13
Noah felt a hot rush of emotions as he extricated himself from the flag football game. He should've asked Jilly what time the guests were showing up. Or maybe because they were family, her sister and the whole crew had arrived early.
He was shaken by the rush of anger, mixed up with nostalgia and an affection that was ten-plus years deep. All that just from hearing Callum's voice.
Now, footsteps crunched in the grass behind him, too heavy to belong to one of the women.. He should've expected it. Of course his former friend would follow him. Would Callum try to warn him off from Jilly? Or was this something else?
"Wait up, man."
Noah had an insane urge to run. He knew better. He needed to concentrate to navigate his way back home. Fence, gate, driveway.
He kept walking. The last thing he needed was for Jilly or one of the kids to overhear whatever Callum was about to say.
"What do you want?" He growled the words.
Calum hesitated. "I tried calling you when I came back to town. Left a couple of messages."
Noah had screened those messages. It had only taken a few seconds to recognize his former friend's voice, and he had deleted that first message and the two following without listening to them.
Now he shrugged. "I'm not interested in revisiting the past." Just saying the words brought him back to the hope and then the devastation of graduation night.
There was something hard in Callum's voice when he responded. "Not with me, apparently. What are you doing messing around with Jilly?"
Noah’s shoes hit the driveway. Not much longer, and he could put a slab of wood between himself and his former friend. He shook his head, shook away the misgivings that Callum's words brought to the surface. "Things are different with Jilly." She didn't know his secret.
He didn't know when it had happened, but somewhere along the way, he'd started imagining a future with Jilly. It wasn't a long future.
He wouldn't ask for that. He didn't dare want anything beyond tomorrow. One visit from Lindsey and Casey and PJ in the afternoon to let the kids play with Honey Bear, a few precious moments with Jilly, and he’d be happy.
He wanted it so badly.
And the past that Callum was bringing up was the worst threat he could imagine.
Maybe he was imagining it, but he thought he heard a soft sigh as his shoes hit the front step. "If you're going to be dating Jilly—"
"I'm not dating her. We're friends and barely that." Saying it aloud caused a hollow pit to open up in his stomach.
He got his hand on the doorknob.
"Fine. You're just friends. Don't you think we should make some sort of peace? If we see each other again—"
"That's not gonna happen." He let himself in and shut the door.
He was a coward.
By the timeCallum made it back to the house, the kids had tired of flag football and gone inside.
Iris met her husband just off the back porch. Jilly knew because she was chipping apart a ten-pound bag of ice in the sink and saw them out the window.
She saw Callum's drawn expression.
Chip.
Obviously, it hadn't gone well with Noah. She remembered the Noah from a few weeks ago, who'd slammed the door in her face. What had Callum expected?
Chip, chip.
Iris laid her hand on Callum's forearm. Jilly couldn't see her sister's face, but there was no way Iris was silent. Her sister was either commiserating or giving Callum a piece of her mind. Or both.
