thought maybe he wanted to kiss her. While she realized they hadn’t known each other that long, there was no question, in her mind, that there was an attraction there. Perhaps she was just reading it wrong. Brady was a nice guy. She could see how women might mistake his politeness for attraction. Is that what was happening between them? She didn’t think so… but when he hadn’t kissed her, she began to think maybe she’d been wrong and was misreading the situation.
“It hasn’t been that long,” she muttered to herself, leaning back in the chair and looking around the room. She hadn’t finished her Christmas decorating, but she did have a few pieces out, their lights all set on timers so that her apartment was slightly joyful, even without her tree, her angel collection, or the snowmen her grandma had given her when she was a little girl, one for each year until she’d passed away when Noelle was twelve. No, she hadn’t finished decorating, but at least she had some twinkling lights to bathe her while she wallowed in her own self-pity.
The idea that Brady was a gentleman did renew her idea that it could just be that he wanted to get to know her better before he kissed her. He had said he’d come by the shelter tomorrow. Of course, that might be to see Pooch. She sighed, shook her head, and decided not to worry about it anymore. If it was meant to be, it would happen. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere. If they waited until after Christmas to see if they potentially had enough chemistry to build off of, that would probably be for the better. For now, they’d have to work together on the Christmas events, and she didn’t want to do that with someone who thought she had an unrequited crush on him.
Noelle pulled herself up, deciding to just take a shower and go to bed, when her phone pinged. Thinking it might be Brady, until she remembered she hadn’t given him her number yet, she pulled it out and looked down.
It wasn’t a text, though. It was a message through one of the social media sites she used to post about the shelter. Noelle’s breath caught in her throat as she read the subject line. “Regarding the black and white Havanese.”
Noelle almost dropped her phone. Had she found Pooch’s owners? While she should be happy if that was the case, the idea that she’d never see the little dog again--the idea that Brady would never see him again--had her struggling to breathe.