Wildflower (Colors #4) (9 page)

“I don’t hate you.” My mouth opened and the words came out before I could control them. I could see by the slight widening of his eyes that my response had been unexpected. If I were being honest, I hadn’t expected to say them either. But I’d already admitted to Ethan that I didn’t hate Noah, and I’d come to terms with that realization. What had happened between us was so long ago, we were just kids, really. It was time to move on and leave it in the past. I owed it to Ethan to make his life easier. I owed it to Grammy to try my hardest to be happy. Hell, I owed it to myself to try and move on so I could get out of this damned holding pattern my life seemed to be stuck in. Maybe what I needed in order to move on after all these years was closure.

“And you’re right,” I continued. “Pembrooke’s small, so we’re bound to see each other around. It wouldn’t do any good for things to be awkward every time it happened. Besides, if everything goes as planned, I’ll be working at the high school shortly after Thanksgiving, so holding a grudge wouldn’t really be wise, would it?”

Noah’s shoulders slumped in relief, his smile coming back in full force. “No, I guess not.”

With a lift of my chin, I held my hand out to him. “So, no more awkwardness. Deal?”

I saw a flash in Noah’s honey-colored eyes. A flash of mischief that I’d seen countless times when we were together. “Does this mean we’re friends?”

“Not friends. Acquaintances,” I amended quickly. There was no doubt in my mind I wouldn’t be able to handle a friendship with Noah. I might have agreed to a sort of truce, but friendship was way beyond my comfort zone. It wasn’t even in the realm of possibility.

“Acquaintances,” Noah agreed with a nod. “I can handle that.” He took my hand in his, giving it a good shake, and the instant our skin touched, a bolt of electricity shot through my fingertips and up my arm, ricocheting through my entire body and heating me from the inside out.

Oh, God. So not good
, I thought as goose bumps broke out across my skin. The electric jolt stunned me speechless, frozen in place as we stared into each other’s eyes.

Noah’s deep voice broke through the thrum of blood in my ears. “Something’s burning.”

Something was most definitely on fire, and no amount of cold water was going to put out the flames coursing through my veins. “Yeah,” I said on a breath, my brain still short circuiting from just that one touch.

A knowing smirk tugged at the corner of Noah’s mouth before he spoke again, effectively breaking the spell holding me captive. “No, I mean something’s really burning. I think it might be your turkey.”

I sniffed. Sure enough, the smell of scorched food was filling the kitchen.

“Shit!”

“Well, I’m just gonna say it. Throw it out there, you know, like ripping off a Band-Aid,” Chloe declared, her eyes bouncing to every person at the table. “Babe, you know I love you, but you can’t cook for shit and should never,
ever
be allowed in the kitchen again.”

Ethan muttered a quiet, “Amen,” as I choked on my laughter. Or maybe that was the gravy I’d just tasted that had the consistency of Jell-O in my mouth. Harlow simply glared like she was trying to melt her face off.

Chloe had shown up just seconds after we managed to save the bird from combusting and causing yet another kitchen fire. It took several seconds for her to get over her initial shock of seeing Harlow and I in the same room together, but once she took in the utter destruction around us, her focus shifted to what had once been considered edible food. Unfortunately, Harlow having cranked the oven up as high as it would go meant that the turkey dried out in a way I hadn’t known possible. Think of it as a piece of old, ragged shoe leather that had been laid in the street and run over a million times. I was willing to lay money that even my old dog, Blue, would have refused to eat this shit. And he once ate a dirty diaper he’d found in the neighbor’s trashcan. There was a
reason
the poor dog—God rest his soul—wasn’t around anymore.

The food was
that
bad.

And because I was trying to win back the love of my life, I couldn’t risk insulting her cooking skills, so I was forced to shove what I could down my gullet and fake a smile with every bite. I learned quickly that holding my breath, opening my throat, and letting the food slide down without chewing was the safest way to go. Followed quickly by several gulps of water to wash the taste away. From the way the dinner was sitting like a lead ball in the pit of my stomach, it was a safe bet I would be spending the remainder of my night in intense pain.

Fingers crossed that a visit to the ER wouldn’t be necessary.

To add insult to injury, Derrick—the bastard—had been texting pictures of all the food his current sheet-warmer had cooked up for him. It was sad, but looking at all that deliciousness kind of made me want to cry.

“The oven’s broken,” Harlow insisted dryly as she sucked back another mouthful of wine. Apparently ruining Thanksgiving dinner was reason enough for her to hit the bottle, and hit it hard. We’d only sat down about twenty minutes before and half the bottle was already gone.

Leaning forward, Ethan took a sniff of the green bean casserole and scrunched his nose up in distaste. “The green beans smell like moldy feet. How can you make green beans smell like moldy feet, Low-Low? I don’t get it. I mean, they’re vegetables.”

I took another bite of turkey, my jaw aching from trying to chew through the tough meat. “Well, I think it’s all delicious,” I lied through my goddamned teeth. “You really out did yourself, wildflower. I’m so glad I got to be here.”

Yeah, I was laying it on a little thick. The food tasted like rotten shit and I wanted to make a run for the nearest bathroom and purge my stomach of all the evilness currently rolling around inside it, but the small glimmer of a smile she gave me at my compliment was enough to make me keep going. I just had to make sure to stick with the safest items on the table.

Chloe let out a loud cough that sounded suspiciously like
kiss ass
as Ethan narrowed his eyes at me across the table. I didn’t like what I was seeing playing behind his hazel gaze. I was man enough to admit I was more than a little frightened.

“Then
you
eat it,” he said in a low, menacing voice as he shoved the entire dish of green beans toward me. “Go on, Coach. You love it all so much, eat the green beans.”

Oh, that little fucker
. He was going to pay.

The corners of Ethan’s mouth curved up in a grin akin to something I would imagine Satan himself would wear. He pushed the dish even closer as I played different scenarios in my head, each one ending with him writhing in deep, agonizing pain.

“Yeah, Noah,” Chloe chimed in. She’d just made my list, too. “Eat it. I’m sure it’s
delicious
,” she teased, rubbing her belly with an exaggerated “
mmmmm”
.

I wanted to tell them to fuck off. I wanted to run, screaming into the night. I worried I’d be plagued with nightmares of this little Thanksgiving feast for years and years to come. Lord knew my poor intestinal tract would never be the same again.

But when I looked over at Harlow, her eyes were shining with intrigue and something that looked an awful lot like hope.

This was my penance for the past. It had to be. I refused to believe that God had forsaken me simply for his pure enjoyment.

“Fine,” I told them, my voice trembling ever so slightly. “I’ll eat it. And you’ll both see just how wonderful of a cook Harlow is.”

My hand shook as I lifted my fork, my body went clammy as beads of sweat broke out across my upper lip. So this was how I was going to die. It didn’t seem fitting. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but I always thought I’d go down in a blaze of glory, or better yet, between Harlow’s creamy thighs. If you had told me a green bean casserole was going to be the end of me I’d have laughed in your face. I was too young, damn it. I still had so much life to live!

The rancid smell stung my nostrils as the gelatinous goo came closer and closer to my mouth. I worried the smell alone was enough to do me in.

“You can do this,” I told myself in a hushed voice. “You’re a man. You’re a man, damn it.” I could have sworn I heard a faint giggle coming from Harlow’s direction, but I couldn’t take my eyes off my imminent death. “Okay, I’m doing it. I’m gonna eat it. I really am.” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince, me, or the people about to witness one of life’s injustices. “Here I go. It’s happening…”

Why wasn’t anyone stopping me? I mean, I knew I’d fucked up in the past and broke Harlow’s heart, but it was a mistake. A stupid mistake! I wasn’t a bad person.

I opened my mouth, fighting against my shaking body as the green beans came closer, and I swear I felt my taste buds melting off just from the close contact. Closing my eyes, I asked God to forgive me of all of my sins.

“Don’t do it!” Harlow screamed, leaping across the table and slapping the fork from my hand at the same time I shouted, “I don’t want to die!”

The green bean goop went flying everywhere. The only sound in the room was of my fork clattering against the floor. The three other people at the table gaped at me as I worked to regulate my breathing and calm my frantic heart.

“Oh, shit,” Chloe gasped as she brought her hand to her mouth. “You were really gonna do it.”

“Coach,” Ethan spoke, his voice full of awe. “My respect for you just tripled. You’re the bravest man I know.”

No one said anything for what felt like an eternity. Then, unexpectedly, Harlow burst into a fit of laughter so hard tears poured from her eyes. Shortly later the rest of us followed suit.

Surprisingly enough, the rest of the evening was more enjoyable than I would have imagined. I never would have thought being around Noah again could have been so much…
fun
.

But it was.

The whole Green Bean Debacle, as it would come to be known as, had cut through the tension clouding the room. From that point on we were all able to move past any animosities and have a good time. We laughed, we joked, we ate the hell out of Chloe’s desserts since we were all starving, and we sat and watched football, Chloe and I rolling our eyes while Ethan and Noah yelled at the TV screen.