17
When Noah woke up the next morning, everything seemed muted. Quieter than he'd ever remembered it being before.
He went to the front door and opened it. Everything was silent. To him, silent meant empty. There was no sense of place. He could've been standing on the moon.
He closed the door and went to find the remote. The newscaster was too excited this early in the morning, talking about the unprecedented amount of snow they'd received overnight.
The snow had blanketed everything. That was why he felt so off this morning.
Or maybe it was missing the way Honey usually woke him up by patting his face until he got up to feed her breakfast.
He missed his cat.
He was resolutely not thinking about Jilly and the way she'd pulled away from him so quickly when the kids had interrupted them last night.
He’d feigned casualness when she texted about an hour later after he’d finished his first cup of coffee, asking if she and the kids could bring Honey back home.
Fine. He wanted his cat back.
He braced himself to see her again. Why had she pulled back? The way she’d jumped away… It felt like rejection.
And it was making him question everything.
For a few broken moments, he had been his five-year-old self again. A little boy craving his daddy's attention.
And look what had happened to that little boy. The jolt of reality had hit him hard. He wasn't falling for Jilly. He'd fallen. That thought scared him more than anything else. Hadn't he learned anything from his past?
He was kidding himself if he thought that he had any future with Jilly. He didn't know where to go from here.
Last night, when he’d discovered Honey Bear was nowhere to be found, he’d panicked. His first instinct had been to call Jilly. But he'd quickly quashed that.
He didn't hear the car approach, only the sound of boots stomping on his front porch and then the knock at his front door.
He opened it. Lindsey was the first one to speak, her effervescent energy bombarding him even though she stayed on the porch.
"Guess what? Honey spent the night at my house!" The girl could make even the world’s biggest grump smile.
"I know."
"There's so much snow. I stepped in a hole and fell down, but Jilly helped me make a snow angel. And we don't have to go to school today!"
His heart was heavy, but Lindsey made him forget for a moment.
He tensed up when Jilly approached. "Here she is. She had a little saucer of milk this morning, but I didn't want to upset her stomach, so we didn't give her much."
His hand connected with Jilly's as she transferred the kitten into his arms. Honey Bear butted her head against his stomach once before climbing up over his shoulder and jumping off, into the living room. He heard the soft thud of her paws as she hit the floor, then the jingle of her bell as she pranced toward the kitchen.
Lindsey let out a peal of delighted laughter. The boys were silent, though he sensed their presence on the porch.
Jilly broke into the awkward silence. "Boys, do you have something to say to Noah?"
Whoever was standing closest to him moved slightly. "We are real sorry that we snuck Honey out of your house last night." It was PJ, and he did sound repentant.
"Sorry," Casey muttered. The boy had loosened up over the past couple of weeks. But now it seemed he was reverting back to his previous attitude.
"Why did you do it?" Noah crossed his arms over his chest.
"There was a misunderstanding," Jilly said from somewhere near his elbow. He was desperately trying to ignore her presence, feeling the pull of her own brand of magnetism.
