18. Sophie #2
His next words come after a beat of silence. “We should talk.”
“Yeah, because you’re so good at that.”
I earn myself another kiss to the forehead. It feels deeply fond in a way I’m not sure I’ve entirely earned. Not when I’ve known the man to regard me with anything other than contempt.
“You just might be the worst thing to ever happen to me, you know that?” He says, finally pulling away to lead me into his living room.
It’s neat in a way you might expect a bachelor pad to be, only there’s evidence of Danny in every corner. Puzzle boxes and games consoles, a half-finished diorama that I recognize as the twin to the one Trent has been working on back home.
Noah makes his way over to what looks like a liquor cabinet while I make myself comfortable on the art deco couch.
“You hated me.” I prompt when it seems he’s not going to start the conversation himself.
“I did.”
“What did I even do?”
Noah takes his time locating the apparatus he needs, visibly chewing over the question. It’s not until I notice my palms sweating that I realize how much I need this question answered truthfully.
“Danny’s mother. We were… we were young.
She was seventeen when Danny was born, we were both still in school.
” Noah pours out two long measures and sets the decanter back on the side before speaking again.
“It wasn’t easy for her, for either of us.
But it got to a point when all the gossip and the whispering just got too much. ”
He turns back to me, handing over a glass that I take gratefully. I need something to occupy my mouth instead of biting my tongue.
“She left,” he says simply, settling into the couch next to me. “She couldn’t sit through another postnatal session with Nantucket’s finest graduating class of new mothers.”
Knowing the status quo a little keener than most, the bitterness in his voice is likely warranted. “I’m sorry.”
He smiles, shaking his head. “Then to see you, probably even younger than she was, get invited straight into the fold? No judgment, no snide remarks. I couldn’t stand it.”
I swallow hard. “I’m not Trent’s mother.”
“Well, I know that now. I’ve had your whole life story.”
His eye roll has me sitting up straighter, suddenly frustrated. “So you’re telling me you made a snap judgment about who I was, discovered it was untrue, and then continued to treat me like crap because of what, your pride?”
Dark eyes narrow at me. “Danny thinks the world of you.”
“How is that my fault!”
“No, I mean,” a frustrated hand runs through his hair.
“You’re a good parent, a good guardian. Trent is a great kid, and you raised him with less than I had, younger than I was, with no support from your family in a completely new city, and…
I just… couldn’t help but compare. Couldn’t help wondering why she hadn’t stayed.
When you went out of your way to show up. ”
All responses dry in my throat.
“How do you keep showing up, Sophie? For my kid, in that parking lot. On my doorstep.”
“Noah…” my voice trails off as I frantically think through the information he’s told me. “I’m not her, you know that, right? I’m not trying to… I don’t know, replace something in Danny’s life.”
“That’s not what–”
“No, listen to me,” I cut him off, reaching across for his hand. “I’m here because you infuriate me and because I think I’m kinda attracted to you and you kiss really, really well. There’s nothing more than that going on, for me.”
His gaze practically burns my face, making me swallow.
He says nothing, so I continue. “But it sounds like this is something else for you. It’s… I don’t know, intense. And as much as I like some parts, this hot and cold is too much.”
“So, that’s it then?” his thumb strokes along the back of my hand.
I stare at our entwined hands and try to keep my head straight. “I’m almost thirty, Noah. I’m not a teenage charity case anymore. I know what I want, I know what’s bad for me. If you like me, and you want this to work? I need it to be, I don’t know, normal.”
“Normal,” he parrots.
I brush off his disbelieving expression. “Is that so crazy?”
“So no kissing in the snow.”
“Nope.”
“No showing up at my door on New Years.”
“Okay, hang on.”
“No throwing my son a party just so you can have an excuse to see me.”
“I didn’t do that!”
Suddenly his hand tugs at mine, pulling me forward. I almost land on his lap in my scramble to right myself.
Then there’s a kiss. A soft one that takes away just about every breath I’ve ever had.
“Will you let me take you out sometime?” he breathes air back into my lungs. “Nothing crazy, just a very normal date.”
I don’t even pretend to think about it. “Only if you apologize for hitting my car.”
At some point later, when we’re both curled up in his bedroom, watching the New Year roll in with showers of bright fireworks, my phone buzzes on the nightstand.
Trent
Happy New Year
I love you
I swallow down something wretched and warm before turning to find Noah already staring back at me.
“We can’t tell the boys about this, can we?”
“Not yet, no.”
Twenty-twenty-five. Already starting with a lie.
Sophie
Love you too x