Marked. Part II: Becoming Noah Baxter (21 page)

Chapter 32

Wednesday, August 20

2:14pm

Noah removes the blindfold from my eyes. I blink for my eyes to adjust to the outside light, looking around at our racetrack, confused as to how this is a surprise.

We've been here every waking moment since we officially became the owners, getting it ready to run as a business (which I must happily report has it's grand opening Labor Day weekend). The classes we are offering are already booked until the end of the year.

There isn't much of “Jay's” money left, having used it all to buy the track and the thousands of repairs and upgrades it needed, but neither of us cares. Noah's excited to earn his money doing something he's passionate about and can feel proud of.

I gesture around me, “I don't understand?”

Noah's rocking on his heels, jittery since we woke up this morning and he took me to brunch,
“I have something to show you that I've been secretly working on.”

“
When did you have time to do that?” After spending the days working our asses off to get this place ready to open, we usually end up passing out from exhaustion in the main building, where we made one of the offices into a temporary bedroom, not wanting to waste money on rent.

He winks at me, “I have my ways.”

Noah turns me and leads me to the far back where the five car garage is that he and my dad worked on together. My dad never allowed me to go over there, claiming he wanted “bonding” time with Noah.

We go behind the building that faces the desert to the single door. He removes a key from his pocket and hands it to me, motioning for me to unlock it.

I study his face for a moment, but he's not letting himself reveal anything.

Intrigued, I open the door, shocked by what I find.

I step inside, eyes roaming around, taking it all in. It's like I exited the racetrack and entered a subdivision; the inside of this place exactly as you would expect a house to look (minus the furniture). I remove my shoes, wanting to feel the new carpet under my feet. Noah remains a few feet back as I roam the open floor plan, only speaking to let me know one of the doors opens into the garage. Eventually I take the stairs to the second level that was added a few months ago.

The entire upper floor is bedrooms. Three to be exact.

I make my way to the last bedroom and look out the window. It's the only room that has a view of the tracks, the rest view the desert.

“
They have the blinds built in,” Noah informs me, sounding anxious.

I play with the levers, watching the blinds go up and down or open and shut depending on which one you slide. That is
really
cool.

“
That way there's no figuring out what curtains to buy,” he nervously explains.

Wow. He remembers.

“The kitchen already has all the appliances,” I say softly, back still to Noah.

“
Yeah, I didn't want you dying of boredom,” he teases.

“
The walls are primer,” Noah advertises, hoping to get more of a reaction out of me. “I thought either we could figure out the color together...or I could just do it; I wasn’t sure where you stood on paint.”

My heart and stomach do a flip-flop simultaneously before charging into each other.

“There's no lawn to mow anywhere,” he pursues, still waiting for a response, but I'm speechless. “The windows are double pane and the walls are soundproofed, so cars can't be heard. For, you know...kids...babies sleeping...that kind of thing.”

“
You want kids?” I ask, still facing the window, afraid to turn around.

I'm pretty sure I just heard him swallow, “I'm getting there.”

“For me or for you?”

“
Both.”

“
I'm not in any hurry,” I clarify. “One day, but I'm still young.”

“
Good. I'll get there, but I'm not there yet.”

I nod in understanding, hoping he knows that I don't expect him to jump right in from living a solitary life to a family man.

“I know this is unconventional, and I don't expect you to want to raise a family on a racetrack. I just wanted to show you that we can be abnormal and still be a family,” he stops to scrub his scars, something he rarely does anymore. “Fuck,” he mutters, head hung low, his hands finding his hips. “I don't know how to do this.”

“
Do what?”

“
I'm trying to ask you to marry me and I'm completely messing it up. I'm so fucking nervous,” he confesses, dropping to his bottom. He bends his legs up and loosely hangs his arms over his knees. His chin dips down while he stares at the floor.

“
Dammit,” he hisses. “I was almost able to go a whole day without cussing. We're going to have little toddlers waddling around the room saying fuck all the time,” he groans out the last sentence as though he's going to be a father any day now and the stress is finally weighing down on him.

“
Yes!” I half sob, half shout.

His head jerks up, not sure what my outburst is about, but his eyes are hopeful.

I fling myself forward and tackle him to his back, raining kisses all over his face, “I want all of it. I want to be your wife. I want to live here. I want to laugh every time you accidentally curse in front of our kids and look like you just committed a felony.” I stop my kisses to meet his eyes, “I want you by my side for the rest of my life.”

A half smile tugs at his mouth, his eyes studying mine, “When?”

I cock my head to the side, not understanding what he's asking.

He goes to peck my lips, but all it does is make me want more and I pull his face in closer, reinforcing how much I want him, how much I
need
him in a way more than I need air.

He returns my advances by wrapping his hand around my neck, forcing his tongue in deeper, his other arm locking me in place.

He breaks our lips apart just enough to talk, “When can I make you my wife?”

“
The sooner the better!” I'm about to erupt with happiness.

He smiles along my lips, “How long do you need to plan a wedding?”

This makes me push back to see his face, “You would have a wedding?” I can't picture him enjoying people staring at him all day, showering him with attention. He'd be miserable.

“
For you, I would do anything.” The gruff way he speaks, eyes devouring mine, swallowing me in with the deep love he has for me becomes my undoing.

“
You ever been to Vegas?”

His mouth curves into the most breathtaking smile I have ever seen on him or anyone, shining from his entire face,
“I may have...”

I match his features and his eyes keep darting to my mouth then back to my eyes, not knowing where to place their attention.

He tucks my hair behind my ear, “You sure?”

I nod up and down so quickly the room spins for a second,
“I want my parents and brothers to be there.”

The mammoth smile still hasn't left his face, “Of course.”

“Stevie and Naomi, too,”

“
Not a problem. How soon can we go?”

“
This weekend.”

His eyebrows shoot up, “Really? What if they can't make it?”

“Trust me, they'll be there.”

He shifts us so I'm underneath him, “So, by the end of
this
weekend you'll be my wife?”

“
And you'll be my husband.”

“
I like that. I like that a lot.” He goes to kiss me but stops, turning serious, “But don't women dream about their wedding day? I think I can survive one day if it will make you happy. Shit,” he curses, lifting off me and going back to his previous sitting position with his arms dangling over his knees and his head hung low. “I forgot about a ring. I've completely messed this up.”

“
I don't care about a wedding,” I sit up and crawl between his legs, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I also don't care about some silly ring. All I care about is that we were lucky enough to find one another.”

He lifts his head up, mouth twitching, “Can Elvis marry us?”

“Of course, I want this to be classy.”

I can tell by his expression he thinks I'm messing around, but I'm dead serious. I want our wedding day to be full of laughter and memorable moments that we will never forget and be talking about until we take our last breaths. I'm even thinking of letting Stevie buy my dress. It sure as hell won't be classy, but you can bet it will be hot and the sexiest thing I've ever worn. Appealing to my husband is my top priority on my wedding day.

“What else?” Noah urges, voice low and husky in the way he knows drives me crazy.

“
I want my brothers to film it all, but Naomi will take the pictures.”

He throws his head back and laughs, “We should get some interesting stuff from them.”

“I want us to get matching bands. No diamonds, no fluff. Just the simple representation that I belong to you and you belong to me.”

“
Forever,” Noah affirms, heartfelt and quiet, beginning to undress me.

“
Forever,” I confirm, helping him.

And that's just what we do. Elvis marries us in a small, cheesy chapel in Vegas that Saturday afternoon, with my family, Stevie, Naomi, Malik, his wife, and their son in attendance. Arianna and Charlie even show up, along with a timid Hattie, who apparently is now close friends with the two of them. Ben couldn't get away, but sent his private jet for us to use and paid for us all to have our own suites at the Bellagio.

Not having a typical wedding didn't stop my Aunt Lisa from throwing us a huge reception months later. Noah clung to my side the entire time, looking more frightened than if a room full of guns were pointed at him.

For the first time in my life, I don't care that I don't know what the future holds. I look forward to the adventures of the unknown; to Noah and I finding
our
version of happiness.

Epilogue

Seventeen years later...

Saturday, June 7

2:57pm

I tighten my iron-clawed grip around the cement guardrail, wanting to look away from the track but my eyes refuse; they stay committed to the car that is taking a hairpin too tight. This is why I never watch; my heart can't take it.

The car clears the turn, the back end skirting back and forth. It straightens out and comes to a stop a half-yard away from me. I finally allow myself to breathe.

The first thing I see is my husband popping out of the passenger side door with a shit-eating grin. He sees me standing there and his grin gets bigger at the sight of my pale face and horrified eyes.

“Did you see that, babe? Our kid's a natural!”

I shake my head in disapproval, ready to tell him how I really feel, but the driver's side door opens and I hear a “hell yeah!”

“Mom, did you see that?” My thirteen year old daughter, Magnolia, hollers at me, standing on the door frame and resting her arms over the roof. All I can see of her petite frame are her bony arms and head that's barely peaking over, helmet still strapped on.

“
That was sick, Maggie!” My other thirteen year old (and only) son, Wesley, cheers, jumping over the guardrail to swoop her up into a hug.

“
Can we go again, Dad?” Maggie takes off her helmet, giving Noah her best “aren't I just about the cutest thing you've ever seen” look that usually gets her whatever she wants, and not just from her dad.

Maggie's determined to be the best drifter, male or female, across the globe. Although I don't approve, Noah has been letting our kids ride the track since they could reach the pedals, but only if he's in the car with them. Luckily, our little Maggie has only gotten to drive for the past year, having inherited my short height and tiny frame. She also got my big honey-brown colored eyes and her father's dark blond hair, which she always keeps in a ponytail.

I reluctantly have to admit, she
is
a natural.

“
No way, it's my turn!” Malik's second child, Xavier, proclaims, joining the group. He's a year older than our kids and Wes's best friend. He believes that
he'll
be the best drifter, causing many arguments between he and Maggie. It doesn't help that they are both too hot headed to ever back down.

Maggie and Xavier start verbally insulting the other's skills and justifying why they should get to go for a run.
Both their fathers ignore them and start up a conversation of their own. 

Malik and Noah have a close relationship. I think it's because Malik “gets” Noah and has never tried to press information out of him, making an easy friendship form between the two.

Besides Malik helping to make our business successful, an added bonus has been his amazing wife, who instantly became the missing fourth member to my friendship with Noami and Stevie. The four of us have a blast together and take a girls night out at least once a month. We have date nights with the six of us all of the time. It's also been great that all our kids are close, spending almost every waking moment here. It doesn't get much cooler for teens than a racetrack to hang out at.

It's really surprised me how many people have an interest in learning to drift and having a place to go to enjoy the sport. It took a few years to really see any financial gain, but now we've become big enough that we have other employees and it's not just Malik, Noah, and I working seventy hour weeks. 

We're closed today, our kids wanting their birthday party to be held here, loving any excuse to show off to classmates that their parents own this place and they live here.

“
Where's Vi?” Noah asks, head moving around.

“
Seriously, Dad?” Wes comes over to stand next to his dad, letting everyone see exactly what Noah must have looked like at that age, except he also got my eyes. “Where do you
think
she is?”

Noah laughs, realizing it
was
a stupid question. Violet spends her days in our garage under the hood of a car. She reminds me the most of her father, never one to enjoy socializing or engaging in conversation, loving her solitude. 

Violet is our
other
thirteen year old daughter.

That's right, they are
all
thirteen.

Today.

Triplets.

Yikes.

The day Noah and I found out, we both went into panic attacks for separate reasons. Mine was because I had no idea how the hell my body could carry and give birth to three babies and
then
take care of them simultaneously. Noah freaked out thinking no good could come from the number three. He fussed over me the entire pregnancy, scared shitless that any moment something was going to go wrong and we'd all be taken from him. It wasn't until he held Wesley (the first to come out) that you could tell he'd just found another reason to live. Then he held his daughters and he was done for; it was love at first sight for all of them.

I never doubted Noah would be a wonderful father, but he proved me wrong; he's sensational. He's always patient, understanding, and the first to grab them into a big bear hug, giving them an abundance of love and attention.

One of my favorite memories is when the girls were in kindergarten. They made him colored macaroni jewelry for father's day. Violet made him a necklace, Maggie a bracelet (her attention span's incredibly short and couldn't sit still for anything longer). Noah wore them every day for two straight years with pride. He would still be wearing them if the noodles hadn't started breaking. He had me glue them to a piece of paper with a picture of him wearing them from the day he received them, each girl hugging him. It's now hanging in our living room.

Wesley and Noah have a special bond that's hard to define. It's not your typical father/son relationship. Seeing them interact gives me a good idea of the way Noah's father was with him. Noah treats his son as his equal, which in turn Wesley has never tried to test our boundaries, always coming to us to openly discuss things that are bothering him or he needs guidance on.

The two spend a lot of time together. The thing they enjoy doing the most is sparring. Wesley is determined to one day beat his father, so he's never allowed Noah to purposely lose (not that Noah would). The major difference between the two is Wesley is extremely outgoing and can't stand not being around people and socializing, something Noah still has a hard time with, but thankfully it doesn't seem to bother anyone we're close to. They all accept that's just how he is.

“
Hey kids, happy birthday!” My mom and Rick call out, having just arrived with platters of food in their hands. They are still happily together, but neither one has a desire to remarry, and they keep their separate places.

I quickly take a platter from each of them and head over to the table we have designated the food area.

Maggie stops her verbal smackdown to run over and give them a hug. Wes comes over to do the same, already towering over them. The doctor thinks he'll be as tall as his father, if not taller.

A minute later Noami and Stevie arrive with their two children, twelve year old Ava and seventeen year old Parker.

Stevie had wanted to adopt an older child, hoping to give them a better life like Naomi's parents had for her. They met Ava when she was seven and instantly fell in love with her, and when they found out she also had an older brother they had adopted him too.

Ava is the sweetest, most soft spoken girl, who makes the best cupcakes in the entire world. She's also Maggie's best friend. Just like Noami and I, they really seem to balance each other out. Ava stops Maggie from doing crazy things, and well...unfortunately, Maggie is usually getting them both into trouble.

We all excitedly greet one another. Ava and Maggie give each other a hug before Ava goes to be by Wesley, who takes her hand in his.

The very moment Wesley had laid eyes on her, he turned to me and quite seriously professed, “This is a life changing moment for you, Mom. You're about to meet my future wife.” Mind you, he was eight at the time. What do you say to that? But that's Wesley, overly passionate and loyal. Ever since then they've been a “couple.” Stevie, Noami, Noah, and I don't think they've reached an appropriate age to date yet, but when the two are together they are as close as two people can get. Just recently we've allowed hand holding, which I'm sure they were already secretly doing.

Parker only gives a lift of his chin to acknowledge us all. The only people he gives proper greetings to are my mom (Naomi gets on his ass if he's not polite to her) and Noah, who gets his own special nod.

Parker has been a handful from the start, especially at the beginning. He was a bitter, angry child, and at twelve tested Naomi and Stevie every chance he could. Ava was the only one he showed any kindness to. He's amazing with her. I think the only reason she doesn't have his anger issues is because he's always taken care of her and made sure she's protected.

A few years after the adoption, Noah got tired of hearing about the hell Parker was putting Naomi and Stevie through, so when Naomi called me sobbing after finding out Parker had been suspended from school for fighting–his seventh one that year–feeling like she was failing him and running out of options to try, Noah snatched the phone from my hand and asked if he could join her at the school and drive Parker home. No one knows what happened between them during the three hours it took Noah to drop Parker home. Noah says it's not anyone's concern but his and Parker's. After that day, Parker started slowly changing. Twice a week since then Noah has picked him up and they do god knows what for three hours; neither one has shared. At one point Noah told Parker his entire story, which shocked me since I'm the only other person who knows, but he said he needed Parker to understand that he wasn't the one who'd had bad shit happen to him, and that staying pissed off all the time wasn't going to change anything. We still haven't told our kids the whole story. Noah figures we'll know when the time is right; he doesn't want the story tainting their childhood, wanting them to be carefree for as long as possible.

Naomi is now Noah's number one fan and believes he's God's gift to us all for how drastically he's made those she loves most into better people. 

After softly conversing with Noah for only their ears to hear, Parker makes his slow meander to the garage, where he and Violet spend all their time working on old cars. The only reason they accept each other into their space is because they spend the whole time without conversing, only music and the clinking of tools to be heard.

Noah watches Parker, jaw grinding, “Tell Vi she has ten more minutes before I drag her ass out here!”

Parker doesn't respond or acknowledge that he heard, but we know he did; he follows any orders Noah gives him.

Noah looks to me, “In about five minutes, I'm going in there. I don't like them spending so much alone time together; Violet's maturing too fast. ”

I step closer to him so I can warp my arms around his waist, “I thought you trusted him?”

He scowls down at me like the answer should be obvious.

I shrug and raise my brows to let him know I'm not following. This has never been an issue in the past. The two have spent time alone together from the beginning, even when Parker was going through his “pissed off at the world” stage. 

“Our daughters have their mother's smile. Do you have any idea how much stress that causes me? Especially now that they are getting older?”

I beam up at him, still feeling the effects of his compliments.

“See? That right there,” he pecks my lips, “gets me every single time.”

His words only make my smile bigger.

Noah brings his mouth to my ear and a hand to squeeze my ass, “Stop, unless you want me to take you back to our room.”

I
do
want him to; however, our kids' birthday party doesn't seem like an appropriate time.

One thing out of a trillion that I love about Noah is he wants me just as much now as he did when I was twenty-two. The first time we made love after my c-section, I was embarrassed for him to see all the loose, wrinkled skin and stretch marks that carrying triplets did to my belly, and that to this day are still mostly there. Noah acted as though he didn't even notice a change, kissing along it as though it was still flat and smooth, giving my deflated breasts just as much attention as always. It's truly like he doesn't even see a change, or maybe it's just that it doesn't matter to him.

“Parker would never touch her, she's like a kid sister to him,” I remind Noah, trying to get his focus away from the garage. Noah will forever be over protective when it come to me and his daughters, despite not a single threat having come our way. 

Noah snorts, “Yeah, until she's not a kid anymore.” He kisses the three scars on my neck, something he does at least once a day, “I need a beer.”

I laugh at him and he brings his mouth to mine. For a moment I forget that we're having a birthday party and all our friends and family are here.

Noah breaks apart, resting his forehead to mine, his heart rate spiked and visible on his pulsating veins, “You need to stop tempting me.”