Chapter 7 #2
“Also…” Jude meets my eye, and I can see that this part is from him. “I’m sorry for springing this trip on you. It’s just—”
“We missed you so much, Nora!” Cap explains, looking impassioned.
“You’re going to make the tears come back,” I say, blinking fast. Too late. They roll down my cheek.
This time, Jude whispers something to Cap, and he nods, then heads for the counter on the other side of the restaurant with lids and stir sticks.
“Nora,” Jude says quickly. “This week, we can make it all about Cap, okay? And you can just see us as much as you’re okay with. We’ll stay out of your way if that’s what you want. I don’t have to go to this party—”
“No,” I say quickly, blubbering as I see Cap pulling approximately one hundred napkins out of the dispenser across the room. “I’d be happy if you came, Jude. You know how I feel about all that small talk. But only if Cap’s okay with spending the night at his mom’s.”
“He’s excited,” Jude says, almost grimacing. He glances at his phone. “She is too, apparently. She keeps asking where we are.”
“I thought you weren’t meeting her until—”
“Four. Yeah.”
“Oh, if you want to meet her early, we can keep this quick?”
Jude presses his hand on mine on the table. “You shut your cake hole right now, Nora Albright.”
I’m distracted by the way his hand feels against mine. I pull my hand away, wiping the wetness from my face as best as I can as Cap stops to inspect a little lapdog on his way back to the table.
“Anyway…” Jude is clearly unperturbed. “I told her we were meeting you first, so she can just hold her horses. But I’ll remind her again.” He taps out a quick text, reading it out loud:
“Having blast with best friend right now. We still need to order our hot chocolates, so will walk down to meet you. Original plan still on. Leave us alone.”
“Jude!”
He grins. “I didn’t write that last bit.” He shoves his phone in his back pocket.
I shove him on the shoulder, making him laugh.
Still, I can’t help the little wave of jealousy that goes through me thinking of the three of them flitting about London together.
And then Switzerland, which I’m envious for other reasons, too.
“You should know Sasha’s serious about trying to set me up with her brother.
” I’m just fine about Jude. “When she gets her sights fixed on something—”
Something flashes over Jude’s face, but it’s gone in an instant, replaced by that megawatt smile. “So you mean I get to witness your nerdy dating rituals in person?”
I shove him in the shoulder. “Hey!”
But Cap’s back now, and I take a napkin from him, giving him a squeeze while I’m at it. I wipe at my face, which I know has to be a pink blotchy mess. But I don’t care. Jude’s seen me at my very worst, and I don’t hold a candle to the women in Jude’s league, if he actually dated.
Cap whispers something to his dad, and Jude nods. They’re planning something, I realize too late, as Jude bends down under the table and lifts up a gift bag, festooned with colorful tissue paper.
“We got you a present!” Cap says.
There’s a card stuck to the side with my name on it in Cap’s careful, childlike hand. “It’s from home, but also we got something this morning and I picked it out and it’s—”
“Dude,” Jude says. “No spoilers, right?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Guys,” I say, my throat tightening again. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“Of course we did,” Jude says. “You’re our Nora.”
“I didn’t get you anything.”
“It’s okay,” Cap says. “You didn’t know we were coming.”
I pinch my lips to hide my laughter.
The card, when I open it up, is a picture of the three of us—I only know the woman is me because the woman’s got her camera strap around her shoulder like me. The inscription says FOR NORA LOVE FROM CAP AND DAD.
It’s so cute it hurts. I pull out an oblong package hastily wrapped in newspaper before I start getting emotional.
“Sorry we didn’t bring any more wrapping paper,” Cap says.
“This is perfect.”
I unroll the newspaper and my mouth falls open.
I clap a hand over it, afraid I might laugh.
It’s the most ridiculous pair of glasses I’ve ever seen.
They’re bright blue, a cat-eye shape, frames fully bedazzled with jewels of varying sizes and colors.
There’s even a jeweled neck chain attached to the arms. “Oh!” My voice is muffled behind my hand.
I hold them up, pressing my fingers tighter against my lips. They look like clown glasses.
“There’s a glasses store right next to our hotel!” Cap says excitedly.
“They were display glasses,” Jude clarifies. “Betsey something. Cap picked them out.”
“Betsey…” I inspect the inside arm. Betsey Johnson. “Jude, these are…” I was going to say expensive, but clearly Jude doesn’t care.
“…Awesome?” Jude finishes for me.
I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah. Exactly.”
“The lady said they could fix the glass part so you can see,” Cap says. “Your subscription, I think, right, Dad?”
“Close enough,” Jude says.
Cap looks eagerly at me. “Do you like them, Nora?”
I realized I’m still just staring at them, so I set the glasses I’m wearing down and pull this pair on.
The prescription is all off—my eyesight is terrible, and these are not even close to strong enough—but I can take in enough to see Jude’s got a fist against his mouth and looking sideways, his face going pink.
“I don’t like them. I love them!”
“Wow!” Cap says. They’re so cool!”
“So cool,” Jude gasps.
“You think so?” I lift my chin.
When Jude manages a mm-hmm that’s so tight I can tell he’s pinching in a laugh, I look down my nose at him.
Of course the frames nearly fall off. I shove them right back up. It doesn’t matter that they don’t fit and are the most absurd things I’d ever seen.
“They’re perfect,” I tell Cap. “Just need a tiny adjustment to the prescription so I can see a little better.”
“Here.” Jude reaches up to grasp the glasses in his fingers. I catch the scent of his soap at his wrist and fight the urge to turn into it.
“Thanks.” I grope for my regular glasses and affix them back on my face.
“Okay!” Cap claps. “Open the rest!”
The rest of the present is an assortment of items from back home in Quince Valley.
A metal bookmark bearing the logo of my favorite bookshop.
A miniature painting of the Quince River Jude says his sister Chelsea made for me.
A mug from Betsey’s Cafe, and—I gasp, pulling out a mangled pastry in a plastic sandwich bag. “Is this—?”
“Your favorite muffin from Betsey’s!” Cap says, beaming.
“Cap’s idea again,” Jude says.
“But you told me what her favorite was, Dad.”
The muffin looks far from edible, but Cap looks so pleased I pull a piece out and pop it in my mouth, moaning appreciatively before helping it down with a giant sip of water.
I dab at my mouth with a napkin, swallowing the last of the dry pastry.
“This is the nicest gift I’ve ever been given.
” I press my hand against my camera. “Except maybe for this.”
“We got you that too!” Cap exclaims proudly.
I laugh. “I remember. I love all of it. Thank you, sweetheart.”
Cap throws his arms around me. I want to stay just like this.
“So can we get the hot chocolates now?” Cap asks, pulling away and bouncing up and down.
“Yeah,” Jude says, his face yet again holding an expression I can’t read as he looks at us. “I’ll get them.”
He abruptly stands up.
Then Cap’s on me, asking if I want to play a round of attack checkers with him.
The next thing I know we’re lobbing chips all over the table, both of us laughing our butts off.
Cap wasn’t kidding, the hot chocolates are monstrous, and for the next while we load up on sugar while getting caught up on everything back home—and not at home.
We talk about my friend and Jude’s future sister-in-law Reese Franco taking the world by storm with her singing career.
About Chelsea and Seamus’s new baby—“Finally, I have a cousin!”—Cap says, his voice exasperated.
“But she isn’t even old enough to do anything yet.
” Jude informs me his oldest sister Cass and her fiancé Blake are finally getting married this spring, and how even though the renovations are done at the hotel, they’re going to get married at Blake’s brother’s place. “He’s a kazillionaire,” Cap reminds me.
They ask me about school, and what I’m taking videos of these days. I tell them about the work I’m doing at the senior’s center, but when I think about mentioning the documentary contest, I bite my tongue. I don’t even know if I’m going to enter that.
We’re nearly done with our hot chocolates when Jude glances at his watch, and I’m reminded how short our time is together. Not just today, but over the next few days.
My heart already hurts at the thought of them leaving.
But I’ve done it before. I can do it again.
“Where are you meeting?” I ask Jude as Cap slurps the last of his hot chocolate.
Jude blinks, but his eyes aren’t on me. They’re at the door, where a woman who can only be described as stunning is standing, looking right at us.
“Here, apparently,” Jude says stiffly.