Page 46 of The Catcher
“Doesn’t everyone?”
He scoffed. “Do you see yourself settling down, maybe having a few kids?”
“I guess — one day. I haven’t given it much thought.”
“From the moment Lena and I got married, she wanted kids.”
“And Alicia?”
“Oh, no. She was a free spirit. A wild child, you could say.”
“Was that why you were drawn to her?”
He chewed over her question. “Lena asked the same thing before we left High Peaks over twenty years ago. It’s a long story," Noah continued, his words slow and measured. “Lena and I were together for years, but Alicia…” He trailed off, the memories too painful to put into words.
“You were in love with her,” Callie stated rather than asked, her voice soft and empathic.
Noah hesitated, the truth of her words cutting through him like a knife. “Yeah,” he admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. “I thought I was.”
The room fell into silence, the only sound the distant rumble of thunder echoing through the night. Noah closed his eyes, the memories of Alicia swirling around him like a whirlwind, pulling him back into a past he had long tried to forget.
“And Lena?” Callie's voice broke through the silence, her question drawing him back to the present.
“We tried to make it work,” Noah replied, his voice full of regret. “But sometimes it isn’t enough, you know?”
“I get it. I’ve been there.”
“Yeah? With whom and why haven’t you told me?” He let out a small laugh.
She didn’t answer.
“Callie?”
Another pause before she replied, “I lied, Noah.”
“What?”
“You asked me if I had been involved with anyone.” She paused. “I had.”
He smiled, thinking finally he was going to get some big confession about some guy from her college days, some meathead who had been an asshole.
“Well, don’t hold back. Who?”
There was a short pause before she replied, “Your brother.”
He heard her clear her throat. Noah slipped out from under the blankets and went to her bedroom doorway. He looked at her as she shuffled upright in her bed, the duvetcover pulled up to her chest. “You already told me about Luke.”
She shook her head. “Not everything.”
“Everything?”
She nodded.
“What else is there to say?” he asked, referring to his identical twin, who had taken her under his wing long before Noah had arrived. He could tell she was uncomfortable telling him, yet at the same time, she was at ease with him enough to come clean.
“But you told me you initiated it, and he turned you down.”
“You had just lost your brother. I didn’t want you to think badly about him or me. But that’s not the truth. It was Luke who initiated it. I put a stop to it.”
