Noel is famously—or perhaps infamously—private, especially regarding his love life.He's been known to go to great lengths to avoid being spotted in public, especially if he's with a woman—and hehasdated a few famous ones, just never anything serious.
Noel laughs."Yes, actually.I had a very nice dinner last week with Alicia Van Ehlen."
"A very nice dinner?What does that even mean?I need the tea!"
Noel sighs.Normally, he's reticent to share these kinds of details with us.He's allergic to seeming hoity-toity, never name-drops, and keeps his personal life mostly private, even from us.But for her, in this context?
"It means we went to a classy steak joint, shared some overpriced wine, ate some overpriced food, and talked."He shrugs."It was fun.She's a sweetheart."
Alicia van Ehlen is one of those up-and-coming stars that just sort of appeared out of nowhere—at least to a Luddite old fart like me.I'm still using the same Nokia I've had for twenty years, and we only just upgraded two years ago from a satellite dish to the newfangled in-ground internet cable thing.So when someone like Alicia Van Ehlen becomes popular because she did a dance or something on TikTok, my brain short-circuits a little.Like, this girl did a funny thing on the internet, and now she's world famous and starring in the latest limited series on Netflix?What happened to good old-fashioned movie stars?
This is just context, I guess.I've never met the girl, but she's beautiful, that's for sure.
"Just a nice dinner?"I ask my son."Nothing else?"
Noel rolls his eyes at me."Yes, Dad.Just a nice dinner.She's not really my type, it turns out."
Taylor chuckles, the laugh dissolving into a weak cough that leaves her short of breath momentarily."What, she wouldn't go fishing with you?"
Noel snickers."Her idea of wilderness is Discovery Park.We DM'd back and forth a few times, and she claimed she hiked a lot.Come to find out, her idea of hiking was putting on her Lululemon leggings and Nike sneakers and walking the paved trails in the park.So no, Alica would never in a million yearseversit in a tin fishing boat in a lake fifty miles from the nearest town for four hours, catching nothing but mosquito bites."
Taylor laughed again, weakly.“Well, when you put it like that, how could a girl say no?That's every woman's dream date, obviously."
Noel laughs, but it trails off, and he looks at her with a complicated expression."How can you be in such good spirits, Mom?"
She smiles, and it's as bright as her smile has ever been.Just…more tired."You're here, my boy.How could I not be happy?I may not have a lot of moments left, so I'm damned well going to appreciate the ones I have."
Noel's shoulders shake again, and Taylor draws his head to her chest, cradling him like a toddler and playing with his hair."You and your dad, No-No.You have to take care of each other.He'll forget his vitamins, and he'll need someone to grocery shop for him, or he'll live off of Hormel chili and takeout from Lorna's."That being another Tomlin Falls fixture, a breakfast-and-lunch cafe where the local old farts like me gather for coffee, eggs and bacon and hash browns, and town gossip.If not for Taylor and her home-cooked meals delivered to the station, I would, in fact, subsist entirely off of canned food and Lorna's on my 24-on-48-off shifts.
God, the woman knows me.
I sit and watch my wife and my son chit-chat idly for a while, Noel filling her in on the lives of his teammates, most of whom do not share his reticence for the limelight or his need for privacy.
"She sold his jockstrap forhow much?”Taylor asks, cackling breathlessly.
"Five grand, apparently.Craig's game-worn gear goes for big bucks, I guess," he shrugs."I dunno.He thinks it’s funny.He once ate a bunch of gas-inducing food and then spent an entire day wearing a pair of compression shorts and farting into them before he sold them."
"Wait, he sells his own gear?"
Noel nods, laughing."He does.It's a whole thing.He donates the money to the animal shelter where he adopted Cruiser, his Doberman rescue."
"So the girl who stole his jockstrap…”
"He wasn't pissed that she stole and sold it; he was pissed that she did it for her own profit."
“What a weird man," Taylor murmurs.She goes quiet, and her eyes flutter shut for a moment.
Noel covers her hands with his massive ones, thumb gently rubbing her knuckles as he watches her drift off to sleep.
Once she's well and truly out, I fetch a couple cold ones from the fridge and take them out onto the porch.
Noel follows me, eyebrow lifted."It's eleven in the morning, Pop."
I sigh, sipping."I know, son."
"How long?"he asks in a barely audible voice.
"I don't know,” I answer."A few weeks at best.But then, that’s what they said in November, so…” I shrug.“I don’t know.”I glance at him.“Son, your career—"
