Chapter Eight
They hadn’t reached the bottom step before his nieces came barreling into the hallway.
They wore matching pink sundresses, and pink beads adorned the ends of their braids.
They were identical, but Ashley was taller and had a beauty mark beneath her right eye, and Harper wore glasses.
They knocked into Jeremiah and tightly wrapped their arms around him.
“Uncle Miah!”
“You’re finally here!”
“What took you so long?”
“We’re going to the boardwalk! Are you coming?”
“You have to come! Promise that you’ll come with us!”
“Okay, hold on, hold on,” Jeremiah said, laughing. “First, hi. I’m happy to see you too. Second, I want to introduce you to my girlfriend, Noelle.”
The girls spun around to look at Noelle.
“Noelle,” he said, “these are my nieces, Harper and Ashley.”
“Hi.” Noelle stepped closer, smiling. “It’s really nice to meet you.”
The girls stared at Noelle with big, curious eyes and waved.
“She’s your girlfriend?” Ashley asked, looking up at Jeremiah. “When did you get a girlfriend?”
“Remember Mom told us that he was bringing his girlfriend?” Harper whispered. She was the quieter, shier twin. She looked at Noelle again. “I like your outfit.”
“Me too!” Ashley abandoned Jeremiah and ran to grab Noelle’s hands instead.
“What kind of lipstick are you wearing? Our mom doesn’t let us wear lipstick.
She says it’s too grown. Can I put on your lipstick to see what it looks like on me?
You don’t have to tell our mom, and we’ll take it off right after.
Are you coming with us to the boardwalk? ”
“Uh.” Noelle smiled and blinked. She seemed unsure of which question to answer first.
“Miah?” Another voice called. Next, Amara entered the hallway. She wore a black denim sleeveless minidress and black Doc Marten sandals. Her short, coily hair framed her face. She jogged over and hugged Jeremiah. Then she flicked him on the forehead.
“Ow.” He winced. “What was that for?”
“You didn’t text me back when I asked what time you’d be here,” Amara said.
He rubbed his forehead. “I was driving. Since you wanna be violent, I’ll withhold your birthday present.”
Amara grinned, shaking her head. “No, you won’t.”
She was right. On his way downstairs, he’d placed the wrapped book and card on Amara’s bed.
Amara smiled warmly at Noelle. “I’m his sister, Amara. It’s so nice to meet you.” She hugged Noelle, then pulled back and bit her lip. “Sorry, I should have asked if you’re a hugger.”
“I’m a hugger,” Noelle confirmed, laughing. She glanced at the dried blue paint marks on Amara’s hands. “Are you working on another painting? I saw some of the art you posted on your Instagram. It’s so good. My favorite is the one you painted of Florence Pugh crying in Midsommar.”
“Thank you! That’s one of my favorites too. Her face is so expressive. I’m in the middle of working on a painting that we’ll auction off at our family gala in a couple weeks. It’s not horror related, though. It’s a dedication to Heart Beach.”
“That’s so dope,” Noelle said. “I wish I knew how to paint.”
Amara squeezed Noelle’s hand. “I can definitely teach you, girl.”
“Really?” Noelle asked, and Amara nodded, beaming.
It was exactly as Jeremiah had feared. Amara was trying to bring Noelle into her fold from the get-go.
“Where’s Mom?” he asked as he smoothly wrapped his arm around Noelle’s waist. She glanced up and leaned into him, resting her head against his arm.
As if she heard him, Celeste breezed into the hallway.
“Hi, hi, hi,” she said. She’d taken off her sunglasses and hat, and her linen outfit flowed as she walked toward them. She looked ethereal and radiant.
“Hey, Ma,” Jeremiah said, smiling.
“Hi, sweetheart.” Celeste kissed him on the cheek and wiped away the stain that her nude brown lipstick left behind. She practically floated over to Noelle, sporting the largest smile. “You must be Noelle. I’m Jeremiah’s mother, Celeste. Welcome to Heart Beach!”
Noelle didn’t have a chance to respond before Celeste hugged her. Celeste pulled away, but kept her hands placed on Noelle’s shoulders as she took her in.
“Thank you so much for having me this weekend,” Noelle said.
“Of course, honey.” Celeste turned to Jeremiah as she dropped her hands from Noelle’s shoulders. “Miah, you didn’t tell us Noelle was so beautiful! I see why you’ve been spending all your time with her.”
“I don’t know how I forgot to mention that,” Jeremiah said, grinning at Noelle. He returned his hand to her waist. “Her beauty takes my breath away sometimes.”
Noelle laughed lightly, but Jeremiah could see the slight flush of her cheeks as his family looked at her.
“My son, the charmer,” Celeste said with a smile. “How was the drive down?”
“Fine,” Jeremiah said. “We sang lots of songs. Where are Percy and Robin?”
“Robin’s napping, and Percy is working at the coffee shop in town. He said he couldn’t focus here. He’ll meet us on the boardwalk later.”
“Oh, I thought he took the day off like everyone else,” Jeremiah said.
“I encouraged him to, but you know your brother.”
Smith’s Sweets was growing. Last year, they’d switched to a larger warehouse, hired new crew members, and changed distribution channels in order to keep up with demand.
Celeste had always said that she wanted to retire early at sixty, and she was turning sixty next year.
So far, there had been no word on her retirement, but if she did make that decision, Percy’s transition to CEO would be smooth.
He was the one who poured oil into the Smith’s Sweets machine and kept things running efficiently.
He’d always been devoted to his work, even as a teenager when he’d sold funnel cakes at Marty’s on the boardwalk.
Working at Marty’s had been Jeremiah’s first summer job too.
Celeste and Pop thought that it was important for Jeremiah and his siblings to learn the value of earning their own money.
Summer jobs were part of the deal. Jeremiah had worked at Marty’s because Percy had worked there.
Percy was three years older than him, and back then, Jeremiah thought that everything Percy did was worth emulating, even if he wasn’t as good at it.
“We’re ready to go to the boardwalk now,” Ashley said, interrupting them. “Can we leave soon, please, Grandma?”
“Yes, sweetheart. Let me go and wake your mom. She wanted to come too.” To Jeremiah and Noelle, Celeste asked, “Will you be joining us?”
Jeremiah looked at Noelle. He was eager to get out of the house. Everywhere he turned reminded him of his grandfather. It was soothing, yet simultaneously painful. He raised an eyebrow, mentally asking her, Is that okay?
To his relief, Noelle smiled. “Yes, we’d love to.”
“Noelle, can you tell us the story of how you and Jeremiah met?” Amara asked. She rolled her eyes at Jeremiah. “Miah’s been very tight-lipped about your relationship.”
Jeremiah smiled down at Noelle as she slipped her hand through his, like it was the most natural thing in the world. They were walking down the boardwalk, having just left the ice cream parlor. Ashley and Harper walked ahead of them.
“It’s a simple story,” Noelle said. “We met at the bookstore where I used to work. I helped him look for a book and he asked me to dinner. We’ve been having dinners together ever since.”
She delivered the story perfectly, smiling in the right places and sending affectionate glances his way. He was impressed, although he shouldn’t have been. She was used to doing this at the weddings she worked.
“I didn’t know that you liked to read, Miah,” his sister-in-law, Robin, said.
She’d brought a mini electric fan outside with her and was currently fanning her face and neck.
She rested her other hand on her round stomach.
Thanks to her pregnancy, she felt overheated all the time.
She’d recently chopped her hair into a pixie cut. “What kind of books are you into?”
Well, he hadn’t expected anyone to ask him that.
“I saw Noelle in the window and made up an excuse about needing a book,” he said, thinking fast. “She was so beautiful, I just wanted to talk to her.”
He looked at Noelle and made lovesick, puppy-dog eyes. She batted her eyelashes and blew him a kiss. Celeste, Amara, and Robin smiled as they watched the two of them and their PDA.
“So, what do you do for fun up there in Jersey City?” Celeste asked.
He and Noelle blinked at each other. What they did for fun wasn’t something that they’d thought to discuss.
“We like to eat Thai food,” he blurted.
“Oh?” Celeste said.
“Yeah, we do this thing where we go to a new restaurant every week and try out different cuisines,” Noelle said, covering up his blunder. “It’s like traveling the world, but through food. The most recent food we tried was Thai.”
“That sounds cool,” Amara said.
“We like singing together too, right?” Jeremiah said. “We do karaoke. R and B karaoke specifically.”
Noelle fought off a grin. “Have you ever heard Jeremiah sing? He has the voice of an angel.”
He barked out a laugh, and Noelle squeezed his hand, trying to keep a straight face.
He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of it.
Only he noticed the stutter of her pulse on the inside of her wrist. They locked eyes, and for a second, he simply enjoyed the privilege of looking at her up close.
He almost forgot that they were supposed to be pretending.
“Do you like charades, Noelle?” Robin asked. “You can’t escape a summer with the Smiths without playing at least once.”
“I haven’t played in a while, but I’d be up for it,” Noelle said.
Little did they know, after this weekend, they wouldn’t be seeing Noelle again.
“What should we do now?” Celeste asked the group. “Play some games? Ride some rides?” She touched Noelle’s arm. “There’s this one ride that shoots you into the air like a slingshot.”
“Games, then rides?” Harper suggested.
Beside her, Ashley pointed. “Look, there’s Dad!”