His Secret [Completed]

Chapter Forty

"I can see why. You looked happy."

"Are you saying I don't now?" James teased.

"Only when you're in your element."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He glanced over at her for a second and then focused his gaze back to the road ahead.

"I think I've only ever seen you happy when you're taking pictures."

"It's what I love... whereas with you, it's not what you love, but who."

"Huh?"

"When you're happiest. It's being surrounded by people you love and who love you."

"Family is everything to me and they -" she pointed to the sleeping bunch behind her, "- have become that."

"Just them?" He asked.

"And you of course." She rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't talking about me."

*

The four men insisted on carrying in the suitcases when they arrived back at the McKenzie house and told the women to go inside and relax. The jet-lag had hit Sherry and Kelly rather bad and they headed straight upstairs to take a nap, whereas Sophia made her way to the boathouse. She fished the set of keys Sherry had given her from the depths of her bag and slotted the longest one into the lock of the boathouse. She inhaled the familiar cherry wood scent of the logs stored near the burner and thought to herself that she was glad to be home. The term home had been thrown around loosely by Sophia over the years but for the first time in her adult life, the small boathouse felt exactly that, and she wondered how she'd got so lucky. Of course, she knew something was going on. She'd been thinking that for a while and she knew it wasn't a simple coincidence she came into contact with Noah and his family. Noah had told her it was no coincidence Linda attended Joey's diner the morning Sophia was working, but he had been brief on his explanation, fearing he would say too much. Feeling at home was a foreign feeling and she wondered if she'd ever feel that way again once she moved out of the McKenzie house. It wasn't the house that made her feel most at home, it was the people in it, and she knew that when Noah arrived at the McKenzie house to pick her up she would lose everything and have to start fresh. Just as she always did.

"What have you got in here?" James complained as he lifted the suitcase up the stairs, resting it on each step as he did. Sophia took the suitcase from him as soon as he reached the top and wheeled it over to her bed, where she began emptying her clothes. James made himself comfortable on the small couch and asked her about the vacation once again, and Sophia suspected he knew she didn't tell him everything in the car.

"We kissed," she blurted out, feeling the need to tell someone about her feelings, and James seemed like someone she could trust.

"Yeah, I know."

Her head whipped around in his direction. "How?"

"Jack mentioned it when we were unloading the cases. He said you moaned Noah's name in your sleep. I guess he put two and two together." Heat rose to her cheeks, as she would have preferred Jack kept that to himself so she wouldn't have to experience the awkward conversation she knew was to come from a man who had quickly become one of the few people in the world she could trust. "But by the look on your face, it didn't end well?"

"You could say that."

"He's still with Brooke." It wasn't a question that James asked, it was a statement.

"He doesn't love her," she shrugged.

"Is that what he's telling you or telling himself?"

"Both?"