Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
“I never thought I’d say this, but I sort of wish Noah hadn’t called you two days ago.”
It was a warm, beautiful day in Northampton. Lucy and Cecilia sat on Adirondack chairs on the porch of Lucy’s cabin, sipping iced tea after a long morning shift at the diner.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because if he hadn’t made contact, then enough time would’ve passed by now that we could file a missing persons’ report,” Lucy explained.
“I looked it up, and there needs to be forty-eight hours since someone last saw the person before you can involve the police. I saw him after the movie, and he must’ve skipped town sometime that night, since he wasn’t at the diner in the morning.
If he hadn’t called later that day, we would be well within the window for getting the authorities to start looking for him. Instead, we have to wait another day.”
Cecilia shrugged and took a long sip from her glass. “I’m still glad he called. I don’t think we need to involve the police anyway. Whatever he’s doing, I’m sure he has a good reason for it.”
“So you’re back on the side of trusting him?”
Her friend paused for a moment. “I always trusted him. I think it was just a lot to take in when you first told me about his fake name and this random little girl. Honestly, though, the second I heard his voice on the phone that day, I realized he was still my good friend. Nothing had really changed. I guess I just needed some time to process this new information.”
Lucy hadn’t told Cecilia about the arrest warrant from Noah’s teen years.
She didn’t think it mattered because the crime was minor, and she was wary of sharing anything that could affect Cecilia’s view of him.
Still, she knew she might change her mind if he waited too long to come home.
Although she wanted to protect his privacy, she couldn’t stand being kept in the dark, searching online for clues, and wondering where this guy had gone.
And why he took Megan with him.
“I sent off the newly signed divorce papers,” Lucy said after a moment of silence. Even though she’d brought him up, she was tired of talking about Noah. He’d been the topic of conversation ever since she and Cecilia realized he was missing. Lucy needed a break from Noah’s ghost.
“Oh yeah?” Cecilia looked at her with raised brows. “When was that?”
“Yesterday,” she said. “I was given confirmation, as was my lawyer, that they were properly filed and that everything is done. Or at least, everything Brendan and I have to do is done now. The rest is just a matter of processing, and my lawyer will contact me when it’s truly finished on the administrative side of things. ”
“Wow. How do you feel?”
Lucy smiled. “A little bittersweet, maybe, but mostly good.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that.” Cecilia stirred her iced tea with the eco-friendly paper straws Lucy had taken from the diner.
They were awful and disintegrated in the cup after a while, but Lucy didn’t believe in drinking iced tea on a hot day without a straw.
“A friend of mine got divorced a few years back, and I don’t think she was really honest with herself about how emotional the whole thing would be.
She kept saying she was relieved and that it was good riddance, since her husband was a total deadbeat, but a few months after everything was finalized, she admitted to me that she had been missing him so badly that she went over there one night after drinking too much and… well, you can do the math.”
Lucy laughed. “I’m sure that’s not uncommon.”
“No, it’s probably not,” Cecilia agreed.
“But she said she never would’ve gone back over there if she hadn’t been feeling a build-up of sadness over the months of their divorce.
Like, I got the impression that if she’d just been honest about how much she was struggling and how much she missed her husband, her friends could’ve rallied around her and helped her get through those feelings without her running back to him, you know?
That’s why I’m glad you mentioned that it’s bittersweet.
I think it shows that you’re not just sugarcoating things to make it seem like you’re totally fine. ”
“Definitely not.” Lucy snorted. “I’m far from fine.
But I do think it helps that I had been under the impression the papers were signed and filed almost a month ago.
It still brings up some emotions, especially since Brendan sent along this really sweet note with the new papers, but you definitely don’t have to worry about me running back to him. ” She shook her head. “Not a chance.”
Cecilia smiled. “Not when you’ve got someone here you’re crushing on.”
“I had only just pivoted the conversation away from Noah.” Lucy groaned. “Don’t steer us right back to talking about him.”
“Fine, you’re right. We don’t have to talk about Noah. Instead, we can talk about Liam, whose math teacher called me yesterday.”
“Uh-oh.”
“That’s what I thought when I first answered the phone,” she said.
“But actually, she called to tell me that she thinks he should consider studying mathematics in college. I guess she was talking to him after class, and he mentioned that he wasn’t sure what he would study or even if he wanted to go to college.
She thought she would at least let me know that he could go really far if he wanted to do something in math and the sciences. ”
“That’s amazing!”
“Yeah, except for the part where he said he wasn’t even sure he wanted to go to school!” Cecilia laughed. “He’s always talked about going to college. Not once have I heard an alternative plan.”
“Well, you know how kids are,” Lucy said. “They go through phases. They like to pretend they have everything figured out, then boom—one month later, they’re playing a completely different tune. I was the same way.”
Cecilia sighed. “I guess I was, too. I just didn’t realize how stressful that must’ve been for our parents. God, we really put them through the wringer, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, we did.” Lucy looked down into her glass. She had a question, but she didn’t want to upset Cecilia by asking it. In the end, Cecilia either read her mind or they had spent enough time together that they were now on the same mental wavelength.
“Quintin will be excited to hear that he’s doing so well. He was unhappy when I first told him that Liam had to attend summer school to make up for some bad grades last year. He blamed himself for not being around enough, and honestly, I don’t think his absence helped the situation.”
“No, I’m sure you’re right about that. Are you still thinking about asking him to change jobs when he’s back home?”
She nodded. “I have to. I love the man. I’d do anything for him, but this distance is really starting to wear on me. Liam too. I think he’ll be receptive to the idea, but that doesn’t make it any less terrifying.”
“Well, let me know if you want to rehearse what you’re going to say when it gets closer to his return.”
“That’ll be in over three months,” she reminded Lucy. “Are you sure you’ll still be around?”
Lucy smiled and said with absolute certainty, “Yes. I’m sure.”