Page 62 of When We Were Young
“Okay. Next Saturday, then?” Noah rubbed his sleeve across his face. “We’ll go to the park again?”
Aiden and Olivia both nodded and dried their eyes. Noah opened the door and there she was. His wife, the woman he longed for more than his next breath. She seemed to notice that all of them had been crying, which made the tender moment suddenly awkward. She took the kids and looked at him for a single beat of his heart. “Thanks, Noah.”
That was it. Just two words.
He nodded and they were gone. All three of them. This time Noah didn’t follow them outside, didn’t try to talk Emily into understanding that they were still married. Clearly they were not.
Instead he watched from the window, and then he saw the man. The same one from Aiden’s soccer game. And something else. In the shadow of the apartment complex lighting he saw the glint of a diamond on her left ring finger. He couldn’t take his eyes off it. “No, God.” His words were the most tortured whisper. “What have I done?”
It was true. The guy wasn’t just hanging around. He and Emily were either engaged or... or married. He watched as the man jumped out of the car and opened the door for Emily and Olivia. The perfect gentleman. Emily’s Prince Charming, like the kids had said. And then the guy slid behind the wheel and drove off.
With everything that had ever mattered to Noah.
His greatest accomplishment.
19
Emily was tired of sitting on the swing. The late fall air had gotten colder with the passing of the last storm and she needed to stretch. Still more bad weather was forecast through the morning. She wandered back into the house and looked down the hallway toward their bedroom. The light was off. Noah was obviously asleep.
Like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Think of others better than yourself.Wasn’t that something Kari Baxter Taylor always talked about? Yet, Noah couldn’t see past his own reflection. The social media world was all about his followers, his fame. And a million girls who didn’t even know him.
Emily moved into the den, left the lights off, and shut the double doors behind her. It was two in the morning. The last thing she wanted was to wake the kids. There was still more to the story of Noah and her, still pieces she wanted to relive.
Yes, their marriage was dead. But it had been so beautiful once upon a time. What they shared deserved to be remembered.
A requiem for all that was.
Emily crossed the room to the bookcase and pulled a photo album from the middle shelf. Of all the pictures the two of them had taken together, of all the images their followers had oohed and aahed over on social media, there was one picture that would always be her favorite.
She opened the book and there it was. Right at the front. The moonlight through the window was bright enough that she could still see every detail.
It was the photo that had started the whole thing.
Noah had her in his arms and her feet were off the ground. A sunset painted the sky and he was holding her close, face-to-face, the two of them clinging to each other. And next to them was Clara, beaming bigger than life because Noah had made two decisions.
The biggest decisions in all his life.
Holding the album open to that page, Emily sat in the glider chair, the one by the window. She set it in motion, ever so slightly, and let her eyes rest on the photo.
Emily had made her decision. She couldn’t live without Noah Carter, so she had to find a way to live with him. If that meant convincing Clara to move to San Diego, then she’d at least try. After Noah took her back, Emily worked every day on her sister, showing her pictures of the beach and talking about how wonderful it would be to have a winter without snow.
Clara was starting to come around, though Emily still wasn’t sure how her sister would adjust to any of it. Neither of them had ever been to the West Coast before, for one thing. Usually after Emily talked about visiting the West Coast, Clara would end the conversation with something sweet or sad. “This is home, Emily,” she would struggle to say. Or, “Please don’t stay in San Diego. I need here. I need you.”
The hope was that once Clara managed to get on a plane and actually see California, she’d change her mind. Maybe she wouldn’t even want to go back to Indiana. In reality, though, Emily wasn’t quite sure. She and Noah began praying about the situation. But Noah was busy. There were physicals and TV interviews and meetings with his agent. Between the draft and the day he was supposed to leave for camp, Emily felt like she barely saw him.
Three days before he was set to leave, Emily was home making dinner for Clara when she got a text from Noah.
Turn on your TV. ESPN.
That was all. JustTurn on your TV. Nothing more.Strange,she thought. She dried her hands on a towel and did as he asked. And suddenly there he was, standing in front of a dozen microphones with at least that many cameras in his face.
“Hey! Noah.” Clara had been at the dining room table doing classwork. She set her pencil down and stared at the TV. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” Emily took the nearest chair, her eyes fixed on the screen. “Let’s listen.”
She turned up the volume in time to hear Noah start talking. Emily’s heart raced within her. What was this? What was he doing? She leaned closer.
