Toe the Line(50)

He shook his head. “You’re always on the go. It’s crazy.”

“I know, but it’s good for me. I don’t have any reason to stay in one place.” I patted his arm. “Unlike you now.”

“I guess that’s true. You’ll settle down when you’re ready, though.”

I shrugged. “Or never…”

He seemed understandably confused. I’d always said I wanted to settle down and have kids. I was probably just being a brat in denying that.

“Whatever makes you happy, Noelle.”

The last time I was happy, you were on top of me.

“Let me walk you out,” he added.

“Okay…”

With each step I took, I vowed to be stronger moving forward. Once I got past the emotions of this night, it would be easier to accept everything.

We stood facing each other in the vestibule outside the ballroom.

“Maybe this is no longer appropriate for a married man to admit, and I hope you don’t take it the wrong way.” He paused. “But you look absolutely beautiful in that dress. I know I’ve said this once already tonight, but Shane is a fucking idiot.”

You’re not helping, Archie. I reached up to hug him. Not because I was overly eager to do so, but because I needed a moment when he wasn’t looking at my face so I could fend off the tears that wanted to fall again.

Today had been damn hard. Much harder than I’d imagined. Taking a deep breath, I managed to compose myself as I pushed back to look at him. “Go back in there and enjoy the rest of your night.”

He ignored me, standing firmly in place. “Email me soon, okay?”

“I will.”

“I love hearing about the crazy stories you’re working on.”

I forced a laugh. “This next one’s a doozy. It’s about a woman who claims to have been abducted by a UFO right outside her house in Boulder.”

“Damn. I can’t wait to watch. I watch them all, you know.”

“By the time it comes out next year, you’ll be on diaper duty.”

“Shit. That’s nuts to think…”

I stepped away. “Take care, Archie.”

“Have a safe flight home.”

“Thank you,” I said, walking backward.

He blew me a kiss, and I could have sworn I felt it penetrate my skin.

Goodbye, Archie. We might always be friends, but I needed to say goodbye to the hope I’d been hanging on to—I hadn’t realized how firmly until tonight. A part of me had always thought we’d end up together; that hope needed to die now.

As I walked out, I believed with every inch of my soul that Archie and I would never find our way back to each other. I thought that part of our story was over, that the eternal pause button from the day his father died would forever remain in place.

But I was wrong.





PART TWO



FIVE YEARS LATER





CHAPTER 18


ARCHIE


I HAD ABOUT an hour left before I needed to get to the restaurant. Between my busy work schedule and needing to give my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter the attention she deserved, there weren’t a lot of moments where I could just sit at the computer with a cup of coffee and catch up on things. But at the moment, Clancy was busy watching a kids’ movie in the other room, allowing me some time to myself.

I opened my social media, and the first thing in my feed was an album of photos that included numerous shots of Noelle. Her bright eyes and beautiful smile took my breath away. Noelle had the kind of smile that lit up her entire face, the type of smile that was contagious when it was genuine. Noelle had displayed her share of fake smiles through the years, and I could always tell she was putting on a front when her smile didn’t reach her eyes. My wedding day, for example.

Being there had been difficult for her, though she would never admit that to me. Things had never been quite the same between us after that day. Noelle slowed in responding to my messages and gradually distanced herself. We still kept in touch, of course, and continued to exchange emails; it just wasn’t like before.

She’d come out to meet Clancy when my daughter was about a year old. That visit had coincided with an assignment that had brought her out west again. The last time I’d seen Noelle was at my mother’s wake a year ago. It touched me that she’d left an assignment in Chicago to be there, even after I’d insisted it wasn’t necessary.

I focused on one of the photos of Noelle in particular. In it, she gestured with her hands, talking to someone and totally oblivious that her picture was being taken. Photos of Noelle on social media were a rarity. That sucked, because I missed seeing her face. On her own pages, she mainly shared location photos or pictures of food, and rarely showed herself. She was private like that—always the one behind the camera documenting everyone else’s life. The only reason I had this access was because a coworker had decided to tag her in a bunch of photos that looked like they were from some company party. Noelle probably didn’t even know about it since they’d just been posted a minute ago. I laughed. She would hate me peering into her world without her knowing.

I clicked through the album to see the other shots and suddenly stopped at an image of Noelle sitting with a guy who had his arms around her. She was smiling—and it reached her eyes. My heart skipped a beat.