Chapter 26 #2
Noah straightened, clearing his throat. “Anyway. This is the library.” He looked around the room once more without making eye contact, and then he headed for the door. “I’ll see you after Jacob’s lesson.”
“Okay,” Grace whispered, and watched him retreat in more ways than one.
She glanced around the room, the rest of the furniture still swathed in sheets, the drapes still drawn, and then to the window and, with a rattle of rings, drew them back.
The view of the harbor was obscured by rain and mist, but it would be lovely on a clear day.
Grace stood there for a moment, and then, with decision, she went to the other window and drew open the drapes on that one, sending a cloud of dust into the air.
She started taking the dust sheets off all the furniture—leather club chairs and a velvet sofa, a marble-topped table covered with silver-framed photos that had been lain face down.
She propped them up again, pausing to study a photo that had to be of Noah and Jem when they were around eight years old.
Noah was grinning, freckled and gap-toothed, clearly cheeky and full of life, while Jem was smiling shyly, his head tilted to one side, almost as if he was about to rest it on Jem’s shoulder.
They were both blue-eyed and dark-haired, but Jem was slighter and smaller, and Noah had one skinny arm looped protectively around Jem’s shoulders.
They were both adorable, and the photo made Grace ache deep inside.
She gazed at it for a moment more—a picture really could be worth more than a thousand words—and then she went to the next dust sheet. It was time for this room—and maybe a whole lot of other things—to come back to life.
Noah headed back upstairs wondering what exactly was making him feel…
not uneasy, no. Not even sad. Disturbed, maybe, like something in him had been upended and then scattered.
Maybe it was talking about his parents, or Jem, whom he tried never to talk about, and yet some part of him had wanted to tell Grace even more.
He’d wanted to tell her how when he and Jem had been alone as little kids, it had felt as if they were in constant conversation, even if Jem never said a word.
He wanted to tell her how they hadn’t been able to play chess together because they’d known each other’s moves too well; once they’d played a game that had lasted eight hours before they’d called a draw.
He wanted to tell her talking about him hurt, but it also made him feel more alive than he had in a year and a half, since he’d come here to hide but also to be close to Jem, to feel his presence, his acceptance, in a way that still eluded him.
And at the same time, he didn’t want to tell her any of it. Not one word, not one syllable.
Which was probably why he was feeling so jumbled up inside right then.
Sighing, Noah stepped into his study—and came to a complete stop. Jacob wasn’t there. For a second, he felt a white-hot blaze of panic that at least part of him knew was unreasonable, but still he felt it. Suddenly he was walking into another room, looking for Jem, some part of him already knowing…
No. He wasn’t going to go there. He couldn’t.
“Jacob?” he called, his voice sounding shakier than he would have liked.
“Jacob—” He stopped suddenly at a rustling sound.
Slowly he looked around the room… and saw Jacob hiding behind the heavy curtain.
Noah breathed out slowly, relief flooding his body, turning him weak and almost dizzy.
“Hmm…” he managed, tapping his chin in a parody of thoughtfulness.
“Hmm… I wonder where Jacob is. Did he disappear? He wouldn’t leave this chessboard like this, would he, with the opening half played? ”
To his astonishment, Noah heard a sound from behind the curtain. A giggle. It was the first sound he’d ever heard Jacob make.
“Hmm…” he said again, louder this time, as he paced around the room.
“Is he up on the ceiling? No. Is he under this chair? No. Hmm… hmmm…” He waited, and heard a drawn breath, like Jacob was trying to stifle a giggle.
His heart filled with a happiness that was so intense it hurt.
“I wonder where he is! I just can’t find him anywhere. ”
As Noah stood in the center of the room, looking all around, Jacob suddenly shot out from behind the curtain. For a heart-stopping second, he thought he might speak, but then he realized it didn’t matter if he did or not. The grin splitting his face was enough.
Noah pressed one hand to his chest and pretended to stagger back in shock while Jacob grinned and grinned. Then the little boy grabbed his hand, tugging it meaningfully. Just like Jem, Noah knew exactly what he wanted.
“You want to play hide and seek?” he guessed, and Jacob nodded decisively. Noah thought of the house yawning all around them—empty, forlorn, forgotten, and a perfect paradise for a child to hide in. “Should we ask your mom to play?” he asked, and Jacob nodded harder. “Okay, then.”
Downstairs Grace was wiping off the bookshelves with one of the dust sheets. She startled as they came in, her eyes widening when she saw Jacob.
“Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s great,” Noah assured her. “And wow, this room looks… it looks like it used to.” He glanced around in appreciation, before his gaze settled on the table of photographs, and he saw the picture of him and Jem.
It felt like a punch to the chest, and yet he realized it wasn’t a bad feeling. Just… an intense one.
He forced himself to look away from it and smile at Grace. “Jacob wants to play hide and seek.”
Grace was still looking startled. “He… does?”
“Yep. One hundred percent. We thought you could play, too.”
“Hide and seek… in the whole house?” She sounded surprised, but also cautious. “We might get lost forever.”
“True,” Noah agreed. He was feeling weirdly cheerful. Maybe it had been Jacob’s laugh. It had been such a sweet, pure sound. “Should we say second floor only?” He glanced at Jacob for confirmation, who nodded solemnly. “And shall I be the seeker?” he pressed, and Jacob nodded again.
Grace was looking between the two of them with a kind of emotional amazement. “You guys have really connected,” she said softly, and Noah felt that pain in his chest again. A good pain.
“Okay, how about I count in here?” he suggested. “To fifty. Ready? Go!”
And covering his eyes, he started to count.