“He is
gorgeous!” Hope squeals from behind Noelle.
Spinning
around sharply, she replies, “He’s okay.”
“Okay?”
Hope balks. “You were practically
drooling over him.”
“I was
not.” Noelle scoffs, moving toward the
sidewalk.
“It’s
okay. He was doing the same with you,”
she giggles. “Now, I know why your
family was being odd.”
“They’re
odd whenever a guy talks to me,” Noelle reminds.
Hope
takes a sip of her drink and shakes her head.
“Not if they know who he is.”
Noelle’s
brows furrow. “What do you mean?” She looks back in the direction of Nikolaus’ departure.
“You’re
from a biker community,” Hope scoffs.
“How do you not know?”
“Know
what?” Noelle sips her eggnog, inspecting the cup a second later. “This isn’t too bad. I could probably do a mix with this and my hot chocolate.”
“That
would be a fun experiment,” Hope agrees. “We can try
it tonight if you’d like.” She consumes
more of her drink, then adds, “The Sleighers…as in the Sleigh Riders.”
Noelle’s
becomes slack jaw as her steps come to a halt, staring dumbfoundedly at her
friend. She’s heard whispers of the Sleighers
from her cousins, but didn’t believe them. She
always thought that they were a made-up nemesis to make her cousins and the
Blades seem like bigger men.
“You
okay?” Hope asks when she realizes that Noelle is no longer by her side.
“Are you
shitting me?” she mutters.
“Nope. It was obvious.”
“How?”
Hope
giggles. “You didn’t see the emblem on
his jacket?”
Noelle
tries to remember if he was wearing a jacket just now and the other night.
“Of
course you didn’t,” Hope muses. “Silly
me.”
“What?”
“You were
too busy ogling him to notice,” she declares.
“I wasn’t
ogling him."
“Yeah…you
were. You two were practically making
out.”
“We didn’t
touch,” Noelle reminds.
“Didn’t
need too,” Hope states. “It was all in both your eyes.”
Noelle
shakes her head, trying to map out everything that has happened since the other night. “Are you sure?”
“You both
were smitten.”
“No.” Noelle huffs.
“I’m talking about him being a Sleigher.”
“Yep. Why?”
Noelle
looks back over her shoulder. “That
can’t be.”
“Why
not?”
“He
wasn’t on a bike,” Noelle states. “He
was driving a truck.”
“He said
he was heading back to Alyona,” Hope reminds.
“Exactly where the Sleighers are from.”
Noelle
lets out a nervous giggle, shocked and amused by the revelation.
“So, what
did you two talk about?” Hope pries as they make their way back to the
house.
“Nothing,”
Noelle lies.
“That
didn’t seem like nothing,” Hope states.
“But, then again, you two were ogling each other quiet a bit.”
Noelle
lets out a heavy breath.
“It would
be poetic and…ironic,” Hope declares.
“What
would?”
“Ironic…maybe…but,
I’m sure there’s a better word for the situation,” Hope says more to herself.
“What are
you talking about?”
“You two
meeting and falling in love,” Hope coos.
“We
aren’t in love,” Noelle counters. “I
don’t know the guy.”
With a
singsongy tone, Hope hums, “Odder things have happened.”
“You’re
not going to let me live this down, are you?”
“Nope,”
she says cheerfully. “I’ve never seen
you look at a guy like that before.”
“How did
I look at him?”
Hope
grins and snips her drink. “Like a woman
in love.”
“I’m not
in love!”
“Well…at
least some lust,” Hope snickers. “I
thought, for a second, you two were going to do more than make out.”
Noelle
rolls her eyes. “Just don’t ever say
anything to anyone in my family."
“Who am I
going to tell?” she replies.
“I’m
serious, Hope.”
“So, you
are smitten.”
“No,” Noelle
denies. “I just don’t want the
drama. There’s always plenty of that
with my family…more so this time of the year.”
“It’ll
make a great story for the kids and grandkids,” Hope muses.
“Fuck,”
Noelle huffs.
“I’m just
messing with you,” Hope claims.
Noelle
shakes her head.
“Do you
think he has a cute brother or cousin?”
Noelle
laughs hard enough that it almost brings a tear to her eye.
Hope watches her, perplexed by what was said to make her react in such a
way.
“What
about Josiah?”
Hope
shrugs. “Maybe a Sleigher is the best
way to lure him out and get him to finally ask me out.”
“Or,
maybe you’ll fall for your own Sleigher,” Noelle goads.
Hope
considers the option. “I’m open to love
wherever it may be. I’m twenty-five and
need more in my life.”
Noelle
snickers. “If you married a Sleighers,
and the whispers are true, then we wouldn’t be able to be friends. You know that, right?”
“What are
you talking about?” she asks.
"Blades
and Sleighers are rivals.”
Hope
abruptly stops walking. “That’s not funny.”
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