Chapter 5: What have I done?!

Olivia’s POV

“You’re shivering, Liv. Are you sure you didn’t catch a cold out there in the Valley?”

Ethan’s voice was warm, soft, and so full of genuine concern that it felt like a twist of a knife in my chest.

I sat on the edge of our plush velvet sofa, staring down at the hot mug of tea he had just placed in my hands. The white ceramic warmed my palms, but inside, I was ice cold.

“I’m fine,” I lied, forcing my voice to stay even. “Just… tired. The storm was really loud, and the guesthouse was freezing once the power went out.”

Ethan sat beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close. Four days ago, I would have leaned into his chest without a second thought. Now, every point of contact felt heavy, like a lead weight pressing down on my ribs.

“I’m just glad Noah was with you,” Ethan said smoothly, rubbing my arm. “If you’d been up there all by yourself in the dark when that roof leaked, I would’ve lost my mind.”

My stomach churned violently. If you only knew.

“He… he helped clean up the water,” I stammered, staring fixedly at the steam rising from my cup. “He was very professional.”

“That’s Noah for you,” Ethan chuckled, resting his chin on my head. “Solid as a rock. Anyway, drink your tea, babe. We have that big decor meeting with Mia and your sister at the studio in an hour, and my mom wants to drop off the guest place-cards.”

“Right,” I whispered, closing my eyes. “The wedding.”

An hour later, the creative energy inside my Soho design studio was thick enough to suffocate me.

Fabric swatches, floral samples, and paper sketches were spread across the large wooden worktable in the center of the room. Lily was flipping through ribbon options, while Mia was tapping away on her iPad, double-checking vendor timelines.

“Okay, bride-to-be,” Mia called out, waving a swatch of blush silk in the air. “Do we want this for the head table napkins, or do we go with the champagne ivory?”

“The ivory,” I said automatically, leaning against the edge of Theo’s drafting desk. “It matches the estate’s trim better.”

“You okay, Liv?” Lily asked, stopping her search through the ribbons to look at me sharply. “You’ve been staring at that wall for ten minutes, and you haven’t touched your coffee.”

“I’m just focused,” I insisted, taking a small sip of the lukewarm espresso.

The glass front door of the studio chimed, and my heart instantly jumped into my throat.

Ethan walked in first, holding a stack of formal gold-embossed envelopes, followed closely by Noah. Noah was dressed in a dark wool coat, his hair slightly windblown from the autumn breeze outside. His face was completely unreadable—cool, calm, and distant.

“Hey, girls!” Ethan greeted cheerfully, setting the envelopes on the main table. “Mom finished checking the guest addresses. Noah stopped by my office, so I dragged him along to help carry the heavy display boards from his truck.”

“Great timing,” Mia grinned. “Noah, can you set those wooden easel boards near the window?”

“Sure,” Noah said. His voice was low and steady, hitting my ears like a direct electrical current.

He carried the heavy wooden frames across the room, his long strides effortless. He didn’t look at me once. He didn’t glance in my direction, he didn’t acknowledge my presence, and he certainly didn’t act like a man who had held me in the dark just twenty-four hours ago.

He was treating me like a complete stranger—exactly like we had agreed.

So why did it feel like he was tearing my heart out with a pair of rusty pliers?

“Olivia?” Ethan asked, stepping over to me and sliding his hand into mine. “Did you bring the master key for the back storage room? Mia needs the antique glass vases we stashed in there.”

“Oh. Yeah,” I stammered, pulling my hand out of his grip to dig through my purse. “I think they’re on the high shelf in the back. I’ll go get them.”

“I’ll grab them for you,” Noah offered suddenly from across the room. He turned toward us, his hands casually shoved into his pockets. “You’re in a dress, and those boxes look heavy. Tell me where they are, or I can just lift them down.”

“No!” I blurted out, a little too fast, a little too loud.

Every head in the room turned to look at me. Lily frowned, her eyes narrowing slightly in confusion.

I cleared my throat, forcing a nervous chuckle. “I mean… I know exactly which box it is. It’ll take me two seconds. Noah, you don’t need to bother.”

“It’s no bother,” Noah said evenly, his dark eyes meeting mine for the briefest second. “Lead the way.”

The back storage room of the studio was narrow, quiet, and smelled like dried lavender and fresh wood polish. Tall metal shelves lined both walls, packed high with fabric rolls, paint cans, and decor boxes.

I walked straight to the back corner, my pulse hammering in my ears. “It’s that top box right there,” I whispered, pointing up at a large cardboard crate on the highest shelf.

Noah stepped into the narrow aisle behind me. The second the heavy wooden door clicked shut behind us, cutting off the chatter from the front room, the air in the storage closet turned boiling hot.

Noah reached up over my head, his broad chest lightly brushing against my shoulder as he grabbed the sides of the box. The familiar scent of rain, cedar, and his skin instantly hit my nose, making my knees go weak.

“You’re doing a terrible job,” Noah muttered quietly, his voice a low rasp right beside my ear.

I spun around, my back flattening against the metal shelving. “What?”

“In there,” he whispered, nodding toward the closed door. “You’re staring at me like you’ve seen a ghost, Olivia. Your hands are shaking every time I walk into the room. If you keep acting like this, Ethan isn’t stupid—he’s going to notice.”

“Me?” I gasped, clutching my sweater over my chest. “You’re the one acting like I don’t exist! You won’t even look at me!”

“Because if I look at you,” Noah snapped softly, stepping closer until his boots were almost touching mine, “I’m not going to be able to stop. Is that what you want? You want me to look at you the way I looked at you last night while your fiancé is sitting ten feet away?”

My breath caught in my throat. “Noah, please—”

“We made a deal, Olivia,” he said, his jaw tightening as his eyes burned into mine. “We pretend it never happened. We bury it. You walk down the aisle, marry Ethan, and I stand there as the dutiful best man and watch you do it.”

“Do you really think I can just forget it?” I whispered, tears pricking the corners of my eyes. “Do you think I can just wipe my mind clean?”

Noah looked down at me, his calm mask finally slipping for a fraction of a second, revealing a raw, jagged pain underneath. “No,” he rasped, reaching out with a trembling hand, his thumb hovering just millimeters above my cheek without touching it. “Because I can’t either.”

“Liv? Noah? You guys find the vases?” Ethan’s voice suddenly called out from the hallway outside.

The heavy footsteps moved closer to the storage room door.

Noah instantly stepped back, pulling the box of glass vases off the shelf in one smooth motion, his expression instantly slamming shut like an iron gate.

I swallowed hard, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, and yanked the door open before Ethan could turn the handle.

“Got them!” I said, my voice high and brittle. “Noah caught them just in time.”

Ethan grinned, standing in the doorway with his hands in his coat pockets. “Awesome. Thanks, man.”

As Noah brushed past us carrying the box toward the main room, Ethan reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small, metallic object.

“Hey, Liv,” Ethan said, frowning slightly as he looked down at his palm. “I grabbed your jacket off the hook in the hall to bring it inside, and this fell out of your pocket.”

My blood ran cold.

Lying in the center of Ethan’s hand was a heavy, silver zippo lighter with a custom architectural blueprint engraved on the side.

Noah’s lighter. The one he had used to light the fireplace at the guesthouse.

Ethan looked up from the lighter, his dark eyes shifting from the silver metal to my pale face, and then over to Noah, who had completely stopped in his tracks at the end of the hallway.

“Liv,” Ethan asked softly, his smile completely gone. “Why is Noah’s customized lighter inside your coat pocket?”