15. Sophie #2
Trent groans. “Ugh, they were so depressing. It didn’t even get cold. Like, actually Christmas cold.”
At the far end, Roland shakes his head, a smile softening the deep lines of his face. “You were complaining about the cold not half an hour ago.”
The conversation derails quickly. Eddie and Trent jump up and down to refill drinks, threatening Roland with his own cane for trying to get up to do it himself.
Meredith is never too far away from Eddie, laughing at some muttered comment, her eyes brighter than I’ve seen in months.
June, though quiet, begins to thaw too. The prickliness of her alcohol consumption mellows out with a stomach full of food.
It’s nearly half an hour later, after the laughter has sighed into contented chatter, when the door creaks open again. Danny steps inside, cheeks red from the cold, holding a small gift bag as his eyes dart across the table to find Trent. Our brother is on his feet in a flash.
“Is that?” June’s surprised tone catches my attention. Her eyes are narrowed at the door. “Noah Short?”
My stomach tightens as I immediately look over my shoulder to find a familiar shadow lurking in the threshold of the bar.
“You know him?” The words leave my mouth before I have a chance to think them through.
June frowns at me. “Yeah, I mean. We were in the same class in high school. It’s been years, though. I thought he left Nantucket after, well…”
The question burns on my tongue, but I steel myself. “Oh, well, that’s Danny’s dad.”
“No way, that’s his kid?” June’s wide eyes immediately seek out Danny, who’s now gesturing wildly at Trent, enraptured in whatever story he’s telling. “Now you mention it, he kinda looks like her.”
“Who?” Meredith, having given up pretending not to listen in, leans forward conspiratorially.
June turns to her, comically putting a hand up to block her mouth from view of anyone but us. “You remember Alice Saperstein?”
Meredith’s eyes flash with recognition. “Didn’t she get pregnant in like 11th grade?”
June mutely gestures toward Danny.
“No way.”
I push back my chair abruptly, earning me confused looks from my sisters. But I can’t meet their eyes. Not when I have no rational explanation for the fact that my blood is boiling.
Perhaps it has something to do with the realization that Noah might have had a decent excuse as to why he responded so aggressively to the gossiping moms at Danny’s party.
Perhaps it’s the unfriendly reminder that there are no secrets in Nantucket.
That even amongst my sisters, we are not exempt from the thralls of a juicy rumor.
Either way, I’m striding across the room before I know it. Approaching the man haunting the doorway.
His jaw tightens as he notes my approach. Eyes darting between me and the table behind, no doubt registering the familiar faces there. He looks ready to run away the second he can get an excuse out of his mouth.
“Merry Christmas,” I say softly, stopping just short of him in a gesture of peace. “Thanks for stopping by with Danny. Would you guys like to join us for a bit? There’s plenty of food, and?—”
“Just drop it, alright?” He snaps, dark eyes one shade closer to threatening. “I told you already, I’m not going to fall for it.”
The words slice through me.
Before I can even react, he turns, yanking the door open wider. “Danny. We’re leaving. Now.”
Danny’s head jerks up, panic flashing across his face. “Dad, just five minutes, please? I haven’t even?—”
“Car. Now.”
He doesn’t wait for an answer. Doesn’t look back. Just storms into the night, boots crunching over the snow-dusted street.
Danny hovers, torn, gift bag dangling from his hand as he throws Trent a desperate look.
Something in me snaps.
I know I should let him go. I should keep my head down and let Noah be Noah. But watching Danny wilt, watching Noah shove his way through life, leaving bruises on everyone around him. Letting him pigeonhole me and dismiss me at every single turn.
“I’ll talk to him,” I send the boys a reassuring smile, though anger pulses hot in my chest as I stride for the door.
If Noah thinks he can bark orders and disappear like that… No. Not on Christmas.
The cold slaps me the second I step outside, but it barely registers over the fire in my chest. Noah’s already halfway across the lot, strides long and purposeful, like he can storm away from me the way he storms away from everything else.
“Hey!” I shout, boots crunching in the slush as I chase after him. “What the hell is your problem?”
He stops, shoulders tight, but doesn’t turn.
“It’s Christmas! Can’t you be a decent human being for once?” I yell again, stomping closer.
When he finally turns, his face is set in that same flat, unreadable expression that’s been driving me insane since the day we met.
“You don’t get to talk to me like that,” he says. “You don’t know me.”
“No,” I snap, my breath clouding in front of me.
“You don’t get to play stoic and mysterious with me right now.
You crashed into my car, you snubbed me in my own restaurant, you never even thanked me for throwing your son a party.
What exactly have I done to deserve this treatment, Noah?
Because last time I checked, I’ve been nothing but decent to you and Danny. ”
He takes a step closer, but his expression is all ice.
“I don’t need you throwing us pity parties.
I don’t need some… twenty-something girl trying to play savior because she thinks a few lobster rolls and balloons make her generous.
You don’t know the first thing about raising a kid alone.
About what it takes. You’ve lived here what, five minutes?
You have no idea what the world actually looks like. ”
“Don’t you dare patronize me.” My voice is low now, lethal.
I step into his space, close enough to feel the heat rolling off him.
My pulse is thrumming in my ears, furious, alive.
“I’m not a kid. I’ve been raising Trent since I was eighteen years old, so don’t you dare tell me I don’t know what that’s like.
I’ve fought for him, protected him, given up everything I had so that he’d have a chance.
So take me seriously, Noah. Because all these excuses you’re hiding behind?
They’re pathetic. They’re juvenile. And I am done being polite and taking all your crap just because you have a vendetta against everyone on this island that looks at you twice. ”
We’re close. Too close. I can see how wide his pupils have blown, the way his breath stutters just slightly as it mingles with mine in the cold. Neither of us moves, not until something in him snaps.
And then—his mouth crashes against mine.
It’s rough, almost violent, as if he’s punishing himself for even wanting it. My whole body jolts with shock, with heat, with anger tangled up in something else I don’t want to name.
Then just as suddenly, he tears himself away.
I stagger back a step, my boots slipping on the ice, my lips tingling, my breath unsteady.
He searches my face, something unreadable flickering there for the briefest moment before his mask slides back into place.
“Danny,” he calls, voice flat again, aimed over my shoulder.
I turn just enough to see Danny exiting through the front door of Birdies.
Noah doesn’t look at me again. He strides to the car, Danny trailing reluctantly after him, and within seconds the headlights sweep across the lot as they pull away into the night.
I’m left standing in the cold, pulse racing, lips still burning, staring at nothing at all.