Going Long (Waiting on the Sidelines #2)(46)
I was sliding down the stairs when I heard the familiar timber of her voice talking to Pops. Her words were clear, on the verge of happy. It was so opposite from the last time I’d heard her. I stopped a few steps from the corner just to listen.
“Nolan, my dear, you look lovely,” Rosie said. I could see her reaching to hug Nolan, but still couldn’t see her face. “OH! Honey, you didn’t need to bring anything.”
“I know…I…uhm. I just wanted to. I made it myself. It took me all day, I hope it’s good,” she sounded so damned unsure of herself all of a sudden. “It’s a peach cobbler. I hope it’s okay. I’ve never made one before.”
“I’m sure it’s delicious,” Rosie said. “Here, let’s put it in the fridge.”
“No, it’s okay. I know where it is, I’ll take it,” Nolan said, and then passed through the group gathered by the front door to head to my kitchen. I was frozen to the steps as I watched her walk away from me, completely unaware that I was watching her. Her brown hair had gotten longer. She’d curled it into waves, and wore a red sweater with tight black pants, and knee-high boots. She looked like a girl from some romantic movie—some main character that the boy sees once, and then spends the entire rest of the movie chasing, just so he could learn her name. “I was that lame-ass boy,” I thought.
When I realized she was heading to the kitchen alone, I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, pushing my palms into them, a little confused at my thoughts. I had been so angry at her. But seeing her again? Well, that had me suddenly a lot less angry. I took a deep breath, and followed her into the kitchen. She was balancing the dessert in one palm and trying to open the refrigerator door with her other hand, not quite able to get it open.
“Need a hand?” I said, startling her. She jumped a bit, and the edge of the tray hit the corner of the refrigerator, knocking it sideways, and sending it in a slow-motion flip to the floor. She just stared at the pile of peaches and crust that spread the floor beneath her, her hand over her mouth like she’d witnessed some horrible accident. And then without warning, she started to cry, her hand hiding her face as she bent down to feel for pieces of her broken cobbler to clean it up.
My instincts kicked in, and I started to help. “Noles, damn. I’m so sorry. I got it, it’s okay. It’s fine. We have plenty of food,” I said, trying to clean it up before she had to look at it any longer. She just looked up into my eyes then, hers so sad and puffy. She started to cry harder then, and I couldn’t take it. I slid, kneeling, closer to her and just reached for her, pulling her into a hug in my lap.
“Hey…” I whispered. “It’s okay. I got you. It’s okay…shhhhhhh.” I just held her while her body quivered in my arms. I stroked her hair, and each time I tucked the strands behind her ear, she shook a little more, letting out everything inside. My girl was broken. She’d ripped my heart from my chest when she kissed another man, and then stepped on it when she let him spend the night with her. But seeing her cry like this…I couldn’t handle it.
I was content to stay there the rest of the night. I wasn’t hungry, and I was fine sitting in a pile of peaches, and flour and sugar. But my moment wasn’t meant to last long as Jason rounded the corner just in time to break everything just a little more. “Whoa, what the hell?” he said as he saw spilt dessert on the floor. “Ooooooh, sorry…did I interrupt?” He was such an ass.
Nolan broke from my arms immediately upon the sound of his voice, rubbing her nose on her sleeve, and going back to work cleaning up the floor. “Sorry, I dropped the cobbler. I’ll get it, Reed. You go,” she said, willing me away.
“I can help,” I said, reaching for her just a little. When she pulled away, it broke me all over again. She just looked up at me, her lips tight as she took in a deep breath.
“I’m good. Just go,” she said before going back to work.
I stood at her words, and just stared at her busy hands. Rosie must have heard the commotion because she was in the kitchen now, too, and bending down with a towel to help. “Oh, Noles, your pretty dessert. It’s okay, I’ll get it sweetie. You go clean up. Why don’t you use the spare bathroom,” Rosie said, squeezing Nolan’s hand to get her to stop. She finally looked up at Rosie and smiled, but her eyes still seemed so damn sad.
“Ooooooh, trouble in paradise there, little brother?” Jason teased, condescendingly, as he picked a crouton from the salad on the counter, and popped it in his mouth as he turned to walk away. I was instantly filled with rage and found myself grabbing a fistful of his buttoned shirt and twisting it to make him uncomfortable, my fist locked just under his chin. “Ah, I hit close to home, didn’t I? You wanna take it out on me because your little high school romance didn’t work out? Go ahead; hit me, you little shit. But you know I was right. And you can do better.”
I stared him down, my face inches from his, my breathing ragged, and my heart pounding with more anger than I’d ever felt. I wanted to break his nose. But I also knew he lived to push my buttons, and I didn’t want to ruin Thanksgiving. And then I looked past him and saw Nolan standing at the foot of the steps, not yet upstairs, just chewing on her fingernails and seeing…everything. Not taking my eyes off of her, I just thrust Jason’s shirt collar back into his body and backed away, brushing off the front of my shirt and cracking my neck a little to one side. I finally looked back at Jason to see his arrogant smirk. I couldn’t let him off completely. I looked back to where Nolan had been standing, and she was gone. I settled back on Jason, leaning in close one more time, taking pride in the fact that I almost doubled him in size now. “You’re a dick,” I said, holding his eyes for just a bit so he’d see I meant everything I said before turning to join the rest of my family in the living room.