Page 47 of When We Were Young
A desperation came over them, the result of denying what they felt for far too long. Her face was in his hands and his lips were on hers. The kiss started fast, marked by a passion that was finished with waiting.
But gradually it slowed and Emily’s tears slid down her cheeks. She pulled back and dried them. “What if... something happens to you, Noah. I couldn’t...”
“Shh, baby. No. Nothing’s going to happen. God’s already told me.” He kissed her again and another time. And gradually he could feel her sadness leave. After a minute she started laughing. The sort of laugh that came from sheer exhilaration.
He slid back enough to look at her, and sure enough, she was beaming. She ran her hand over his hair and down his arm. “You called me baby.”
“Is that okay?” Noah wasn’t sure what to expect. He certainly had not planned on any of this.
“Yes.” She giggled and kissed him again. “Please, Noah. Please, call me baby.” She traced his cheekbone with her thumb. “That’s all I want. With every breath, it’s all I’ve ever wanted since you got hit the last time.”
Noah felt a crazy mix of joy and sorrow. She was his. Finally. And nothing would ever separate them. But she could’ve told him so much sooner. “I thought you still wanted to be friends.”
“Sometimes I do.” She looked sheepish, and she shrugged one shoulder. “But not really. I was talking to God about you, and I realized that if I lost you... and you never knew...”
“How you really feel?” Noah drank in the sensation of her breath against his face, the touch of her fingers intertwined with his.
“Yes.” She smiled and it reached all the way to her tearstained eyes. “I had to tell you.” She stood and he did the same. Was she kicking him out already? Then she asked him the craziest thing. “Dance with me, Noah. Will you?”
She didn’t have to ask him twice. “I’ve wanted to dance with you from the first time I saw you in rehearsal.”
“Really?” She stepped easily into his arms. “You should’ve said so.”
“I should’ve—” He stopped himself. She was kidding again. Back to the Emily he had fallen in love with.
She started to laugh, letting her head tip back, her hair spilling down almost to her waist. “I’m a crazy fool, Noah Carter.” Her eyes found his again. “Hold on.” She used her phone to start a song on the living room speaker. It was Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love.” Emily kept the music low.
As soon as the song started, Noah began to waltz with her across the room. Every single note felt like a dream, like all the years of wanting her and waiting for her had finally led to this.
He sang along with the words, “I could make you happy, make your dreams come true...”
Even before the song ended, their dance slowed and Noah kissed her again, their bodies still swaying to the music. “I love you, Emily.” He whispered near her ear. “I have from the first day I met you.”
“Me, too.” She pulled back and grinned at him. “I just... I didn’t want anything to change with Clara.”
“I know.” He kissed her once more. “Baby, nothing ever will. I promise.”
“Okay.” She had her arms around his neck. “And nothing can happen to you.”
“Never.” His cheek brushed against hers. A question rose to the surface of his heart, and when the song stopped he stepped back and looked into her eyes again. “Will you be my girlfriend, Emily? Please?”
She went to him, her head on his chest for a long minute. Then she looked up at him. “Noah... don’t you see?” She smiled. “I already am.” They swayed a minute longer and she locked eyes with him again. “I want to remember this forever, even a million years from now. The days when we were young.”
On the drive back to his dorm that night, Noah remembered thinking she’d better never break up with him. Because no matter what happened from here, one thing was definitely true.
He would only, ever and always love Emily Andrews.
Till he drew his last breath.
15
Noah woke up slowly, his legs tangled in the bedsheets. A cold breeze drifted across the room and he looked at the window. Why was it open? And how had it gotten so cold?
It had to be in the twenties.
He set his feet down and... there it was again. The cold, scratchy carpet. His feet jerked back like before. Where were the wood floors? And how could he have agreed to this cheap carpet? His memory was jumbled, but in the recesses of his mind he remembered something.
They lived in an apartment now. That was it.
