"Hello to you too," he said, realizing that he probably did sound a lot happier than usual. That's because he was a lot happier than he had been.
"Noah? Is there something you're not telling me?" Emma asked, and the tone of her voice made it sound like she knew something that he didn't.
"Um, I can't think of anything right off."
That wasn't entirely true. If he sat and thought about it, there were some things. First of all, he didn't tell her that he had been kissing a girl this afternoon. That was kind of unusual. Also, his siblings did not know that he was the Secret Saint in Mistletoe Meadows. So there was that too. He had a few other things that he hadn't shared with his siblings, but not on purpose. Just when they called, it was usually about them.
"I told you he wasn't going to tell us anything," Emma said, and that's when he realized she must've had someone else on the line.
"Why don't we just do a Zoom call?" he asked. "Who else is on?"
"I am," Mia said.
"Me too," Jake's voice.
"Is there anyone not on?" Noah asked.
"I don't think Nate is." That was Mia.
"So... What's up guys?" They didn't typically have big family phone calls unless there was something as a family they needed to discuss.
"We heard you were with someone this afternoon." That was from Mia.
"He's not going to admit it," Jake said.
"Sure I'll admit it. Grace Dempsey has been staying with her aunt in town, and she and I have spent some time together. We were together this afternoon."
"I heard you were kissing."
Noah blinked. He could hardly lie about that.
"I kissed her goodbye." That was true.
"No, this was like really kissing," Mia said.
"All right. Am I not allowed to kiss people?"
"You always told us we shouldn't be kissing anyone unless we were planning on getting married, because kissing someone that you weren't planning on marrying was like kissing someone else's spouse, because you weren't planning on making them yours and it was dishonest."
Jake sounded a little accusatory, and he supposed that Jake had a point. "That's absolutely true. I can't believe you were listening to me. I'm kind of surprised."
"You're changing the subject, Noah," Emma said.
"I was kissing her, and yes, I have plans to talk to her about our relationship, a serious relationship that ends in marriage. But... It's been kind of complicated."
"I don't think you would've accepted that excuse from us," Mia said. "In fact, I think if I were to say that to you, even now, you would give me The Lecture."
"The Lecture?" he said. He didn't realize he lectured. He didn't think he did.
"Yeah. The lecture about how you don't kiss people unless you're serious about them. You know, the one we heard a million times growing up?"
"Listen. I just gave you the lecture that Mom and Dad gave me. Just because you were too young to remember it when they gave it to you doesn't mean that it didn't come from them."
"I remember their lecture, and yours was different."
"How so?" he said. He thought he did a pretty good job of repeating his parents' lectures. After all, he'd heard them the entire time he had been a teenager up until their death.
"You started talking about tongues and lips and hands and bodyparts, and I don't remember the parents ever needing to say anything like that."
