“Well, just last week I had to take their Life Alert buttons away. I really hated doing that, because what if they really are in trouble? But the local fire department had threatened to start billing them for all the fake alerts.” She shook her head. “There are some new men on the squad and they had to check them out. They don’t live together and the guys were on different shifts. They had a lot of fun pushing that button. The EMTs would just get back to the station and the next one would alert. I think as soon as they left one house they were on the phone to let the next one know it was their turn.”
Noah rubbed his hands together. “Oh, that is too funny. I can’t wait to meet them.”
Under her breath Lexi said, “Be careful what you wish for.”
“What was that?”
“I was wondering how you liked the dish?” She pointed to his plate. “The lasagna.”
“It’s wonderful. Did you make the pasta yourself?”
She nodded. “It’s an old family recipe. It takes a lot of time, but anything worth it does.”
“Tell me about yourself?” He leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out, crossing them at the ankle near her feet beneath the table.
“Where would you like me to start? I’m really not that interesting.” She looked down and fiddled with her fork.
“I think you’re more interesting than you think. Start at the beginning, of course.” He made a sweeping motion with his hand.
“Before I moved here, I lived in La Jolla, California, where my parents still live. I’m an only child. My parents are really wonderful people.” She paused, smiling at the thought of them.
“Is it hard being away from them?”
“It is. I love them so much but La Jolla has too many bad memories.” She shook her head to clear her mind of the memories. “They’d moved to California because they were tired of all the snow in Chicago.”
He sat up straight, a smile spreading across his face, “Really, you’re originally from Chicago? So am I! Small world. Where’d you live?”
“We were north of Chicago in a town called Island Lake.”
“Wow, I lived in Glen Ellen, just me and my mom. The guys in the band and I grew up together. Started playing in Chicago and we were discovered one night. From there we took off.” He shrugged and spread his hands wide.
They talked until past midnight, relaxing more as they shared memories of growing up around Chicago. Lexi hadn’t laughed or felt so free in a long time.
*
He sat on the rocks long into the night. He didn’t like to stay in one place for very long and he was taking a chance coming back here so quickly after he had been there this afternoon, but he couldn’t stay away.
The rage had built inside of him earlier, watching the two of them in the water. How dare he stand so close to her. Touch her. Almost kiss her. She was his. Didn’t he understand that?
What was she doing allowing him those liberties? She knew she was his and always would be. Nothing could keep them apart. He was in the driver’s seat. He was the one that determined how things went and when. Not her.
Through the open curtains, he watched them eat dinner and talk long into the night. He had to do something to make her understand that she couldn’t just talk to whomever she wanted. She had to be taught a lesson.
He smiled. A slow lesson. He would draw this out. Make it last. Go further than he had ever gone before. He closed his eyes tipped his head back and breathed in deeply. It was time to start playing.
CHAPT
ER FIVE
Lexi spent much of the next day relaxing, and even though her brain was tired, it wouldn’t stop thinking about everything she and Noah had talked about. It was amazing how much they had in common, especially their love of growing up near Chicago. If her grandmother hadn’t left her this house she would be living in Chicago now because she wouldn’t have stayed in La Jolla.
Noah might be a major rock star but he was just a man and she was so comfortable around him. She hadn’t spent that much time alone with a man, who wasn’t a family member, in years. The amazing thing was she hadn’t thought about that fact until much later. Even though he flirted with her like there was no tomorrow, she enjoyed it. She’d forgotten how much fun it was.
As Lexi pulled into the back parking lot at Golden Ages, she tried to get Noah out of her head. She had the feeling it wasn’t going to be dull today and she had to have her wits about her. This was the first day all the acts for the talent show would be together. They’d do a quick run-through of the show to see how long it would be and what order everyone should go in. She had to get there early to round up the Troublesome Trio, otherwise, who knew how long it would take.
After searching all over she found them sitting on the half wall on the outside of the building watching a plumber work on a drain. Lexi closed her eyes in a prayer that one of the ladies hadn’t done something to stop the line up again. She stopped in front of them effectively blocking their view. “Good afternoon ladies, is there anything I should know?”
“Yeah, you should know that you are blocking our view. Move it or lose it,” Leigh said as she waved her away and tried to look around her.
“Now, honey, what could we have possibly done? Why don’t you have a seat next to me, we are paying the nice man by the hour, after all,” Marie added as she patted the space next to her.