Chapter 202

I stumbled into my apartment after 11 p.m. that night. Everything had been returned to Ever After Weddings, and Terri had volunteered to preserve the wedding cake until we could get a hold of Lisa and ask her what she wanted done with it—what little was left. I was exhausted but, at the same time, exhilarated.

I could not believe that we had finally done it. Bob was going to face trial for something, for murder, of all things. He was going to pay for everything that he had done to me.

I set my purse on the couch and collapsed beside it. A giggle escaped my lips.

Free, I was almost free.

I felt like celebrating, but I didn’t want to do it alone.

Andrew was out of the question. Terri was probably out like a light by now. Lily was out of town, touring Hong Kong or some such place with her husband and child.

That left one prime option: Noah.

I grinned to myself at the prospect. Of course, I should celebrate with Noah. It was his victory, too.

I grabbed my phone and punched in his number.

“Hello?” he groggily answered.

“Noah?” I asked, realizing that I might have woken him up.

“Oh, Crystal, hello,” he said, suddenly more awake.

“Did I wake you?”

“No, no,” he said sheepishly. “Just waiting for your call.”

I covered my mouth to keep myself from laughing. He must have fallen asleep waiting for me.

“How did everything go?” he asked.

“Some good. Some…not so good,” I replied.

“What happened?”

“Come over and I’ll tell you. We can have a celebratory drink while we’re at it.”

“Are you sure? It is awful late…”

“Don’t worry, Andrew’s not here.”

Noah’s voice perked up.

“I’ll be right over.”

In a little over half an hour, Noah was at my doorstep. I grinned broadly at him as I presented him with a glass of wine and welcomed him into my apartment.

“To our upcoming victory over Bob Barbier!” I declared, clinking my glass against his.

Noah chuckled half-heartedly.

“To our hopeful victory over Bob Barbier,” he replied, a little more reserved in his glass-clinking than I was.

“Come on, Noah. Bob was arrested. We should be celebrating!”

I twirled around, my wine sloshing in its container.

“Of course, and I am. I just want us to stay realistic. We still have a trial to go through, after all.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and giggled.

“You’re such a spoilsport.”

Noah rolled his eyes and shook his head, a half-grin plastered on his face.

“All right, all right. You said on the phone that some things went well and that others did not. Now, tell me what happened.”

I took Noah by the hand and led him to the dining table, where I had set a large bottle of wine. I chugged my glass, and Noah followed suit. I poured us each another glass before I began my report.

“The police came in and arrested Bob during their first dance,” I said. “He didn’t put up a fight, and no one was hurt.”

Noah’s eyebrows raised as he drank his wine.

“That’s surprising…but good,” he replied. “So, what went wrong?”

My eyes fell as I sipped my wine.

“Well, he pinned me as the one who set the cops on him.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Lisa did the same thing, yelling at me that I should have left them alone.”

Noah pursed his lips.

“I see.” He hesitated. “How did Andrew react?”

I threw back the rest of my wine and poured myself another. Noah wasn’t finished with his, but I still topped him off.

“That badly?” he asked, pointing at my glass.

I huffed and downed half my glass.

“He was mad that I didn’t consult with him about going forward with the arrest first,” I said.

“You’re kidding me.” Noah chugged his wine in an attempt to keep up with me. “But I thought that since he had signed off on the witness protection aspect that he was okay with us moving forward?”

“Apparently that wasn’t good enough. Apparently, I had to have his explicit permission to put the man who has been torturing me behind bars.”

I added more wine to our glasses. And then a bit more for good measure.

“Not only that,” I said, stabbing the table with my finger for emphasis, “but he was mad that I had ‘embarrassed’ Lisa on her wedding day.”

Noah removed his suit jacket and tie and unbuttoned the top couple buttons of his collared shirt. He slung them over the back of his chair.

“Really? He was mad because you embarrassed her by having a murderer arrested—the murderer that she happened to marry?” He leaned forward against the table, propping himself up on his elbows.

“I know, right?”

I went to drink more wine, only to find that mine was all gone. I quickly resupplied us both.

“Well, what did you tell him?” he asked.

“The truth, that the only thing that I regret about this entire arrest is that the cops didn’t get there before Bob and Lisa took their vows.”

“Good for you!” Noah exclaimed. “How did Andrew react?”

I sighed and waved my hand dismissively.

“He ran off to look for Lisa, told me not to ‘ruin any more lives’ while he was gone.”

Noah rolled his eyes.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” he said. “I wish I had a woman who was so assertive, who wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself and the people that she cared about.”

My cheeks flushed. I told myself that it was just the wine, but even I knew that that was a lie. Even with a sexy, committed boyfriend like Andrew, it was nice to know that I could still turn a head like Noah’s.

“Crystal…”

“Yeah?” I asked, my heart suddenly fluttering.

“Can I take my shirt off?”

I blinked in confusion.

“What?”

Noah fidgeted with his sleeves.

“Can I take my shirt off? It’s kind of hot in here.”

“Oh, yes, of course.”

I looked away as Noah unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off his torso. I couldn’t avoid looking at him forever, though, so I turned and got an eyeful of Noah.

He wasn’t built like Andrew; no one was. Instead, he had lean muscles and a skinny body, with a spattering of brown hair on his chest. No, he was not as handsome as Andrew, but he was not ugly, either.

Noah smiled timidly at me. I smiled back.

I turned my attention to my phone and looked at the clock. Two in the morning.

Had we really been talking for over two hours? How much wine had we drank? I could have sworn that it wasn’t that much…

I went to turn the bottle over my glass but found it empty. It really was that much.

“I guess we should go to bed,” I said, now hearing how my words slurred.

“All right. I’ll head home—”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re too drunk, and it’s too late. You’ll stay here.”

Noah’s brows furrowed, but he nodded.

“I’ll stay on the couch.”

“Nonsense.” I grabbed his hand and dragged him toward my bedroom. “You’ll stay with me.”

Noah’s face turned crimson.

“Oh, okay.”

I slapped his arm.

“Not so fast, cowboy. You’ll be sleeping on the floor.”

Noah’s posture deflated slightly, but he still obediently stumbled after me as I drunkenly led him into my private sanctuary.