Noah gets a reminiscent look on his face. “The next morning. You came out of your room wearing an oversized T-shirt and sleep shorts, and you found me a bit delusional due to sleep deprivation. I said, ‘I’m glad you made it to tomorrow,’ and you said, ‘No more wasted chances.’ I couldn’t blink before you were grabbing my face and kissing me senseless before making more mango fish tacos for breakfast. I didn’t even care that neither of us had brushed our teeth.”
My stomach swoops and soars. I’m definitely addingthatinto the final draft. “You truly are a superhero.”
Noah laughs, rolling his eyes before continuing, “Then I really got to know you. I watched you cycle through anger, acceptance, and then back to anger. I watched your walls fall hour after hour when we were together. You started smiling and laughing, and I was—am—mesmerized. You opened up to me, and you trusted me. And you were a safe place for me to land.”
I perk up. All this time, I thought I was the only one between us who had issues. “Why did you need to land?”
Noah leans back in his seat, tilting his head back and staring at the top of the plane. After releasing a slow breath, he lowers his voice, turns to me, and says, “It sounds dumb compared to what you had been through, but I needed a place where I didn’t have to be happy and perfect all the time. You showed me I could be real with my feelings and didn’t need to masquerade them behind my smiles and laughs. Maybe you can add that into yournovel’s final draft.” He snickers. “You may have written me a little too perfectly. Give me some flaws, because trust me, I have them.”
“That’s not dumb, Noah.”
He scoffs and rubs a hand down his face, an action so similar to Ashton’s. “I’ve always been the one in the family to hold everyone together. After Mom died, I needed to be the one to make sure Branda had a space to fall apart in. To make sure I reminded Ashton that he didn’t have to carry the weight of it all on his shoulders. To make sure Dad got up and at least walked in the sunshine every day.”
“So you took the weight of it on your shoulders in the name of lightening the load for everyone else.” I raise my brows, and Noah smirks, holding up a hand.
“I know, I know.” He sighs, leaning his head back once more. “That's why I came to Alaska. I didn’t want them to see me fall apart. I’d already shown them too much sadness and distress as I held out hope you’d remember. But after about nine months, and I still hadn’t heard from you, I broke. I quit working out for a while. I quit eating. I quit doing much of anything because numbness cloaked me. So I ran.”
My heart beats hard against my chest as he lets me into his psyche, but he doesn’t continue. He smiles up at the roof of the plane for a full minute before turning to meet my eyes. “And now, here you are.”
“Here I am. And here you are, coaxing confessions out of me just like you did back in Bora Bora. You’re so easy for me to talk to, Esme. You're my landing pad, even with miles of memories between us.”
His sweet smile and heartfelt words melt me to my core as he looks back up, and though I have a lot more questions and a lot more fiction and reality to sift through, I know there’s one thing I want for certain.
“Noah?”
“Hm?”
When I don’t immediately answer, he sits up and looks at me with a gaze that says he cares about me and would move mountains for me.
A look I only ever imagined from my fictional men.
“When did you fall in love with me?”
He doesn’t miss a beat. “You didn’t write about that moment in your novel, but I knew I had chosen to love you our second night together. You were sitting on the outside deck, kicking your feet in the water and gazing at the stars. I slid the glass door open, and the moment you heard the sound, you looked back at me with the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen. The moonlight danced across your face, and I was awestruck. It was as if God whispered, ‘She’s the one.’ I finally understood the phrase ‘when you know you know.’”
I let his words wash me from the inside out, and I sit in his confession bath until I’m waterlogged. Crawling out of the metaphorical tub, I’m renewed. Like being dipped in the fount of youth. I tug the necklace from underneath my sweatshirt. “Is this yours?”
Noah looks at the cross between my fingers, his breath hitching. “Yes. You still have it?”
“Obviously,” I jest. “A nurse gave it to me before I left the hospital. She said it was a reminder to always cling to my faith. But I wrote in the book that the necklace was yours, and it came from your grandpa. Is that true?”
Noah nods. “He gave me and Ashton these necklaces when we were eighteen. He said they belonged to him and Grandma. Ashton has hers. Grandpa said the cross was specially forged to always lead us in love.”
Just as I wrote it…
“Here.” I go to unclasp it, but Noah places his hand over mine, a look of pure love shining in his eyes under the dim plane light. It scares me, but also, it stirs a sense of wonder.
“You keep it safe for me, Esme. If you want.”
The question lingers. The answer could very well insinuate we will continue to see each other when this plane lands. The past couple of days getting to know him have been perfect. I want to know him more. The journey to this moment—the book, Ashton, learning more about Noah before I even came face to face with him—has filled a gaping hole I didn’t fully realize was present untilhim.
My mind is made up.
“Yes.”
“Yes?” Noah questions.
I take his hand in mine and intertwine our fingers. His hand swallows mine, and I love the way we fit. “I’d like to date you. I know you have a head-start in this relationship—” He laughs, and I notice his eyes misting over. “—but I’d like the opportunity to catch up to you. To,” I swallow over my next words, “fall in love with you again.”
