AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And after several attempts at convincing her to find a new major that suited her better—all soundly rejected—he was not going to bring it up again.
Donning a long-sleeved tee and comfortable jogging pants, he found her in the kitchen, dressed in the leggings she’d had on before and looking like the happy little homemaker.
“Mariel and I went to that pottery shop I like and look what I found.” Julie turned to him holding two mugs, a kind of earthen color. One said “HIS” and the other said “HERS” and they both had a small heart next to the letters.
Noah couldn’t hold back his smile. He silenced the part of him that said this was all too good to be true, and said, “Those are fantastic. Now we don’t have to fight over the one big green mug that we both like.”
She giggled and did a silly little dance and Noah could not imagine wanting anything more than to spend his life making Julie happy.
Whoa. Where did that come from?
Way too soon. He had a medical degree to finish, then a residency.
And instead of those thoughts grounding him, and steadying him, they brought on the fear that he might lose Julie when he did his residency and would most likely need to move to a different state.
“Uh-oh,” Julie said, putting a hand on his chest. “Something just made you sad.”
He tugged her into his arms, holding tight her against his chest. “How is it you can read my every mood?”
Her voice went soft and low in his ear. “The same way you read mine, except you keep it to yourself when you do instead of blurting it out like me.”
“I guess this stuff between us is, um…”
“Scary? Like it’s bigger than either of us expected? Like it’s something you never felt for anyone before?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s the exact same thing for me, Noah. So just remember that. We’re going through this strange new territory together. And I’m not willing to turn back. Are you?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head, then leaning forward to cover her mouth with his.
And by the time winter turned to spring, he knew he had fallen in love with Julie and there was no turning back.
Present day…
A couple weekslater when Julie returned home after dropping Molly at her day camp program, she got a call from Noah saying he had a cancellation at Dr. Nizer’s office here in Southampton and asked her if she would be interested in meeting him at Cooper’s Beach for an afternoon swim.
When they’d had their first “date” and ended up in his bed, Julie had wanted to have plenty of time that day, in case they got into a complicated discussion talking about serious things from their past. So she had arranged for her part-time nanny to pick up Molly from her day camp. Turned out it was not an entangling discussion but entangling limbs that had kept her with him longer. Plus Noah’s refusal to take her back to her car in Greenport until she passed the one-hour-per-glass rule for the wine she drank. He’d always been such a caretaker.
They had spent the rest of the time touching and kissing and making love again and again, with the only memories mentionedbeing sweet funny ones. Like the time Julie had spilled a strawberry milkshake all over an old woman sitting next to her on the subway and bought her a new set of clothes. Or the way Noah would run down the street to get a fresh rose to leave by Julie’s pillow when he had an early class and she slept in.
He’d texted her the next day and they had been calling or texting back and forth every day since. And the three times she went back to see Gillian, they’d had three more “dates” that ended up in his bed. A part of her was thrilled, but she could not help wondering if what she saw as a “reunion” happening between them was not how he saw it. She began to worry he considered her to be just another one of the many women he entertained on and off. Hadn’t he told her she’d done him a favor by not marrying him?
But here she was nervously waiting for him to arrive at her house for the first time. After he called, she’d put on a two-piece swimsuit and a thigh-length cover-up and sandals. She lived not far from Cooper’s Beach, her favorite, and had a resident permit.
When he rang the bell, she opened the door and her knees almost buckled at the sight of him in shorts and a loose summer shirt hanging open and showing the chest she’d licked thoroughly only a couple of days ago.
“You’ve got a fantastic house here,” he said, “not that I should be surprised, knowing your history.”
It was a Colonial revival style with white shingles, black shutters, a grand front porch, and lots of windows. Julie usually liked it when her big house and the expensive things in intimidated those who visited her, but with Noah she felt almost embarrassed by it. Which made her realize she had become someone she would not have liked back when she and Noah had been together. “It works for me and Molly.”
“You said she’s at a day camp today?”
“Yes. Painting and ceramics run by a couple local artists. She loves arts and crafts and is not really into sports.”
“Sounds a bit like her mom.”
Julie laughed. “So true. You’ll have to come over sometime when she is here for the day.”
