Page 68 of The Catcher
“Oh well, too late now,” Addison said with a shrug.
“Maybe not. The cinema is inside Regal Aviation Mall, which is way bigger than this mall. My parents are movie buffs. Once they get locked into a film, getting their attention is near impossible. We’ll duck out when the movie is on. If they ask, we’re getting some extra popcorn. We’ll browse to our heart’s content. We’ll be back before they even miss us.”
“Oh, and I’m the bad one?” Addison teased, raising an eyebrow.
“You rub off on me,” Mischa said, chuckling as she hurried over to her parents.
22
Noah blinked as he was jolted awake by a loud knocking at the door. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced at his side table clock. It was blinking red. It was a little after one in the afternoon. Through a gap in his curtains, he could see the grey skies outside. He had been hoping for a chance to sleep in after a long and exhausting day, but after returning home, he was faced with the sight of the busted window in his study. Noah had spent the early hours of the morning clearing the branches and debris, hastily covering the broken window with black garbage bags taped to the frame. By the time he had finally slipped into bed, it was two in the morning.
“Go away!” he grumbled, pulling the pillow over his head in a futile attempt to drown out the persistent knocking. However, the sound continued, undeterred.
“All right, all right, I’m coming,” Noah muttered, reluctantly tossing the duvet cover back and rolling out of bed.He grabbed his robe and wrapped it around himself, the fabric providing some measure of warmth against the chill of the morning, and padded out of the room to answer the insistent knocking at the door.
Opening the door, Noah squinted into the morning light, the brightness momentarily blinding him as he was greeted by Callie. She wasn’t in uniform today. Without waiting for an invitation, she brushed past him, her movements brisk and purposeful.
“Come on in,” Noah said, his tone laced with sarcasm as he closed the door behind him and followed her into the kitchen.
“I didn’t get much sleep last night,” Callie confessed, her voice tired and strained.
“Well, that makes the two of us,” Noah replied, his exhaustion evident in his voice as he rubbed his temples, trying to push away the dull ache in his head.
“I was thinking about how we left things,” Callie continued, her words tumbling out in a rush. “Look, I don’t want things to get awkward between us. That’s the last thing I want. I just wanted to be honest. It had been weighing on my mind, and I thought you needed to know, especially since you were sharing about Lena and Alicia.”
Noah felt overwhelmed by Callie’s rapid-fire words, struggling to process everything she was saying. “Uh-huh,” he managed, his mind still foggy from lack of sleep.
“Are things going to be awkward?” Callie asked, her tone anxious.
Noah blew out his cheeks, feeling a sense of frustrationbuilding within him. “You had coffee yet?” he deflected, hoping to buy himself some time to gather his thoughts.
“What?”
“Coffee, Thorne?”
“No.”
“How about we start with that and then discuss this? My head feels like a steam-roller went over it.”
As Noah made a pot of coffee, Callie continued talking, her words blending in his mind. The smell of freshly brewed coffee was magical, awakening his senses and bringing clarity. Opening the blinds, he let in the dull light of the overcast day, casting a soft glow over the room.
“Did you hear anything I said?” Callie asked, interrupting his thoughts.
“Yeah,” Noah replied. “Awkward conversation. ‘I don’t want things to be weird between us.’ I got it.”
“Well, do you have anything to say?”
“Do you take cream?”
“Noah.”
He chuckled softly. “Thorne. You have nothing to worry about. I was the one who got the wires crossed, not you. How about we forget it? Start again. Pretend it never happened.”
“That would be a relief.”
As he poured out her coffee, Noah shifted gears, bringing Callie up to speed on the recent events, including the break-in and theft of the Ashford case file and his father’s recent health scare.
“Thank you,” Callie said, taking the cup and nursing it to warm her hands. “So you think the two are connected?”
