Chapter 26
Noah wrote another three notes on the score, tilted his head, changed his mind, erased one of the notes, and replaced it with an E flat. Yeah. That was perfect.
He felt like he was glowing. Kissing Grace had been an experience he didn't even have words for. It left his heart happy and his soul soaring.
He hadn't wanted to part from her, but when she had gently suggested that if they were going to do this music together for the festival, he'd better get it finished, he'd walked her home, given her a sweet kiss before he left, and then walked back home alone.
Maybe he wouldn't be alone much longer.
The thought made him smile again, and a bit of a melody popped into his head.
He jotted those notes down and continued to write.
He didn't know how long it was. He had gotten lost in the music and time didn't have meaning for him when he got into the zone like that, but his phone rang, shocking him out of wherever he was and making him grin again. Maybe Grace wanted to talk to him. Maybe she missed him already.
His smile did not dim when he saw that it was not Grace, but Emma, one of his siblings.
"Hey there," he said as he swiped his phone on.
"Goodness. You sound happy."
"Hello to you too," he said, realizing that he probably did sound a lot happier than usual. That's because he was a lot happier than he had been.
"Noah? Is there something you're not telling me?" Emma asked, and the tone of her voice made it sound like she knew something that he didn't.
"Um, I can't think of anything right off."
That wasn't entirely true. If he sat and thought about it, there were some things.
First of all, he didn't tell her that he had been kissing a girl this afternoon.
That was kind of unusual. Also, his siblings did not know that he was the Secret Saint in Mistletoe Meadows.
So there was that too. He had a few other things that he hadn't shared with his siblings, but not on purpose.
Just when they called, it was usually about them.
"I told you he wasn't going to tell us anything," Emma said, and that's when he realized she must've had someone else on the line.
"Why don't we just do a Zoom call?" he asked. "Who else is on?"
"I am," Mia said.
"Me too," Jake's voice.
"Is there anyone not on?" Noah asked.
"I don't think Nate is." That was Mia.
"So... What's up guys?" They didn't typically have big family phone calls unless there was something as a family they needed to discuss.
"We heard you were with someone this afternoon." That was from Mia.
"He's not going to admit it," Jake said.
"Sure I'll admit it. Grace Dempsey has been staying with her aunt in town, and she and I have spent some time together. We were together this afternoon."
"I heard you were kissing."
Noah blinked. He could hardly lie about that.
"I kissed her goodbye." That was true.
"No, this was like really kissing," Mia said.
"All right. Am I not allowed to kiss people?"
"You always told us we shouldn't be kissing anyone unless we were planning on getting married, because kissing someone that you weren't planning on marrying was like kissing someone else's spouse, because you weren't planning on making them yours and it was dishonest."
Jake sounded a little accusatory, and he supposed that Jake had a point. "That's absolutely true. I can't believe you were listening to me. I'm kind of surprised."
"You're changing the subject, Noah," Emma said.
"I was kissing her, and yes, I have plans to talk to her about our relationship, a serious relationship that ends in marriage. But... It's been kind of complicated."
"I don't think you would've accepted that excuse from us," Mia said. "In fact, I think if I were to say that to you, even now, you would give me The Lecture."
"The Lecture?" he said. He didn't realize he lectured. He didn't think he did.
"Yeah. The lecture about how you don't kiss people unless you're serious about them. You know, the one we heard a million times growing up?"
"Listen. I just gave you the lecture that Mom and Dad gave me. Just because you were too young to remember it when they gave it to you doesn't mean that it didn't come from them."
"I remember their lecture, and yours was different."
"How so?" he said. He thought he did a pretty good job of repeating his parents' lectures. After all, he'd heard them the entire time he had been a teenager up until their death.
"You started talking about tongues and lips and hands and body parts, and I don't remember the parents ever needing to say anything like that."
"That's because they were talking to me most of the time when they were giving that lecture, and I didn't need those extra details, because I didn't kiss anybody when I was in high school.
Unlike you, who got caught behind the school auditorium when you were twelve with Mindy Lauper. Need I say more?"
Jake was quiet after that. From what Noah remembered, they were playing a game of truth or dare. After that incident, truth or dare was on his list of things his siblings were never allowed to do.
Actually, after that, he'd made sure to have more parties and get-togethers at his house where he could keep an eye on things, and no one was slipping out and doing things they’d regret as adults.
He always made sure the kids had fun, but he made sure they had fun in a way that didn't involve tongues and lips and other body parts that, yes, he might have named to his brother at the time.
"Noah. We're not really giving you a hard time. We just think you need to talk to us about these things." Emma's voice sounded conciliatory.
"I'm sorry. Today was the first day I kissed her, and you're right, I need to make sure that she understands what my intentions are.
Because they are exactly what they should be, which is I intend to marry her.
" He paused. "But I've known her for around seven days.
I think it might be a little bit early for me to be proposing. "
"If it's too early for that then it's too early for you to be kissing," Jake said.
"All right. I can hear myself in that too."
Was this what having kids was like? They threw up in your face everything that you'd ever said? Weren't you allowed to slip a little?
Truly, he appreciated his siblings holding him to a high standard.
And he hoped—maybe it would be a while yet—that they would appreciate the fact that he'd tried to hold them to a high standard as well.
Looking back over his life, he didn't regret any of the times where he'd stayed pure and tried to live for Jesus, but he regretted every single time he'd fallen into sin.
Not just because the consequences were not good, but because he knew his sin saddened Jesus, and that wasn't what he wanted to do with his life.
He wanted to live a life that would make the Lord say, "Well done, good and faithful servant.
" Not one where certain parts had to be blacked out because they were wrong and bad.
"Guys, I think maybe he needs a lecture about not only are you kissing someone else's spouse, but kissing leads to other things, and those are things that you are directly forbidden to do according to the Bible before you are married.
Remember that one?" Mia said, and the others murmured in agreement.
"No doubt he needs that one too. Does someone else want to start it, or do you want me to?" Jake seemed way too eager to lecture him.
"Guys. I promise you, I don't need that lecture. I know exactly what kissing leads to, and... You guys are right."
"I don't want to hear about any shotgun weddings."
"People don't get married just because they get pregnant anymore," Mia said, and he could hear the eye roll in her voice.
"No child should have to be raised without a mother and a father in a loving home." Emma sounded like she was reading off of a pamphlet. Which she probably was reciting from memory, verbatim, things that he had told her.
After all, sin didn't just affect the sinner. It affected everyone around them, and most often it was children who suffered the most.
"And sin doesn't affect just the sinner. It affects the people around them, and most often it’s the children who suffer the most."
He laughed. Yup. His words thrown back into his face.
"What's so funny?" Emma asked, as though she hadn't just recited, word for word, what he had been thinking.
"I guess I was just thinking that I get to do this twice if I have children. First, I get to hear it from you guys, and then after I raise my children, they're probably going to do the exact same thing."
"You're gonna be dating again after your children are raised?
" Jake sounded appalled. "Okay guys, we need to dust off the lecture about marriage is forever, and you don't get married thinking that you have an automatic escape hatch with divorce.
In fact, divorce should not be a part of your vocabulary. Remember that one, guys?"
"Yeah. I think we got that one on a weekly basis there for a while."
"Guys. Stop. I get it. You want me to hold myself to the same standards that I tried to hold you guys to when I was raising you. Got it."
"We just don't think that that's happening, because from the information that I heard, there was some pretty wild kissing going on."
"I hope whoever saw it said that they could see my hands at all times, and—"
"They did say that, but they couldn't see your tongue."
Noah could feel his face heating. This was not a conversation he ever thought he would have to have with his siblings. He drummed his fingers on the piano. How could he end this phone call?
He thought of something and considered whether or not he was going to say it. All he had to do was say that the furnace wasn't working, and all his siblings would immediately start asking him if he was okay, if he was warm enough, if he needed money... Maybe they would ask that.
No. He wasn't going to burden them with that.
He supposed he could let them lecture him as long as they wanted to.
And he could know the entire time that they were right.
He would've been appalled if one of his siblings had been kissing someone the way he was kissing Grace after only knowing them for seven days.
That wasn't very much time at all. Except.
.. He felt like he'd known her forever, and he was confident in knowing that she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
He just didn't know if she felt the same.
Then why don't you ask her?
He supposed he could have a discussion like that with her.
And he'd have to. Because otherwise, she might not understand when he told her that he couldn't be kissing her anymore.
Not if he wanted to have any peace and quiet in the evenings in order to finish his composition and not be harassed by his siblings.
Yeah. He and Grace were definitely going to need to have a talk.