mother. At any rate, Noelle didn’t want to make eye contact with the woman. She didn’t need the woman to recognize her right now, in the midst of Aiden’s antics. Just before Noelle reached Aiden, he pulled out a fistful of wafers, stuffed them into his mouth, before making a disgusted face and spitting them out. “Aiden,” she exploded as the frustration from the day engulfed her. “What’re you doing?” She looked at the glob of half-eaten wafers.
“What’s wrong?” Dottie demanded. “Is Aiden okay? He needs structure, supervision, and—”
It occurred to Noelle that she was still on the phone. “I’ve gotta let you go.” Noelle ended the call in the middle of Dottie’s tirade.
Aiden’s eyes turned wider than two full moons, and he had a busted look written all over his face. “You’re in trouble, mister,” she seethed, her hand going to her hip. “You need to pick all that up right now!” She needed a napkin, or something. She glanced around, hoping to catch sight of a store employee.
A daredevil defiance streaked through Aiden’s eyes. “Don’t even think about it,” Noelle barked. Whenever Aiden got in trouble, his first inclination was to run from the situation. Noelle wished she could run away from her situation—leave the hurt and regret behind.
Her warning fell on deaf ears as Aiden threw the box down, jumped up, and took off sprinting like a football player going for the end-zone.
Noelle didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She threw her phone into her purse, left it in the buggy, and bolted after him. She reached Aiden a couple seconds later. She went to grab his hand, but he darted out of her grasp with a giggle, as if they were playing a game of tag. Her rubber soles caught on the floor, causing her to trip over her own feet. She went sprawling headfirst into a large display of canned hams stacked in a pyramid formation. Successive pings of metal hitting the cement floor rang in her ears. At the same time, she heard a man grunt in surprise. It raced through her brain that the man had been standing on the other side of the pyramid. Noelle hit the ground as sharp pains stabbed through her hands and knees. She sat up in a daze as she looked around. A guy was on the floor beside her. A hot panic suffused over her. She’d knocked him down.
A crowd gathered. “Are you okay?” an elderly woman asked, her lined face etched in concern.
Noelle looked down at her hands.
“You’re bleeding,” the woman said.
“It’s just a scratch,” Noelle said casually as she clutched her hand. Her body was throbbing all over. Her knees were burning. She figured that beneath her jeans, her skin was scraped and bleeding. She looked over to where a guy in his early twenties was standing. He was wearing a store apron indicating that he was a store employee. He was holding Aiden’s hand. “Does this one belong to you?” he asked.
Relief swept over Noelle, realizing that Aiden was okay. “Yep, he’s mine,” she answered dryly, giving Aiden a sharp look. His expression was one of remorse and fright. Ever since the divorce, Aiden had been acting out. Today was his first day of kindergarten at his new school. It had been a disaster, with the teacher calling Noelle to report in a put-out tone that Aiden had pushed another kid off the slide during recess. Noelle had no idea what to do about Aiden’s outbursts. Right now, however, she had bigger fish to fry. “Are you okay?” she asked, turning to the guy beside her. “I’m so sorry,” she began, but then got a good look at him. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Holden?” she uttered. Of all the people in Franklin to knock down, why did it have to be him?
For weeks, she’d fretted over how she would react when she saw him again, wondering if the old feelings would resurface. Holden had always been easy on the eyes, but the years had done him well. Handsome in a way that screamed super fit football coach, his features were more rugged, more masculine than she remembered—a man transformed from a boy and coming into his own. Their gazes locked. She felt the old familiar flame rise up between them. It had always been that way between them, as if some invisible magnet were pulling them together. Holden grew up in the house next door to Noelle’s. The