‘This is a whole new side of you I’m seeing,’ I said, giving Noah a nudge.
Noah shrugged. ‘I like to stay busy. There’s only so much time I can spend swimming or tasting Mom’s baking before I start to go stir-crazy. Besides, Keiko deserves the help. She was the one who got me into painting in the first place.’
‘Really? I thought it was that time our moms did that folkart course together. Remember, they were découpaging everything and painting those swirly birds?’
Noah chuckled. ‘Yes, in spite of that, I somehow found a passion for painting.’
‘Don’t tell Rosie, but I accidentally-on-purpose lost the trinket box she made me.’
‘Your secret’s safe with me.’ Noah’s dark-eyed gaze sparkled with mirth. I felt effervescent inside, and I knew that my own stare mirrored his. On my finger, Josephine’s ring crackled, its magic sparking off my skin.
‘Um, is it all right if I take Ernie?’ Keiko was holding the little boy’s hand.
I flushed. I’d been so caught up in chatting with Noah, I seemed to have forgotten that a whole class of kids was staring, bug-eyed, at me.
The ice cream I was holding shivered in my hand as a whisperwind kicked up. But I was too distracted by Noah’s proximity to properly hear what the wind was saying.
Keiko perked up. ‘Did you catch that one?’ she asked. ‘I think it was something about toast. I’m so terrible at catching them. But I think partly it’s the location. They’re much stronger down by the beach.’
‘They were stronger earlier,’ I agreed, not meeting Noah’s eyes.
I shrugged Ernie’s yellow backpack off my shoulder and passed it over. Keiko looped it over her wrist – between holding her hand and squeezing Sealy, Ernie was occupied.
‘By the way, you make a lovely couple,’ Keiko said approvingly. ‘Very pleasing to the eye. Noah, you should draw her.’
Noah flushed, and I was transported back to the bonfire. Though I hadn’t seen it first hand, I could imagine his soft charcoal sketch in my mind’s eye. The delicacy with which he’d traced my features. The way he’d gently smudged the colour into my likeness’ cheeks with his thumb.
‘We’re not …’ I started, but then paused.
We weren’t a couple, but we could be, couldn’t we? Noah wasn’t as overt in his interest as Finn, but there was clearly something between us.
If he allowed it. Because it hadn’t beenthatlong since he’d broken up with Meryl. Perhaps he wasn’t interested in a relationship with me. Because that’s what it would be – a relationship. Noah didn’t do flings or casual dating. He went all in.
Keiko looked amused at my response, but didn’t press the issue further. ‘See you next week, Noah! And you’re welcome to join us as well, Molly. We’re going to be painting sunflowers.’
I brightened. ‘Ooh, I love sunflowers.’
We waved as the buzzing group of kids raced back to the main camp building, Keiko hot on their heels. I broke out in a grin at their combined shrieks of laughter.
‘Quite the group of kids,’ I observed, as they all tried to press in through the door together.
‘They’re pretty great,’ said Noah. ‘I actually thought about art teaching for a while there.’
‘But the law won in the end, hmm?’ Noah was in his second year of law school. Unlike Finn, who’d quit even his part-time job after Charlie had died, Noah hadn’t taken so much as a week off. Apparently, reading lengthy papers about contract law was a decent coping mechanism.
‘Mostly because lawyers don’t need help tying their shoelaces.’
‘Are shoelaces still a thing?’ I asked thoughtfully. ‘I can’t remember the last time I had a pair of shoes with shoelaces.’
‘They’re mostly for close-toed shoes,’ he offered. ‘And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in anything other than Birkenstocks or flip-flops.’
‘Lies!’ I said. ‘I wore heels to my graduation party. Did I trip? Yes. But I wore them.’
‘And these heels, they had laces?’
‘No,’ I admitted. ‘The market for heels with laces is pretty niche. And mostly back in the eighties.’
Noah shook his head, amused. ‘You’re something else, Molly.’
