By The Way

Chapter 32

I woke up the next morning with Noah's arms around me. The day before came flooding back, so I snuggled closer to him and fell back asleep. I felt safe with him. He woke me up a little later with a kiss on my forehead.

"Good morning, Sunshine," he whispered in my ear.

I smiled sleepily at him as I started to wake up. Neal had french toast waiting for both of us. We ate, and the three of us went for a walk in Central Park.

I jumped at every little shadow, but both of the boys would put their hands on my shoulders and tell me that everything was fine. After a while we found ourselves on the bench where I had found Neal the day I got lost. We sat together and watched the people as they went about their day. We started talking about how we wanted our lives to look like in a few years.

"I would have my own apartment and I wouldn't have this anklet anymore. Natalie, you would visit me, and we would go to lunch once a week," Neal said wistfully.

"I will be living in MY apartment, and of course I'll visit you. I would spend a lot of my time making money with my guitar and reading books," I smiled at him.

Noah looked at both of us with a grin, "In a few years, I want to be with Natalie. I want to travel the world with her and someday ask her to marry me and pray she says yes."

He kept his eyes on my brother, waiting for a reaction. Neal smiled and nodded, and I could see Noah relax.

We stayed on that bench for a little while until Noah got a call and had to go home. Neal and I started walking home after that. I would pick a pocket every so often, and Neal would pretend not to notice because he knew that I needed to do something to keep me occupied. He understood that it was better for me to pick pockets than rob a museum.

I was sitting on my bed and going through my treasures at Neal's apartment when there was a knock at the door. I heard Peter's voice, so I swept everything under my blanket and made my way to the living room.

They were talking about a boring mortgage fraud case, but I listened anyway. I listened because if they had a case, they would be distracted. Maybe even distracted enough for me to pull off a con.