Page 141 of Best Friends for Never

“Don’t walk out,” he warns. “I mean it.”

I step into the elevator.

“Noel!” he yells just as the doors close.

I know I just screwed up. I know I probably just cost myself the biggest deal of my career. I know it’s likely the most foolish thing I’ve ever done, but I don’t care.

I’m going back to Emerald Grove.

And I’m going back for Parker.

Chapter Twenty

Parker

It’s been three days since Noel left, and somehow, it feels like three years.

So much has happened.

After he left, I stayed up crying for hours. I called Axel, and one “hi” from me told him everything he needed to know. He instructed me to stay home, and given how tired and heartbroken I was, I wasn’t about to argue. I finally fell back asleep from exhaustion when the sun came up.

It dredged up too many old feelings I thought I had moved past, like when my father did the same thing, leaving in the wee hours of the morning. Or when Noel walked out of my life the first time.

It wasn’t until my mother showed up around 6:00 p.m. that I finally crawled out of bed and did something with myself. She made me shower and eat, then put me back to bed.

The next day, the town was buzzing with the news that theGazette’s doors had been padlocked overnight and the entire staff had been relieved of their duties. It was so sudden and shocking that it was all anyone could talk about ... until the next big news broke, the one I’m still trying to understand.

The Noel Carter Theater project was fully funded, saving me a mountain of debt. I got the call this morning from the restoration committee that a donation was made the morning Noel had left.

I’ve been reeling since ... and I think I know exactly who is responsible for it.

If it was Noel who donated the money—and it makes the most sense that it was—how could he do that? How could he drop a load of cash, then disappear again? How could he walk away with a vague promise of returning and nothing else? How could he do something so rash without talking to me first?

And how could I let him go without telling him how much I love him?

I’m a fool. The biggest joke there is.

I let him walk away, and I said nothing.

I didn’t ask him to stay. I didn’t go with him. I just let him go.

I’m as angry with myself as I am with Noel for leaving again.

So I’m at the theater doing what I’ve been doing for the last ten years—burying myself in work.

Axel and the crew called it a day two hours ago, but I stayed behind to work on the main foyer because I couldn’t stand the thought of going home.

I’ve always loved my house, but right now, it’s the last place I want to be. Everywhere I look, I see Noel, and I can’t stand those reminders right now.

I grab a stack of lumber—far smaller than anything Axel would carry—and move it out of my way to get a better look at the area I’m working with.

I’ve been debating what to do with the foyer for days, and last night, it finally came to me in a dream.

While cleaning the theater, I found several old photographs tucked away in Ms. Goodman’s office. They were from the years I spent here and even before that. I kept them in case I found something to do with them, and now I have.

A memory wall.

I want to blow the photos up and put them on canvases to display inside the foyer so that the memories and history of this place are the first thing our guests see.

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