Page 36 of The Forever Formula

His words crashed into me like a tidal wave. I felt like the wind had been knocked from my lungs.

I guess I’d known as much. Not that either of us had said it, but I’d known I loved him back then, and I’d thought he’d loved me too. To hear him say it, though ... it was overwhelming.

Instead, I went for humor, because that’s what I tended to fall back on in awkward situations. “You usually sleep with your casual acquaintances?”

Noah chuckled and shook his head. “When I said there wasn’t very many available females in this town, I wasn’t kidding. CJ and I used each other. Believe me, we were on the same page.”

“Were?” I asked, raising one eyebrow.

“I told her I needed space. Whatever I might have shared with her is in the past now.”

I couldn’t help the smile tugging at my mouth. It felt like a small victory hearing him say this, even if it shouldn’t matter to me. Noah wasn’t mine. I didn’t have some type of claim on him.

I buried my face in my hands.

“You okay?” he asked, bringing an arm around my shoulders.

I let my head fall into him as he held me.

“Today was a lot,” I murmured, exasperated.

“You delivered five babies today,” he said with a laugh. “Isn’t that a normal day for a nurse?”

I looked up at him, a deranged smile on my face. “Maybe for a labor and delivery nurse, which I wasnot. And are you really lumping together four goat babies and one human baby?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. How different is it, really?”

A high-pitched squeak bubbled from my throat. “Very.”

“You were great in both. So calm and steady.”

Realizing the full weight of it all ... was a lot. But Noah was right. I did well, and I let the feeling of pride burst through me. I’d felt more fulfilled today than I had, well, ever in my life.

Being with the Harts, they were like my second family, even if I was still mad at Austen. Being in my childhood home again. Being needed by my neighbors. Having a good man like Noah ...ifI had him, I wasn’t entirely sure.

Maybe if I stayed here, I wouldn’t be so lost and alone in the world.

14

EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK

Rachel

“You will never guess what I did this week,” I said to Megan, taunting her as I set my phone against a stack of books on the counter so I could have a good video chat with my friend.

“You robbed a liquor store?”

“Ha. No. Good guess, though. Nope. I delivered four goats and one human baby this week.”

Megan’s face twisted in disbelief. “Robbing a liquor store sounds more likely.”

“I’m as serious as an arrhythmia,” I said proudly.

She shook her head. “Things in the sticks sure are different.”

I nodded. “Very. The goats were Noah’s, and my down-the-street neighbor’s granddaughter was delivering at home, by accident.”

“I don’t even know my neighbor’s first name,” Megan said with wide eyes. “I can’t imagine delivering babies for them.”