Page 39 of Cruising for Christmas
“Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said? I told you I want to get back together.”
He laughed. “But I don’t. Last I checked, this needs to be mutual.”
“What? Why don’t you want to get back together?”
The incredulity on her face made him laugh harder. He wouldn’t have initiated the breakup, but he realized now how much of a godsend it was that she had. If Kelly hadn’t dumped him and canceled on the cruise, Norah wouldn’t have gone since there weren’t rooms available. She wouldn’t have been there at all, and he’d go on living his life only knowing Shay had a friend named Norah who he still hadn’t met.
He wouldn’t be hoping to hear from her, trying to figure out how they would make a relationship work. He wouldn’t be standing before Kelly right now, realizing that Norah was the love of his life.
Ian stopped laughing instantly.
Damn.
“You know, it’s very rude of you to laugh at me,” Kelly said.
“Kelly, please get lost and lose my number.”
Once he showed her the door and closed it on her stunned face, he rushed into his bedroom and dumped out his suitcase, immediately refilling it with winter clothes and his toiletries. Rex tilted his head and watched him from where he sat in the doorway.
“Hey, buddy. I need to fly somewhere. I know I just got back, but would you like to go back to the doggy daycare?”
Rex’s ears perked up. He knew what doggy daycare meant.
“Yeah, buddy. Doggy daycare. Does that sound fun?”
Rex stood up, and his tail wagged wildly. Ian laughed. If there was one place Rex liked more than being with Ian, it was being at doggy daycare. It was one of the more expensive daycares in New York, but Rex loved it, and that’s all Ian cared about. It was worth not being stressed about his dog when he traveled.
Ian hadn’t unpacked Rex’s bag yet, so everything was already together. He pulled out the food container and refilled it for the daycare, along with some treats. Rex danced around Ian’s feet when he saw them, so Ian passed him one before putting the rest in Rex’s bag. Then, without a second glance, he dashed out of his apartment with Rex and hailed a cab.
The doggy daycare still had an opening, and the lady at the front desk was surprised to see Ian and Rex so soon, but they happily welcomed him back. Rex bounded into the center without a second glance. Ian laughed and handed over Rex’s things before jumping back into the cab that still waited for him at the curb.
It wasn’t until Ian showed up at the airport that he realized he should have looked at his phone for a message from Norah. The next flight to Washington was in two hours. During his chat with Kelly and his haste to get out the door, he realized he had missed a text from Norah letting him know she was on a layover. And then a second text letting him know she was boarding her second flight. By the time she landed, he would be in the air.
He sighed and typed out a message to her, willing the time to go faster.
* * *
I’msorry I missed your message. I made it home, and I look forward to talking to you soon.
Norah couldn’t stop reading the text over and over again. Ian said he wanted to talk about everything, then ignored her message on her layover, making her a giant ball of nerves, and now he wasn’t answering his phone. She decided she needed to call him to stop making herself crazy wondering what was happening, and the call had gone straight to voicemail.
It was already late, and she was exhausted. Her plans to speak to Ian before she went to sleep were clearly failing as her call hadn’t gone through and she hadn’t heard from him aside from a text message he had sent when she was in the air.
She flipped off her lights and crawled under the covers, feeling cold and alone without Ian’s warm body beside her. In just one week, her entire life had changed. If someone told her she’d be missing her best friend’s brother after being forced to share a room with him, she would have laughed in their face. But now, she wondered if she would ever get that feeling back.
Maybe he had gone back to his ex-girlfriend. Maybe she had been waiting for him and professed her love, and he realized he wanted her all along. Perhaps Norah was a rebound after all. She groaned and put a pillow on top of her head in an attempt to drown out her thoughts. Exhaustion had her going in and out of sleep, but it was restless.
After they parted ways at the airport, Norah spilled everything to Shay. Since Shay hadn’t known about Ian’s ex-girlfriend, she couldn’t provide any insight, which didn’t help at all. Norah spent the first flight stewing over everything, and after he didn’t respond to her texts during her layover, her anxiety only got worse. The longer the silence went, the more she thought she had been a rebound.
A loud knock on her front door had her sitting up and yanking her comforter to her chin before glancing at the clock. No one ever knocked unless they were selling something. But no one would be selling something at one in the morning.
After a moment, another knock sounded on the door. She slipped out of bed and padded across the room, where she grabbed a metal vase off her dresser. She walked toward the front door; her phone clutched in her other hand.
Her phone ringing startled her enough that she dropped the vase, which pinged off her hardwood floor.
“Shit.”
Ian’s name lit up the display, and she quickly answered it as more pounding thundered on the door.
