Page 85 of When We Were Young
“I didn’t lose it, Emily. I found it!” He lifted her off the ground and spun her around. Then he let her slide back to the grass in front of him. “I have so much to tell you.”
“Okay.” Clearly she didn’t know what had happened to him, but she was here. She wasn’t walking away and that was something. Rain poured down her face as lightning hit a few blocks away. “But let’s get in the truck.”
“Yes! The truck!” Noah laughed out loud. “Whatever you want, Emily. It’s yours now and forever!” He let go of her and took her hand. They ran to the truck and Noah opened the door and helped her into the passenger seat. At the same time he caught a glimpse of something that set his heart free. A glimpse of what might be the future. Because the angry girl he’d seen last night was gone. Emily wasn’t glaring at him anymore.
She was smiling.
•••
EMILY HAD NOidea what had happened to Noah, but he was a different man. Completely different.
She was soaking wet, shivering from the cold air outside and the craziness of the moment. Noah climbed in behind the wheel and turned to her. “God did it all, Emily.” Water still ran down his face. “He did it in one night. At least I think that’s what happened.”
He looked like a crazy person, his hair wet and matted to his forehead, the goofy grin on his face. His hands were muddy from the grass he’d pulled out of the Taylors’ lawn. And he couldn’t stop talking. A hundred miles a minute.
“You’re really here. It’s the greatest thing in all my life, Emily. I’m here and you’re here and we’re young again.” He wiped his dirty hands on his jeans and took her fingers in his. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
“Yes.” Emily searched his eyes, his face. What had happened? His hugs from a minute ago had been a mix of passion and desperation, as if Noah had come back from the dead—and she was the first person he could take hold of. But his eyes were swollen, too. Like he’d been crying.
“Come here, baby. Let me hold you, please.” He practically crawled over the console to take her in his arms. “Don’t let go. Don’t ever let go.”
“Noah.” She made a sound more doubt than laugh. “Start at the beginning. What happened?”
He released her and settled back into his seat. Then with a deep breath Noah told her a story she wouldn’t have believed if it hadn’t been him. He sounded like someone with mental issues. Schizophrenia, maybe. Emily held her breath and prayed that wasn’t it.Exhale,she reminded herself. She had to hear every detail.
Outside the rain let up some and Emily hung on every word Noah said. The story was unlike anything she’d ever heard. He had been dreaming—lots of dreams. And in each of them he had relived a piece of their love story. What brought them together.
But when he would wake up, he would be older. Years older. His hyper joy settled down. “It took me a few times to realize I wasn’t only living in an apartment, I was living there alone and you were married to some guy named Bob.” His eyes locked on to hers. “The kids, Emily... they were a mess. Worse every time until...”
“Until what?” The nightmare sounded horrible. She shivered a little more. “Tell me, Noah. What happened to the kids?”
“The last time, when I woke up, Aiden was at the door. He was twenty-three, Emily. And he’d found his way back to God.”
Tears flooded Emily’s eyes. “He was twenty-three? What about Olivia?”
Noah shook his head. Tears came for him, too, and before he could say another word he was crying. Weeping. He covered his face with his hands and when he could finally talk, he said words that struck terror in Emily’s heart.
“She died. Of an overdose. Under a bridge outside Bloomington.”
“Dear God.” Emily’s voice fell. She shook her head. “Noah, that’s awful.”
“It was.” He pulled her into his arms again. “The whole thing was awful and real and terrible and... and even now...” He brushed his damp fingertips against her face, her hair. “Tell me I’m here, that you’re real and last night was not. Is this really happening?”
She ached for him, for all he’d been through. Later she wanted to hear the rest of the details. But for now there was something they had to do. “The kids are inside.” She opened the car door. “I think they’d both like to see you.” Her smile felt easy and natural. The way it hadn’t for far too long. “That should answer your question.”
“The kids!” Noah was out of the car and around to her side in a flash. He held her hand as they hurried back to the Taylors’ front door. Already the sky was clearing, the sun breaking through the clouds.
Noah walked through the door first. “Aiden! Olivia!”
Emily watched Aiden look up. He dropped the Lincoln Logs and jumped to his feet. “Daddy?”
Poor boy. He had been deeply aware that Noah was leaving today. Now the mix of joy and uncertainty was evident in his eyes. Aiden didn’t need an invitation. He ran across the room and Noah caught him up in his arms. Once Emily had seen a video compilation of kids whose parents had just returned home from battle.
Their moment of reunion.
It was exactly the same right now for Noah and Aiden. The two clung to each other like they were survivors of the worst possible war. Which they were. Survivors who were here and whole and ready to face life again. The war was behind them.
Emily knew it with everything in her. Today wasn’t an ending after all.
