"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

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XXV. A Safe Place

Tally drove a white Range Rover, which was as nice inside as it was on the outside. Sophie prayed that Maddie hadn't touched anything sticky recently.

When she opened the door to the car, she was greeted by a child's car seat, and a coy smile from Noah confirmed that he had organised it.

They drove for about half an hour, and Sophie couldn't get over how the sky was blue in the middle of winter. When they left London, it had been raining, and washing away the snowy sludge on the roads.

Noah and Tally lived in Burbank in a private, gated group of condos. They all faced onto a shared, beautiful courtyard, which had a feature fountain in the centre.

"Our neighbours are mostly retired couples," Tally informed Sophie. "Which is good because they leave Vanessa alone."

Sophie frowned in confusion as they all crossed the pebbled courtyard towards the front door of one of the condos. Tally unlocked their front door and welcomed them all into entrance hall.

Their ambience of the house was very warm. Sophie was standing on an orange, terracotta floor, and right in front of her was a staircase that was decorated in a beautiful, floral talavera tile. They had immediately caught Maddie's eye, and she had gone over to inspect the patterns.

A large, ornate wooden mirror hung on the wall by the door, and a narrow hall table stood in front of it, holding a dish filled with keys. Tally tossed hers inside.

"Vanessa!" called out Tally. "We're back!"

A blue painted archway led into the main living area of the house. There was a cosy lounge room with a comfy sectional sofa and a television, an eclectic dining room with mismatching chairs around a green, circular table, and a modern kitchen with a large, midnight blue tiled island.

Sophie was really unsure of what she had expected, but she found that she adored what she had found. She loved the colours and the warmth of the furniture and the décor.

Sophie heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs before they were promptly joined by another person, a woman who was wearing leggings and a grey singlet top.

She was about the same height as Sophie, with long, straight brown hair. She had an olive complexion, and brown eyes, and beautiful natural bone structure. She wasn't wearing a speck of makeup, but her skin was clear and radiant.

The type of skin a celebrity boasted.

Sophie knew exactly who she was, and with every fibre of her being, she willed herself not the freak out.

How many times had Noah mentioned Vanessa, Tally's girlfriend, Vanessa, whom he lived with? And yet Sophie now knew that Noah had never told her Vanessa's last name.

The famous, incredible singer Vanessa Marino was standing in front of Sophie in house clothes, arms extended to hug her in greeting.

"I'm so glad to finally meet you!" Vanessa cried.

"You, too!" coughed Sophie, utterly ungracefully.

"Noah tells me you're a singer?" she added excitedly. "Oh, I can't wait to hear you. I'm sure you're going to be so amazing on this track. Noah wrote my first song, too, did you know?"

Sing in front of Vanessa Marino? Sophie couldn't think of anything more daunting. "N – no," she stammered. "I mean, yes, but no."

"Might have left out a few minor details about one of my roommates," Noah told the room sheepishly.

"Might?" repeated Sophie. Out of the corner of her eye, Sophie spotted a display shelf near the kitchen. On it were several golden trophies, and God a lot of them looked like Grammys.

Vanessa laughed awkwardly and went to stand beside Tally.

"She's kind of a dork, really," Tally told Sophie with an amused grin. "Her Instagram is mainly pictures of breakfast food."

Vanessa nudged Tally. "I went to the store and specifically got English Breakfast tea bags. Noah told me those are the ones you like," she said, changing the subject, and trying to appear as casual as possible. She motioned for them to follow her through the living and dining rooms toward the kitchen.

"Yes, they are," Sophie nodded, forcing herself to take a deep breath. She was not going to make a fool of herself. She looked up at Noah discreetly waiting for an explanation.

"I told you we've been friends since college," he said quietly under his breath.

"A little warning would have been nice," Sophie whispered back. "That way I could have practised my facial expressions, so I didn't look like a deer in the headlights."

"Vanessa doesn't care, I promise," Noah assured her. "They're just so excited to meet you."

"Crap, I don't know how to make tea!" Vanessa exclaimed as she got the teabag out of the box. "I should have looked to see if they made tea pods for the Keurig."

"Are you serious?" Tally frowned. "We've been together for nearly ten years and in that time you didn't know you had to dunk a teabag in some water?"

"See, Tally told you that she was a dork," laughed Noah, before looking back into the entrance way to Maddie. "Maddie, you should see the snacks that Tally and Vanessa have bought you," he called out to Maddie, who had gone back to tracing the talavera tiles on the stairs. "Maddie, come on," he said again, and this time Maddie looked up and she listened.

Maddie wandered into the room and followed Noah towards the kitchen. Noah opened up a double doorway which led into an enormous walk-in-pantry. On the bottom shelves were a dozen packets of all sorts of terrible things that Sophie knew Maddie would enjoy.

Sophie turned her attention to Tally and Vanessa as they continued to make tea. She frowned in confusion when she saw Tally putting a cup of water into the microwave.

"What are you doing?" she wondered.

"Heating the water," explained Tally.

"Why don't you use a kettle?" asked Sophie.

"We have one, but I'm too impatient to wait for the stove to boil water," Vanessa replied.

"Don't you have one that plugs in? My kettle at home boils water in about thirty seconds."

But Noah piped up as he and Maddie emerged from the pantry with a packet of chocolate sweets. "Oh, we need to get one off of Amazon," he urged. "Sophie just presses a button on her kettle, and it's done in no time."

Perhaps it was because she was British, but heating water in a microwave almost seemed personally offensive. Vanessa did end up fishing their stainless-steel kettle out of one of the drawers and she placed it on the stove to boil. Sophie thought it the oddest thing but found that she enjoyed having that simple interaction as it helped her to relax a bit more around these two women who were the closest people to Noah.

Vanessa served Sophie her tea in a mug that was shaped like an apple, on the side of which read "World's Greatest Teacher". Tally made coffee for herself, Vanessa and Noah using a fancy looking coffee machine. Tally also fetched Maddie some juice from the fridge.

As the others carried the drinks over to the dining table, Sophie rummaged through her carry-on bag for a colouring book and a box of pencils to keep Maddie entertained. Maddie accepted them immediately and settled down on one of the dining chairs. She immediately arranged her pencils in the order that she liked, before beginning to colour the picture she had chosen.

Tally stacked some papers and placed a laptop on top of them, moving them out of the way, giving them room. "I've got tests coming out of my ears this time of year," she complained with a roll of her eyes.

"What year do you teach?" asked Sophie.

"Sixth grade English," replied Tally. Tapping the stack of papers, she added jokingly, "I get to do homework, too."

"Tally's awonderful teacher," Vanessa chimed in.

"And I've got a cabinet full of mugs to prove it," Tally teased

Sophie shoulders relaxed as she laughed, and she enjoyed her cup of tea and their company for the next hour. Noah had soon stretched his arm out, resting it on the back of Sophie's chair. She could feel him absentmindedly playing with the hair in her ponytail as they talked and laughed. Every time there was a soft pull of her hair, she felt a tingle down her spine.

Tally and Vanessa both asked Sophie lots of questions, never leaving a silence for long. They were curious about her, naturally, but they never asked her the normal sorts of questions that one would usually get. They didn't ask about her family, or her past relationships, or even Maddie's anti-social behaviour, which was already very evident. Noah had very obviously coached them, and while she was grateful for not being put on the spot, she couldn't help but worry about the negative thoughts that might have been crossing their minds. It was a horrible insecurity.

"I really love your house," Sophie complimented Tally as she helped her carry the mugs to the sink, leaving Vanessa, Noah and Maddie at the table. "I've never seen this sort of decorating before."

Tally smiled. "Thanks. Vanessa's the designer, really. She's a collector, and that's why nothing in this house matches. But it works." Tally put the mugs into the sink and turned on the tap, muffling their voices. "This place is where we can be ourselves. Their lives are crazy," she said softly, nodding towards Noah and Vanessa. "Noah's been in the studio for weeks. Vanessa's going on tour in the new year. There are always events and parties and people to meet. It's not my world, and I never want it to be. My world is considerably smaller, but it's a place that I keep safe for them to come back to." Tally's voice had become suddenly very raw and emotional, and Sophie knew that she was really being included by her.

"I've had a lot of practice in creating a safe world for someone I love very much," Sophie replied quietly.

"Noah cares about you so much, Sophie. You can't know how much I've wanted a normal person to enter his life. It's important for you to have a safe place, too. Especially as you dip your toe into his world."

Sophie glanced back at Noah, and he met her eye the minute she looked at him. With how she'd been feeling without him this last few weeks, she was fairly certain that wherever Noah was, she was safe.

***

"It literally is a studio with a sofa bed, isn't it?" Sophie gasped as Noah led her and Maddie into his bedroom.

Bedroom really was a poor word. It was the one room in the whole house that wasn't eclectically decorated. It was large, definitely a very generous size, except three quarters of the room were sealed with glass, soundproof panels. On the inside of the studio was an upright piano, and drum kit, a microphone, and three different guitars. There were wires everywhere, and an intense looking control panel on the outside with about four dozen different dials. The remainder of the room consisted of a plain, cream-coloured sofa bed, and timber bedside table, and a white lamp.

Noah grinned. "This is where I work. I could rent studio space, and I do book studios in the city, but I don't want to drive downtown when an idea hits me at three in the morning."

Sophie had never seen proper musical equipment in real life before, and she wondered if this was where she would be recording Noah's song. She hadn't even heard it yet. Noah wanted it recorded raw.

"The bathroom is in there." Noah pointed to a white panelled door next to the soundproof glass. "Vanessa likes my vanity more than hers, so her makeup and products are everywhere, but feel free to shove whatever in the cabinet to make space for your things."

It was then that Maddie looked up from her colouring book, which she had been flipping through as Sophie and Noah had been talking. She saw the musical equipment and gasped, a bright smile spreading across her face.

"There is a piano in your bedroom!" she squealed with delight. Maddie dropped her colouring book on the floor at her feet and ran over to the glass, pressing her face up against it.

"Maddie, stop!" cried Sophie. "You'll get fingerprints everywhere!"

Noah chuckled. "She's okay. Watch this." Noah opened the door to his studio and let Maddie inside. "Do you think you could play Frozen for us, kid?" he asked as he went over to the piano and lifted the lid.

Maddie quickly climbed up onto the stool and Noah adjusted the height for her. Noah then swiftly left the studio and closed the door behind him, just as Maddie started to play.

And Sophie couldn't hear a thing.

Noah looked very proud of himself. "Genius, right?"

Sophie laughed. "Absolutely!"

"You have the prettiest smile," Noah said softly, suddenly changing the tone of their conversation. "You get these little nose crinkles. They're so cute."

Sophie's hand instinctively went to her nose, but Noah captured it, and held it against his chest.

"I'm so glad you're here. I have been going out of my mind missing you. Going from seeing you every day to nothing has been horrible."

Sophie sucked in a breath. "I know what you mean. Every day I walk into the pub and turn to look at you at the piano and you're not there, and it hits me right in the stomach."

"I know two weeks isn't going to be long enough, but God am I going to enjoy them." Noah kissed Sophie softly. "So, game plan. We're recording the song tomorrow. The final score is due in four days. Postproduction is wrapping up in the early new year. I've been recording the score since I got back, but I saved Maddie's first piece so that she could record it with the orchestra."

Sophie's jaw dropped at the thought. Maddie was going to play with a proper orchestra!

"I want to record the song tomorrow. We'll do it here as I'm producing it. I do want to warn you though, like most artists, I'm a perfectionist, so please tell me to back the fuck off if I'm becoming an asshole."

Sophie had a hard time believing that Noah could be an arsehole. She was more concerned with getting her head around the fact that she was going to be professionally recording a song she'd never heard tomorrow for a proper film.

"We're booked on an eight o'clock AM flight up to Napa on the twenty-third. We've got a lot to do, but just think, in two days ... it gets a whole lot worse." He grinned.

"Stop talking about your mum like that," Sophie playfully scolded. "Seriously, I am so happy to be here." Thinking about the foul visit with Beck and his parents only a few days earlier made her stomach churn. "I'm certain that I'm going to love your mum. I already like your sister and Vanessa. They are really nice people ... and I forgive you for not giving me a heads up beforehand."

Noah laughed. "I am sorry. And I know you'll love my mom. It's hard not to." He leaned over and pressed a button on his control panel. "Way to go, kid! You sound great!" 

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Bonus chapter as it's a long weekend! 

I'm writing reports at the moment and I've brought all my maths assessment home with me to write my maths comments and do you think I've even touched it this weekend? Nope! 

Side note: I do find it so strange that Americans don't use electric kettles. I first saw someone heating water in a microwave on TikTok, and I think it was the British in me that was personally offended. 

I've been doing some research and apparently the US homes use between 100-127 volts and the UK and Australia use 220-240 volts. I just bought a new fridge and that uses 220 volts. So electric kettles take longer to heat in America which is why they aren't widely used. 

Odd. Unsure why the electricity is different! Either way, I love pressing my electric kettle button and heating water in seconds - so convenient!! 

So yes, instead of writing my maths comments for reports, I was doing kettle research. If that's not the story of my Sunday then I don't know what is.

Better head to bed. Vote and comment!