McCrae reached out and turned it so he could see.
Noelle tried to snatch it out of his hand, but he had a good hold of it and wouldn’t let it go.
He looked at the picture and she avoided looking at his face.
She knew how bad that photo was. It looked like it was almost a decade old.
“Huh,” he sounded a little confused himself. “Maybe the DMV?”
Noelle pulled it away and looked down at it again.
OMG.
It was her DMV photo.
Back when she’d straightened her hair and had to use a headband to keep it out of her eyes.
She pulled it closer to her face and squinted a little at it.
She had a pimple.
A pimple!
On the side of her forehead.
It was close to her hairline but it was visible.
“Great.”
“I think it’s kind of cute.”
She looked up at him and McCrae smiled at her.
Ugh.
Noelle wanted to hang her head.
Or melt into the ground.
She’d come a long way since that photo.
In fact, it was a lifetime ago.
Before she married.
Before she had her daughter.
Before she became a widow and a single mother.
She felt her whole soul sink.
It had been some time since the last time she’d felt like this.
Since the passage of time kicked her in the gut.
“Noelle?”
She felt his hand on her shoulder, but she didn’t trust herself to look up.
