Page 30 of Shattered Oaths

Noah shakes his head, his hand reaching out to grasp mine. I let him take it. “You never need to apologise for wanting to see the good in someone, Bella. It’s a part of who you are. Did I know that you deserved better than that prick? Sure. But I could have handled it differently. And although it wasn’t my place to meddle with your love life, all I ever wanted was for you to be happy. I’m so fucking sorry it didn’t work out that way.”

A laugh leaves me despite the tears rolling down my cheeks. “You told me so, right?”

“Nope,” Noah says, standing from the bed. “We’re not doing that.”

My eyes follow him as he moves across the bedroom to the window, pulling the curtains back to let the morning light in fully.

“Here’s what we aregoing to do.” He turns back to me. “I’mgoing to make breakfast and whileyoueat, I will grab your bag from the car so that you have some clean clothes to wear on our ride.”

I sit up straighter, my brows drawn. “Our ride?”

“Yup.” Noah nods once.

I shake my head. “I have to get to the café.” Picking up my phone, I check the time, my eyes widening when I see that the café should have opened an hour ago.

“Shit.” I throw the comforter off me. “I’m late.”

Jumping out of the bed, I rush around the room searching for… I don’t know what. Any clothes I managed to take with me are still in my car.

Noah steps in front of me, halting my frantic movement. “It’s handled, Bells.”

“What?”

He shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s handled. I called Liv and she called Summer. She’s holding down the fort for the day.”

I blink up at him, completely bewildered. He called Liv, she called Summer and it’shandled.

“When did you do that?” I ask, not remembering seeing him make any calls.

Noah checks the time on his phone. “Around two hours ago.”

I do the calculations in my head, my eyes widening. “You called Liv at five-thirty in the morning?”

Noah waves me off. “She was awake. Don’t worry.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I glare at him. “How do you know she was awake? She has a newborn.”

He matches my stance, the muscles in his arms flexing as he does. “Exactly.”

I open my mouth to argue back before snapping it shut again. He has a point there. And even if he didn’t, I know him well enough to know that I’d never win this argument.

When Noah realises I’ve got no comeback, he smirks and tousles my hair. The action is so juvenile, yet so Noah and I can’t help the laugh that leaves me as I roll my eyes and shrug him off.

“Fine. You win. Now, what’re you making for breakfast?”

***

I stare down at the plate of food on the breakfast bar in front of me and bite back a laugh. If Noah told me right now that the chicken these eggs came from had personally offended him, I’d believe him. And don’t even get me started on the almost-black bacon.

My eyes move between him and the charred food and back again. His face remains expressionless and completely clueless as he loads up his own plate and takes a seat opposite me.

Lips twitching, I watch as he loads up his fork with eggs and bacon before shovelling it into his mouth. His jaw works once, twice, before his top lip curls in disgust and wide eyes fly up to mine.

I can’t control the laughter that bursts out of me at the horrified expression on his face as he reaches for a napkin and hurriedly spits the food into it.

“Jesus fuck, that’s disgusting.” Noah rushes to the sink, turns on the faucet and catches the water with his mouth, rinsing and spitting repeatedly.

Between gasps, I ask, “So, like… did the food do something to piss you off, or…” I let the question hang in the air, my stomach aching from my laughing fit.