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“You stay dinner, Uncle Noah?” Tommy asked in his adorable little voice and halting English.
“Depends. Did your dad cook?”
Tommy frowned. “No. Daddy not cook.”
“Only because I want to keep my family alive,” Ashton grinned.
“Yeah, I’m staying then,” Noah nodded. “See you at the table.” He high-fived the little boy and watched as he made his way up the stairs with a disarming mix of vulnerability and confidence.
When they walked inside, Tommy was just finishing setting the table – or rather laying the cutlery out in a slightly haphazard pattern that Noah pretended not to notice. The meal passed as it always did when they were together – with barely a quiet moment. Noah listened as Suzie and Ashton bantered back and forth, arguing about everything from the right condiment to serve with pot roast to the state of world political affairs, reminding Noah that when Suzie wasn’t a delicious dinner cooking, baby-making super-mum she was also a top lawyer at an international political firm.
Later, alone on the terrace, Ashton fixed Noah with a steady gaze. “What’s going on with you, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were quiet at dinner. And you asked about Suzie and me before. So, what’s up?”
Noah clenched visibly. “Nothing. I was just curious.”
“Nah, I don’t buy it.”
“You’re different to how you used to be. I never would have picked you as wanting all this.” He gestured to the house, the garden, and the glow of warmth emanating from the windows, a glow that spoke of happy contentment and domesticity.
“I didn’t want it. Not at all. Not until I met Suzie, then it was all I could live for.”
Noah frowned. “Why?” The question was asked with an urgent intensity.
“Jesus Christ, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’d met someone.”
Noah was silent.
“But you’re Noah Storm. I know that’s not possible.”
“No.” Noah’s voice was grim. “It’s not possible.”
“Oh, shut the hell up. Who is she?”
“No one.”
Ashton was quiet for a long while, and then he expelled a heavy breath. “All I can say is this: when I met Suze, it was like being struck by lightning. Everything the books tell you, the movies, the songs, all that stuff. But so much more. I just lost myself to her in every way, and I didn’t even care. I would have given up everything I was for her to smile at me, to look at me, to want me like I wanted her. All of a sudden the life I was living, the future I had banked on, seemed completely devoid of substance. Nothing was enough anymore, without Suzie to share it with.”
Noah stiffened, his eyes pinpointing a tree in the distance. “So what did you do?”
“I told her how I felt and prayed like hell she’d feel it back.” He laughed unsteadily. “And now I pray every day I don’t stuff it up somehow.”
Noah gripped the railing tighter, his features a vice-like mask.
“So what are you going to do?”
“This isn’t about me.”
“Isn’t it?”
Noah kept his gaze straight ahead.
“Look, man.” Ashton’s voice was earnest. “You don’t have to tell me what’s on your mind. I get it, you’re a closed book kinda guy. But for as long as I’ve known you, you’ve had this hard shell around you. If you’ve met someone you want to let inside of that, then she must be one hell of a woman. Not the kind of woman you want to let go, right?”
Noah frowned, but didn’t answer.
