Some Loves (3 page)

He glanced at me and for just a second, he looked apologetic. “I do. But I like to read through my notes. It’s a statistics class, and it’s not my favorite. If I get there early it gives me a few minutes to review.”

Noah was an accounting major. His dad owned the largest accounting firm in the area. For as long as I’d known him, he’d planned on following in his dad’s footsteps. I thought some of my business classes were going to be hard, but I was pretty sure that some of Noah’s accounting classes were even harder.

The statistics classes were notoriously tough.

“Right,” I said as I sighed.

“Okay, fine,” Noah blurted. “Maybe I get there early so we don’t bump into each other. But if I do, it’s only so that we can avoid tense conversations like this one. I thought I was doing us both a favor.”

I shook my head. “Ignoring me is not doing me any favors.”
I focused on the three story brick building that was straight ahead.

“Em?”

I glanced at him but quickly pulled my gaze away.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. It’s just that I saw you the first day of classes. You were a ways ahead of me. Seeing you, when it had been a few months since I’d seen you last, it was like a kick in the gut. I wasn’t ready to talk to you to then. I do get to class early so I can look over my notes. My Stats class totally sucks.”

I let out a small laugh. I wanted to lighten the mood. Noah and I had enough strain between us. I didn’t want to add to it. Not if I could help it.

“I get it,” I assured him. It hurt to know that he’d been going out of his way to avoid me. Yet I wasn’t really surprised and I didn’t really blame him. “So now?”

This time he let out a laugh but he didn’t sound amused either. “I’m still going to go to class early. I’m kind of in the habit.”

“That’s not what I was asking. Are you still going to go out of your way to avoid me?”

“Other than going to this class early?” he shook his head. “No. These last few months I’ve kind of gotten used to seeing you around. To be honest, it was kind of nice seeing you at Clarice’s yesterday. I mean, I’ve seen you around but…”

I nodded. “Clarice’s was a nice ice-breaker.”

“Exactly,” he agreed.

We’d been walking around for so many months trying to stay out of each other’s way that it had just become natural. Even if I didn’t like it. It had started to feel like a habit and I, for one, was happy to break it.

“I enjoyed talking to you yesterday,” I admitted. “I would really like it if we could at least be friends.”

He bit the inside of his cheek for a second. “Sure, why not?”

We reached the door of Stanton and Noah held it open for me. Once inside the hallway, he veered to the left, to the staircase.

“Going up,” he told me as he motioned toward it. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, see you,” I said.

He turned and walked away. I stood there watching him and luckily, he never looked back. I missed him and talking to him the past two days had made me miss him even more. Noah and I used to talk for hours.

I wanted that back.

I hoped that at least a small part of him did too.

If only I could figure out a way to make him realize it.

“How is school going?” Adelaide wondered.

“It’s going surprisingly well,” I said.

I’d been at her house for nearly an hour. Noah’s confession from a few days ago had left me feeling concerned. Tonight, however, Adelaide seemed like her lively self. I hoped that they’d been able to adjust her medication.

“I don’t know why you would think it’s surprising,” she scoffed. “I’m sure you’re working hard.”

She was right. I was working hard. I’d learned from my mistakes. When my dad had walked out on our family my junior year of high school, followed by my brother’s death a year later, I’d let my grades slip. I hadn’t been very adept at coping with what had happened. My grades had slipped so much in the course of that
year and a half that I did not make it into the college of my choice.

It was a hard lesson learned. But now that I was in college, I knew I had to take my studies seriously. I only had one shot at this and I was going to make it count.
Working for good grades gave me something positive to focus on. And focus was definitely something that I needed. I wished I had realized that back in high school. But I hadn’t.

“I’m really enjoying Intro to Business,” I told Adelaide. I loved working at Mom’s baby boutique. I would love to have a similar business one day, or possibly just take over hers when the time was right.

“That’s good that you’ve decided on a major,” Adelaide said.

I’d had enough of school talk.

“How did your doctor’s appointment go?” I asked.

“Sherry took me,” she said of the woman who had been hired to help her around the house. “I suppose it went well. My ticker is still ticking. My eyesight is still a nuisance and it isn’t going to be getting any better. But all in all, I can’t complain.”

Or she wouldn’t complain, I knew. That’s just the kind of person that she was.

“Noah mentioned you haven’t been feeling well,” I said.

She raised her eyebrows at me. “You’ve talked to Noah?”

“Briefly,” I answered. I didn’t want to try to get into an explanation of Riley’s meddling. Besides, I was fairly certain she was asking in part as a way to avoid my question. “Was he right?” I pressed.

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes a bit. “Noah has a big mouth.”

This made me laugh quietly. Noah did
not
have a big mouth. “Adelaide.”

Her chin jutted out defiantly.

“Have you not been feeling well?”

“I’ve been better,” she finally admitted. “But my doctor adjusted my
blood pressure meds so I should be feeling good as new any day now. It was nice to get out of the house,” she said, obviously trying to steer away from my questions. “After my appointment we went to the grocery store. Then we came back here and got a pot of soup going. You are staying for dinner, aren’t you?”

It sounded like more of a command than a request. It wasn’t as
if I had anything else going on but more importantly, I knew she liked the company. It had to be lonely, living here all by herself, unable to drive.

I couldn’t imagine.

“I’d love to,” I said. My stomach rumbled moments later. The aroma in the kitchen was divine. The allure of a home cooked meal was strong. It made me miss the days of family dinners, which were a long way in the past.

She rose from the table and carefully made her way to the stove where a pot of chicken and dumpling soup simmered.
She lifted the lid and gave it a stir.

“
Can I help with anything?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, you can,” she said. “You can be a dear and set the table. Bowls are in that far cupboard.”

I rose from the table and went to the cupboard she pointed to.

“I also made fresh buns,” she said as she put the lid back on the soup. She pulle
d a storage container forward and peeled the top back.

“That sounds really good,” I said as I took two bowls out of the cupboard.
“Mom used to make homemade bread a lot. She didn’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but homemade bread was kind of her thing.”

“I bet you miss her terribly,” Adelaide said sadly.

“I do. But she got off pretty easy. The accident could’ve been so much worse. I just feel grateful that she and Ty are both going to be okay.”

She gave me a sympathetic look and then motioned to the bowls in my hand.
“You better grab another bowl. We’ll be needing three place settings.”

“Three?” I
repeated.

“
Mmmmhmmm
,” she said with a smug smile.

I pulled another bowl down and placed them on the table while she placed the buns
in a basket.

“Do I dare ask who the third setting is for?” I asked with a sigh.

The doorbell rang, as if to answer my question. I paused with three spoons in my hand.

“Why don’t you go answer the door and find out? I need to get the soup on the table so if you could get the door, that would be a great help,” she airily replied.

I was already sure of whom it would be. I placed the spoons on the table and then slowly made my way to the door.

Apparently I was taking too long because I was only halfway across the living room when the door slowly opened.

“Grandma?” Noah called as he stepped inside.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised that he was the other dinner guest. He didn’t look particularly surprised to see me either.

“I thought that was your car out front,” he said.

“I was visiting,” I said as I stated the obvious. “I didn’t realize that you were coming over.”

Noah smirked. “I’m sure she conveniently forgot to mention it.”

I nodded. “She did.”

“Oh good!” Adelaide said as she appeared behind us. “You’re here! Emory has agreed to join us for dinner. Isn’t that nice?”

Noah’s eyes darted to me and he raised his eyebrows. I made an apologetic face at him before turning around to face Adelaide.

“Actually,” I began, “I do have quite a bit of homework. I should probably just—”

“Nonsense!” Adelaide interrupted. “You have to eat sometime. You might as well make it now. Besides, you already told me you were staying. It would only hurt my feelings if you declined now.”

I turned back to Noah.

He shrugged but
his expression remained impassive.

“I can go,” I said to him. I kept my voice low, hoping his grandma’s poor hearing wouldn’t pick up on it.

He glanced at her and then back at me. “No. She wants you to stay. It’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course he’s sure,” Adelaide said.

So much for her poor hearing.

“Now come along you two!” She spun on her heel, heading back toward the kitchen. “Dinner’s on the table!”

“I’m really sorry,” I tried again. “If I’d known you were coming, I would’ve left sooner.”

He raked a hand through his hair as he blew out a breath. “No. Really, it’s fine. Maybe Riley was right. Ashton isn’t that big. We’re going to run into each other. We should probably get used to seeing each other around whether we like it or not.”

His words caused a tiny pang in my heart. I hung my head, not able to look at him. “For the record, I actually like seeing you around.”
I didn’t dare glance at his face. I wasn’t sure how he’d take what I had to say. “I really miss you.”

I didn’t want to give him the chance to tell me I shouldn’t. So instead,
I hurried after Adelaide.

By the time I reached the kitchen, the table was fully set. She’d put glasses and a pitcher of sweet tea on the table. The buns and the soup were at the table’s center.

“It smells really good,” Noah said.

“It does,” I agreed.

I finally glanced at him. He held my gaze a few moments. His expression was impossibly neutral as he studied me. I felt self-conscious under his scrutiny so I dropped my gaze for a few moments but like a magnet, I was drawn to him again after only a few seconds. When our eyes met this time, he gave me a small smile. It looked a little forced but it was a smile all the same.

Adelaide took her usual spot at the table. That put Noah and I right next to each other. I had meant what I said. I liked seeing him, even if he was less than happy with having to share space with me.

“I made brownies from scratch for dessert,” Adelaide said as she motioned for Noah and me to start dishing up.

“My favorite,” Noah admitted as he passed me the basket of buns.

***

“Oh,” I cooed, “it’s adorable!” I glanced up at Noah who rolled his eyes at me but at least he was smiling. I smiled back and then returned my attention to the picture in my hand. It was Noah, at about two years old, wearing nothing but a diaper and his grandpa’s work boots. His grandpa could be seen in the background. Noah had his plump little fists wrapped around his grandpa’s fingers.

“I really like this one,” Adelaide said as she handed me another picture.

I was sitting on the floor at her feet. I reached up and grabbed it. It was a picture of Noah in his Little League uniform. His toothless grin was huge and he was holding
a medal of some sort.

“My first tournament. We won,” he explained. He looked up at his grandma. “You and Grandpa were both there.”

“Of course we were,” she said with a smile.

After dinner, Noah and I had cleaned the kitchen. Adelaide had asked us to stay. She’d claimed that there was a picture of Noah’s grandpa that she wanted to find. We both agreed to stay and help her sort through a few boxes of photos.

That had been nearly two hours ago. I wasn’t entirely convinced that there was really a specific picture that she was looking for. I was beginning to suspect she just wanted to keep Noah and me around for company. Not that I minded.

Noah, seated next to m
e, reached for another envelope.

Adelaide’s photos were a disaster. My guess was that around a decade ago she’d stopped bothering with photo albums. Or possibly that’s when her eyesight had started to fail her. It was possible that made putting the pictures in the albums too difficult for her. Now, there were stacks of photos in envelopes and many more just floating around in the boxes Noah had pulled out of the closet for her.

Noah reached for another envelope. “Noah and Emory” was written across it in Adelaide’s shaky scrawl. He looked at it for just a second and then leaned over to put it back in the box.

“Oh, no,”
Adelaide said. “Let’s see what’s inside that one!”

Noah hesitantly pulled it back out. I leaned back against the sofa and pulled my knees up to my chest. He glanced at me and I gave him an apologetic smile. I wasn’t entirely sure that I meant it though.
I was anxious to see what treasures Adelaide had stashed away.

Noah pulled out the first picture. It was a snapshot that his mom had taken as we were headed off to our junior prom.

Adelaide peered over our shoulders. “Would you look at that,” she sighed. “What a beautiful couple the two of you made that night.”

“That was a fun night,” I said quietly. We’d gone with a large group of our best friends. We’d rented a limo. Drew’s dad had reserved the backroom at the upscale restaurant he owned.
The dance had been fun, and then we’d gone back to Drew’s house where we’d all camped out in his basement.

“Yeah, it was,” Noah agreed.

Next came a photo of us with Adelaide. It was her eighty-eighth birthday. Noah’s family had clicked pictures all afternoon. Adelaide had insisted that Noah and I pose with her in one of them. We each stood on one side of her; she clasped each of our hands in one of our own.

“I think that one is my favorite,” she said this time.

“It’s a good picture,” I agreed. It was taken in Noah’s backyard. Their family had thrown a barbeque. Noah’s mom had a beautiful garden. In the photo, Adelaide was seated in an Adirondack chair. She was beaming at the camera as Noah and I both grinned at her side.

Noah continued to leaf through the photos. They weren’t in any sort of order. It kind of felt a bit like we were hop scotching down memory lane. Adelaide commented on each and every photo, making it impossible for Noah to leaf through them too quickly.

There were candid shots from holidays, our senior prom, graduation, Noah’s birthday. One shot of the three of us at Noah’s very last home baseball game of his high school career. Finally, Noah reached the end of the stack. He shuffled them all back into a semi-neat pile and stuffed them back into the envelope they’d come from.

“Grandma, are you sure that picture of you and Grandpa is in this box?” he asked.

She pressed a finger to her lips, as though deep in thought. “You know, I think my memory might be failing me. I think maybe your mother already found that picture for me. It just might be on my dresser.”

Noah stared at her for a moment, his eyes wide and disbelieving. I stuffed down the urge to laugh. Her memory was hardly failing her. Her mind was sharp as a tack. She’d just conned us into spending two hours looking for a photo that I was sure she knew was on her dresser this whole time.