Noah started laughing. And then we both were laughing, so hard I had to wipe away a few tears. Eventually, we stood again—together. Shuffling along the slick floor. Holding hands the whole way across.
“I can’t wait to tell Babs that you, Dr. Noah, do in fact have a weakness,” I snickered.
Noah’s eyes locked with mine. “More than one…actually.”
My heart skipped a beat, and it had nothing to do with the vast nothingness under my feet. More like, it had to do with the vast nothingness looming after this trip. Because…
I was getting addicted…
After the Skywalk, we went to fill up our water bottles and took a shuttle to one of the hikes down into the canyon, where Noah and I just took our time, enjoying the scenery, but mostly just…being together. I was torn between taking pictures and just soaking it all in. Because the clock was ticking.
At one point, I glanced over. “Nice not to be on a schedule.” Even though we kind of were.
“Right? Nice not to have to worry about Tay driving off without us.”
And then I remembered… Is this the one you couldn’t walk away from?
And suddenly, I had so many questions.
I bit my lip. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
He glanced over, giving me that half-smile that makes it hard for me to think straight. “You just did.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Okay.” He slowed his pace a little. “Shoot.”
“Have you thought about what you’re gonna tell your mom?” I asked. Although it was obvious she adored Noah, I couldn’t believe she hadn’t had ulterior motives when she’d sent him off on the trip. In fact, I was almost one hundred percent sure she’d sent him away to protect him from…me.
He didn’t answer right away, even though I knew that he knew what I was asking. I mean, we’d intentionally hidden his change of mind from the rest of the tour—from her.
And because we still had a few days left traveling together, I couldn’t pretend she didn’t exist. Just like she wasn’t going to be able to pretend I didn’t exist.
“God, she totally blindsided me.” Noah exhaled. “You, me… I was still figuring things out.”
I hesitated. “Did you…” I took a breath. “Did you really tell Rocky that you couldn’t… walk away from me?”
He looked at me then, his expression warm but guarded. “I mean, have you seen you?” He nudged my shoulder gently. “You're very hard to walk away from.”
He grinned, but I could tell he was deflecting. But then he said, “Don’t worry about her. Sometimes she just takes a while to come around.”
It was obvious he didn’t want to get into a serious discussion about his mom. And maybe I wasn’t either. Not here. Not yet.
We walked in a comfortable silence after that, though Noah kept his hand on my back, his thumb tracing small, absent-minded circles through the fabric of my shirt as we made our way back to the trailhead.
And by the time we got to our hotel, even though my face was sore from so much smiling, it was getting harder and harder to ignore the future.
The rest of my life. After this trip.
Without Noah.
Of course, without Noah, right?
We couldn’t check in yet, and our luggage was still on the bus, but we didn’t have to wait long before the familiar WonderWorld Tours logo appeared large as life outside the lobby window.
Our time alone was over.
For now.
