15. fifteen
fifteen
Brooks
Patience is not a virtue I naturally possess, especially when it comes to Nora. After the workshop is over, I stand restlessly with Claire while she chats with Nora’s mom and sisters. It’s testing my limits, having to wait for a chance to speak to Nora. Preferably alone.
As much as I want her full attention, I force myself to wait until everyone leaves before stealing her away. She’s still talking with a few women lingering in the entryway while Ollie tugs at her arm and clings to her legs. I decide to try to distract Ollie by stepping into his line of sight and pretending to be shocked when he looks my way.
“Hey, Ollie!” I whisper-yell, waving to him. “Remember me?”
Ollie buries his face in Nora’s leg again. Without missing a beat in her conversation, she palms the back of his head and begins stroking his hair. She must be used to multi-tasking with Ollie climbing all over her constantly. I’m not really sure how she does it. Must be a mom thing.
I stay where I am, feigning surprise every time Ollie peeks back at me from behind Nora’s leg. He starts giggling and makes a sudden dash towards me. I catch him under the arms and swing him around just like I’d done at the market, and his laugh grows wilder.
“You think you’re fast, don’t you?” I say.
“I am fast! Like a race car!” he says in a gruff voice.
“Not fast enough!”
“You slow!” he taunts after I set him down. “Slow like a slug.”
“Like a slug ? Oh, now you’re in for it.”
I chase him around the coffee table in the living room, and he clambers onto the couch to escape me. He taunts me with various insults about how slow I am, making me laugh, too. I don’t even notice that Trent has approached behind me until I back into his broad chest. The man is huge. I have to look up to meet his eyes as I move out of his space.
“Oh, hey,” I say. “Trent, right?”
He takes my proffered hand in a vise-like grip, not cracking a smile.
“You built this place?”
“Yeah,” Trent says, picking Ollie up as he reaches for him. “Sydney did all the decorating.”
“It’s amazing, man.”
“Thanks.”
Not much of a talker, this guy. I watch Ollie nuzzle into his shoulder with the familiarity of a father and son. Trent then levels me with a threatening stare. The dude is wildly intimidating. “These guys mean a lot to me,” he says, gesturing towards Nora. “So if you’re planning on sticking around, you’ll be seeing more of me, too.”
At first I feel mildly threatened, but I realize he’s preemptively sending me a clear message. He’s protective of his sister-in-law and nephew, and I get it. I’m sure he’s watched them go through some pretty tough times. He doesn’t want me messing around with them, which is something I would never intentionally do, but he doesn’t know me. Yet.
“Well,” I reply with a smile. “You guys seem like a really close family. She’s lucky to have you looking out for her.”
He grunts, opening his mouth as if he’s going to say something else but stops when he realizes that the cabin has emptied out. Nora’s standing nearby, listening in.
“Playing nice, Trent?” she asks, giving him a loving pat on his arm as she joins us. Trent glances over at me, still assessing. He’s not going to be an easy one to win over.
“I was just asking him about the cabin,” I say, not wanting to throw Trent under the bus.
“Trent is our in-house handyman. He can build anything.” Nora looks up at him proudly and takes Ollie from his arms. Ollie immediately scrambles to the floor and taunts Nora.
“You slow, mommy,” he says, pointing to me. “And he slow, too.”
“You’re ruthless,” she says to Ollie, charging at him. He screams as she picks him up and flops down onto the couch with him in her arms. “Do you know who you’re talking to? Calling slow?”
“You slow like a cow.”
“A cow! How rude !”
She tickles Ollie until he wriggles free from her grasp and races up the stairs. “Come on, Uncle T!”
“Are you okay to watch him while I clean up?” Nora asks. “I can put him to bed in once I’m done.”
“I can put him to bed,” Trent says. “Are his pajamas in his backpack?”
“Yes,” Nora replies. “Thank you. You’re the best.”
I watch Trent trudge up the stairs after Ollie. He gives me one last skeptical look before disappearing up the landing.
“Don’t mind Trent. He’s not much of a people person,” she says. “He’s very protective of me and Ollie.”
“So I gathered,” I say with a grin. “I’m flattered, really, that he thinks I’m a threat.”
“Are you not?” she asks, a teasing tilt to her smile.
“You tell me,” I counter.
“I don’t know where Ollie comes up with his insults,” she says, changing the subject. “He knows how to hit you where it hurts, doesn’t he?”
“He’s awesome. Such a funny kid.”
“Maybe he’s onto something, though, calling you slow,” Nora teases. “You took forever making your soup mug tonight.”
“Hey, now,” I say as we slowly meander toward the front door. “Lay off me. It was my first time, okay?”
“You did a great job. Thanks to Claire, it ended up being–”
“Acceptable?”
“I was going to say beautiful.”
“You’re a gifted teacher. I think I may need another lesson from you, just to make sure this first triumph of mine wasn’t a fluke.”
Nora’s eyes widen in surprise. “Really? You liked it enough to want to do it again?”
“Why not?”
“Are you being serious?”
“Maybe,” I say. “Or maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to see you again.”
Nora gives me a timid smile, and I see the hint of a blush on her cheeks. Just the reaction I was hoping for. I may not get another chance to shoot my shot with Nora, so I’m going to take it.
“I had a really good time tonight. It was fun seeing you in your element,” I say. “I like being around you.”
Nora blinks, and for a moment, I catch the slightest flicker of emotion behind her soft smile. It was there and gone so quickly, I almost didn’t catch it. Hesitation. Doubt. Maybe even fear.
“I like being around you, too,” she finally says softly, glancing over my shoulder, as if she’s worried someone might have heard. “But I haven’t gotten to know anyone, really, since my divorce. I’m not really sure how to do this.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t dated in a long time, either,” I admit. “But I think we could figure it out. I mean, we’ve done this before, right?”
“That’s true,” she says with a coy press of her lips. “But life is so different now. We’re not in high school anymore.”
Don’t I know it. I feel the weight of this moment and don’t want to screw it up. Nora deserves honesty, so that’s what I’m going to give her.
“How about we make a promise?” I venture.
“What kind of promise?” she asks with a curious smile.
“The honest kind. I’ll be completely honest and upfront with you, even if it is super awkward, and you can be totally honest with me. No games.”
“I like that.”
“Look,” I say, edging a little bit closer so we’re nearly standing toe to toe. Nora has to tilt her head up to look at me. “I know things are different now, and it might be a little bit of a learning curve for both of us, but I’m willing to try to make something work, if you are.”
Nora slips her hair behind her ear nervously, her gaze darting away from mine. Her thick, dark hair is down tonight, and man, if that doesn’t make me want to knot my fingers in it and kiss her like I used to.
“You know what,” I say, the wheels spinning in my head. I don’t want to scare her off, but I need her to know upfront that I plan on putting everything I’ve got into this unexpected chance I’ve been given with her. “I’ve got an idea. Hear me out. I just started seeing a therapist.” Nora’s eyebrows arch ever-so-slightly. “Don’t act surprised. You of all people know I’ve got plenty to work on.”
“Don’t we all?” she says. “I see a therapist, too. She knows more about me than my own mother.”
“Look at that. Something else we share in common, along with an affinity for ceramic mugs and the greatest sport of all time. You still like baseball, right?”
She gives a half-hearted shrug. “I don’t know,” she teases. “You kind of ruined it for me for a while, not gonna lie.”
“Ouch,” I say with a wince, placing a hand over my chest. I may be joking, but Nora was directly impacted by my choice to make baseball my life, and that reality sits heavy with me.
“I’m just being honest. It’s what you wanted!”
We laugh, and I’m encouraged by her playfulness.
“Anyways,” I continue. “My therapist encouraged me to find some new hobbies outside of baseball. Apparently, I’ve become too obsessed with my performance, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.”
“Is that why you came tonight?” she asks. “You wanted to try something new?”
“No, actually. I came here tonight to have an entire table of strangers stare at me while I try something new and then take pictures of me when they think I’m not looking.”
Nora laughs then, full-on, and pleasure swirls through me at the sound.
“So, here’s my idea,” I say. “Like I told you at the market, I plan to be here in Kitt’s Harbor on the weekends. What if we meet up while I’m here and try something new together?”
“Sounds like something my therapist would recommend, honestly.”
I wait for Nora to mull things over, resisting the urge to sell her on it further. Despite my desire to give Nora every possible reason to give me a chance, maybe she needs me to take things slow.
“I like it,” Nora says. “Sounds pretty fun.”
“ Pretty fun? Don’t get too excited on me.”
“It sounds like the most fun thing I'll ever do in my life!” she jokes, spreading her hands out to emphasize just how thrilled she is.
“That’s what I like to hear. I’ve got five weeks of therapy left. What if we spent the next five Friday nights together?”
“Friday nights?” she repeats. “That would work. Ollie goes to his dad’s every other weekend, but we could hang out after he goes to bed on the Fridays I have him.”
I’m reminded that there’s another man in Nora’s life already, one that I used to call my friend. Jealousy courses through me at the reminder of Nate, but it quickly dissipates as I realize that I’m the one standing here with Nora now.
“That works for me,” I say. Her arm is hanging free at her side, so I close the inches between our free hands, dancing my fingertips across the back of her knuckles. Her brown eyes pop up to mine, and she glances down at our hands, her fingers lifting to brush mine again. I want to make sure she’s getting the message loud and clear. I turn my palm and trace my index finger down the back of her palm before looping my fingers loosely between hers. She takes several breaths, her gaze downcast, before she looks back up at me. Holding her hand is like slipping on my favorite worn baseball glove. Warm and familiar. I tighten my grip, liking the feel of her palm against mine as much as I did back when she was mine.
“Do we have an agreement?” I say in a low tone. “Five Fridays. Getting to know each other.”
“Again,” Nora whispers, a slow smile growing on her lips.
“Again,” I repeat. I drag my thumb over hers, and her breath hitches. I’d give anything to close the distance between our lips and kiss her right now, to give her something to hold onto until next week when we see each other again, but I don’t want to move too fast. Besides, I guarantee my sister is beadily watching our every move.
“I’d better get Claire home,” I sigh, reluctantly loosening my grip on her hand. “Are you staying here tonight?”
Nora nods. “Ollie’s so excited, though, he probably won’t sleep much.” She smiles then, and I can see emotion swimming in the corners of her eyes. “Thank you for coming tonight. It meant a lot to me that you were here.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it,” I say, mirroring her smile with one of my own. “Thank you for helping me broaden my horizons. Be thinking of more new things you want to try with me.” Nora’s mouth curves up, and I realize how that sounded. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Of course not.”
“But, I mean, if you want to try new things with me like that , I wouldn’t say no…”
“Claire?” Nora chokes out. “Your brother says it's past his bedtime.”
I lower my lips to her ear and whisper. “See, there you are talking about bedtime. If I didn't know better, Nora, I’d think you were trying to turn our arrangement into something entirely inappropriate.”
She giggles, turning her face up towards mine. We’re standing so close that the tips of our noses nearly brush. Her brown eyes widen, and her pink lips barely part as her gaze dances over my face. A slow smile tugs at my mouth, and I don’t bother to move away from her.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” she protests. I resist the urge to kiss her and, instead, pull her to me in another hug. She folds into me effortlessly.
I like the idea that I could be someone to her. Like I used to be.