Page 51 of When We Were Young
“Look.” Noah couldn’t take another minute. He moved directly in front of the man. “I don’t know who you are, but you need to go. I’m taking my wife home and my family home.”
Emily’s eyes darkened. “Noah! I told you... that’s enough!” She stood and faced him. “Don’t make a scene.”
He took a few steps to the side and she stood and followed him. “I’m not making a scene.” His eyes found the guy, still sitting by Olivia. “That...guyis making a scene.” Noah lowered his voice, but it didn’t hide the anger in his words. “Emily, you are a married woman. I can’t believe you’d let that jerk have his arm around you.”
She blinked a few times. “Noah, you need help. You really do.”
“That’s for sure.” He turned away from her for a few seconds, and then looked straight back at her. “My kids barely talk to me and my wife’s flirting with some stranger. I think maybe we all need help.”
“Noah.” She crossed her arms. “When’s the last time you saw a doctor?”
“I don’t know.” He felt his anger fall away. “Yesterday it was fall and... and the kids were seven and five. And today it’s December, and they’re ten and eight. My life is passing before my eyes, Emily. And I don’t remember it.” He reached for her hand, but she pulled it away. “I don’t remember anything but you.”
“Noah...”
“I mean it.” He felt tears in his eyes. “I love you, Emily. I’m dying to hold you, to kiss you. It feels like it’s been forever.”
Again Emily just stared at him. “I can’t tell if you’re messing with me.” She angled her head. “But if you’re not... you should know the two of us have been divorced for six years.”
Everything was spinning again. The words hit him like so many bullets. “No.” He shook his head. “Please, Emily. That’s impossible. I love you more than ever. You’re my everything.”
She shook her head. “You see that man over there?”
Noah didn’t want to look, but he couldn’t help himself. “He’s a stranger. He needs to leave.”
“He’s not a stranger.” She took a deep breath. “He’s my boyfriend. And one day soon he’ll probably be my husband, Noah.” She distanced herself from him. “You need to accept the fact. Please. For all of us. And you need to see a doctor.” With that, she turned and left. Walked off to the man and took her spot beside him.
Noah wanted to shout at her to come back, run across the bleachers and grab the guy, throw him off the edge of the stands. Beat him up so he would never dream of showing his face again. But all he could do was stumble down the steps and drag himself to the car.
There was nothing he could say to Aiden or Olivia, no way to convince Emily to make the guy leave. She didn’t want Noah, not right now. As he pulled his brokenhearted body across the parking lot, only two things echoed through his aching head.
One very much a lie, and the other, very much a truth.
The lie was that Emily thought they were divorced. And she wasn’t the only one. The strange woman, Rebecca, thought so, too. As if this... split between Emily and him were public.
Why would he ever end things with his beautiful Emily?
But whatever had created that confusion, or the strange visions, whatever was happening to his brain to make him forget whole sections of his life, that terrible lie was nowhere near as powerful as the truth. The one truth that completely consumed him.
He had never loved Emily Andrews, never ached for her, more than he did right now.
16
The hours passed slowly as Emily kept her spot on the backyard swing. She still wasn’t tired, but that wasn’t the reason she stayed. It was the story. Their story. The one she might not have the chance or desire to play out again.
Not after they were divorced.
If only they could’ve found a way to make love last. Like Ryan and Kari Taylor. Emily leaned back in the swing and let the next part of her memories come.
Once they were an official couple, Emily couldn’t wait for the times when she could be with Noah. His senior football season came, and she and Clara sat in the stands again. And like before they prayed for his safety.
Every down, every play Emily would hold her breath, and every time Noah got back up again. Once in a while he would flash her a thumbs-up. Just so she would know he was okay. And instead of getting hurt, the most amazing thing started to happen. At least for Noah.
He began to play better than at any time in his life. Like maybe he really had heard from God about the good plans He had for Noah. His stats were proof.
With every game, Clara relaxed a little more and returned to enjoying the games the way she had his sophomore year. By then she had finished high school and she was taking classes at an occupational center. Learning how to ring up sales and clean floors and take orders at a fast-food restaurant.
The only sorts of jobs Clara would ever work.
