Their eyes met and his usually intense eyes now teamed with compassion for her. Something she only ever got from Nellie.

There were two powerful forces fighting against each other now. While his smoldering eyes earlier had begun to wear her down, making her consider that maybe allowing herself to give in to something exciting and so against her better judgment for once in her life wasn’t such a bad thing, then he said things like this. The genuine kindness in his voice was undeniable and it reminded her how stupid she would be to ruin a friendship with such a great guy.

The microwave beeped just in time for her to catch her breath and turn away again. “Well,” she said as she took the popcorn bag out and grabbed a bowl to spill its contents in. “The over indulging came with its consequences.” She turned back to him and smiled. “You were witness to that first hand. No more extra butter for me.”

That smile again, so tender but unlike when Nellie smiled at her like this it touched her in a way she couldn’t understand. “I’m proud of you. You fought your way out of that dark stage of your life and look at you now.” For a moment, the tenderness in his eyes disappeared as he took her in from top to bottom, making her breath catch then it was back and he smiled again. “Not an easy thing to do you know. You did good, Roni. You should be proud.”

She took in a slow breath hoping he wouldn’t notice how a few words and his beckoning gaze affected her. “I am proud.” Picking up the bowl of popcorn, she started to the living room feeling his presence right behind her. She now regretted not grabbing another bowl because sitting by herself on the recliner would be rude since they were going to share the popcorn.

Sitting down on the sofa, Veronica decided she would stop worrying about her relationship with Noah and just enjoy the rest of her Thanksgiving evening. She didn’t even flinch when he sat a bit closer than she had expected and after several times of their fingers accidentally touching as they both reached for popcorn at the same time, her heart stopped reacting so erratically. For God’s sake, they were two grown adults not middle school kids.

By the time the evening was over they made it through without any more uncomfortable moments or inappropriate flirting and Veronica concluded this was the beginning of what she hoped would be a wonderful long term friendship.

~*~

Visions of Roni and some of the wicked things Noah imagined her doing to him with a can of whip cream, made for an extra long shower the following morning. It was becoming increasingly harder for him to be around her and not let on what he was feeling. Though he wondered if he should even try. If she wasn’t so damn hard to read maybe he’d know whether or not to hide it. She sent out more mixed signals than a baseball coach. One minute flirting outrageously and staring blatantly at his lips, then in the same breath, backing down and making an exit out of the room just as fast.

But it was just as well. Even though it’d be more than fun to have Roni underneath him and admittedly in the beginning it’s all he thought about. The more he spent time with her and got to know her, he was now afraid that wouldn’t be enough. If he ever did get that far with her he’d want more and she made it clear she wasn’t ready for anything like that. Losing the only family she’d ever known had to be hard. No telling how long it would take her to be ready. He had to shove the thought out of his mind and be thankful for what he did have—her friendship. For now, it’d have to do.

Roni had dropped him off at the gym that morning. With the rain letting up even if it was predicted to be only for a day, he’d finally be back on his bike.

Noah was spending a few hours at Gio’s today. He hated to admit it but if he hadn’t already spoken to Gio that morning and agreed to come over he would’ve gladly accompanied Roni to the park instead. She told him after he’d gotten off the phone with Gio that she was going to be there for a few hours taking pictures—said it was something she used to do a lot until her mom got sick and only recently started doing it again. She even gave him a quick tour of her small darkroom. He got to see some of the photographs she’d take over the years.

To his surprise she had a lot more talent than she’d let on. But even more surprising was how he’d felt seeing the pictures she still kept of her and Derek’s names carved into a tree with a heart around it that appeared to have taken a lot of work. He wasn’t going to ask at first but after seeing a couple more the words had just flown out and the contempt in his words had hardly been masked. Why do you still have these?

Her answer was unsatisfactory to say the least. She shrugged saying she almost never threw out any picture she took but these pictures were displayed most prominently and it literally turned his stomach. He’d been that close to asking her if she still had feelings for the dick. But he realized that was getting a little too personal. Most importantly alarms had gone off when he glanced at the picture again and was inundated with a rage he’d never felt before. Certain that any more questioning would come out more like unjustifiable demands than a simple question, he’d excused himself and walked out of the dark room confused as hell at his reaction.

Even now as he rode his bike, which usually calmed him, thinking about the damn pictures and wondering if she did still feel something for the douche had him involuntarily gripping the handlebars harder than he would normally.

He drove his bike all the way into the back of Gio’s driveway. As expected Gio, Abel, Hector and a few of Gio’s sisters were all out back as Gio worked on his bike. What he hadn’t expected was for Rita to still be there. Her eyes gleamed as he took his helmet off.