Page 20 of A Hard Habit to Break

CHAPTER FIVE

NOAH SILENCED HIScell phone to stop the emoji innuendos and matchmaking.

News of Rachel’s return had reached the masses. The whole town knew her truck because her proud Pop had paid ten dollars to showcase the shiny black F-150, a symbol of his little girl’s accomplishments, in the county bulletin. So, she’d made good on her word and finally returned to Service. Noah could hardly believe it. When Kanaan texted the news, the thundering of his heart could’ve been a high school band concert all its own. Noah had imagined Rachel’s monster wheels rolling into town a hundred times. But this morning’s events made her homecoming bittersweet. The committee appointment was his shot. No doubt Rachel could add value… from the nosebleed seats. No armchair quarterbacks wanted. So, instead of a trip to the Black Bear, the town’s local pub, where beer andinformation were both on tap—one cold, the other piping hot—Noah had decided to drive home.

Served him right that she’d been standing in his way. A fiery redhead with haunting amber eyes. He couldn’t see Rachel for the first time in years with his smile turned upside down. Had he wanted to be angry and curt, absolutely. But the woman held the power to disarm him. Always had. After today, he admitted she always would. Parked in his yard, he dropped his head, sighing. She was the right woman, but the wrong time hounded them. The weight of the day settled on his shoulders, bunching the muscles with fatigue.

The job.

The committee.

The town.

The future.

Rachel.

The moment he entered his cabin, he’d stripped off his ruined uniform pants and shirt. He inspected his leg where ClamClam’s spikes had pierced his soul. Thankfully, his skin had repelled the tiny terror from doing real damage. The sun had quit for the day. Big bonus. So, he tossed his wallet and keys onto the kitchen counter and left a trail of clothes from the living room to the back deck.

Water thundered around him, a relentless percussion that matched the drumming of his battered spirit. Each droplet felt like a lit match, reminding him of the discussion earlier that day.

Bare and with no one around to care, he walked the few feet from the rear of his place to the plunge pool. Stillness surrounded him, leaving him alone with the pale glow of moonlight shimmering on the surface of the water. A ladder rung of cucumber magnolia trees, thinly veiled in foliage this early in spring, covered the inclined bank on the opposite side.

Inhaling, he dove, submerging his weary muscles deep underwater. Beneath the surface, his thoughts swirled as turbulently as the currents. Committee meetings. Budgets. Building codes. Pete. Rachel. Negotiations that would require him to manage lifelong friendships like a controlled burn through a dry forest. Noah swam downstream, closer to the only other structures near the water, his brothers’ cabins. Letting the water press against his ears, Noah tried to muffle the world. He burst through the water’s surface, droplets scattering to the wind like his future. His chest heaved, caught between exhaustion and a raw, electric tension.

A rustle of movement came from the tall grass lining what used to be a clear path to the Johnson farm. Further up the mountain from the Calvarys’ land, the two homesteads were separated by the plunge pool at the foot of Landing Falls. Rachel used to clear the narrow passage of overgrowth, but Matt had abandoned his daughter’s favorite place after she left.

“Six, is that you?” Noah called, scanning the darkness for a familiar shape. A deer or stray pup, perhaps. “I can hear you.”

“Just keep swimming,” a feminine voice replied.

Noah’s heart began to pound, the drumbeat deafening in his ears. Despite the evening breeze, sweat erupted across Noah’s forehead. A blanket of heat covered his skin, and his pulse sped up. Inside, his temperature climbed from that of a lobster floating in a cool tank to one in a boiling pot of water.

Had she come to see him? His stomach clenched with each sweep of his arm through the water. Breathe, man. Instead of relaxing, his body coiled tighter.

Swallowing his excitement, he called her name. “Six, here to apologize?”

More movement, but there wasn’t enough light for him to spot her in the darkness.

“Don’t call me that.”

His breath caught at the sound of her voice, closer now.“Why not?” Noah asked, stealthily gliding toward her, slow and deliberate. Each stroke brought him nearer to the embankment, to her shadowed silhouette. The moonlight played tricks, making her form shimmer and shift like a mirage.

“It’s your name. We’ve always had each other’s backs, right?”

A shadow shifted beside a pine tree. “We were kids, Noah.”

“Doesn’t change who we are to each other.”

“To each other. Don’t go there.” She laughed, the sound breathy and alluring, transporting Noah back in time, even as her denying what they meant to each other rubbed against his competitive spirit. “I’m looking for my cat. She escaped the house… ran this way.”

“Stop playing, Six. Come out so I can see you.”

“I’m looking for ClamClam, not you enjoying your cowboy bath. Dang it. She moved.”

“Six, this is weird. We’re at the pool—our spot—but not seeing each other.” Maybe there was a tiny bit of pleasure burning through every word. A magnetic pull gripping his chest that he recognized in her gaze.

“Name’s Rachel and… I’m fine right where I am.” Her outline began to retreat, as if she were sensing his calculated approach. “Some mysteries are better left unexplored,” she teased, but there was a tremor beneath her words—something vulnerable, something wanting.