be because I’d fully expected Noah to be late and had already prepared my mother for this fact.
But to my surprise, it was him. All cleaned up and wearing a blue button-down shirt and khaki pants. He’d even put product in his hair and pushed it back from his face. He had a mixed floral bouquet with him.
“You look like you just walked out of an Old Navy commercial,” I told him as he kissed me hello.
“Hush. I’m dressed like this solely to impress your mother. And before you get any big ideas, these flowers are not for you.”
He was nervous. I could see it, and this tickled me. Because he was doing this for me. He wanted to make me happy and knew that this would. He was trying so hard, and it was completely adorable. “I’m glad you’re taking this seriously. Because so far she disapproves.”
“Does that ruin my chances with you?” he asked, slipping an arm around my waist.
“Actually, it makes it much more likely that I’ll keep hanging around you. It would only make you more appealing.”
“Good. Because usually mothers hate me. They think I’m the worst.”
“Noah!” I laughed. “That’s probably the opposite of true. I bet you charm them all.”
He grinned. “Okay, yes, mothers love me.”
My mom came in the room carrying her sauce and the noodles, setting them down on the table. “Mom, you remember Noah?”
“I do! How are you?”
“I’m good, Ms. Barber. How are you?”
Oh, bonus points for him for remembering that she went by her maiden name. I could see that she felt the same way, given how her smile warmed. “I’m doing very well, and please, call me Caroline.”
“These are for you,” he said, offering her the bouquet. “Thank you for inviting me to your home.”
“Thank you! They’re beautiful. I’m going to go put them in water.”
“Maybe I misjudged you,” I whispered to him. “You’re kind of killing it.”
“Never underestimate the movie star,” he whispered back as my mom returned with her flowers in a vase. She placed them in the middle of the dining room table.
“Please, sit down,” she said.
We all took our seats, and my mom offered the pasta to him first. He took it and had just started serving himself when she said, “Oh! Before I forget again, I found something today. Now I know where I recognized you from.” She got up, leaving the room.
Weird. I wondered if she’d looked him up online or something.
He got a text and checked his phone. “Whoops. I forgot to call Kyle back last night, and now I have a thoroughly vetted list of California’s best oncologists.”
“Yeah, we were a little busy,” I said.
“We were,” he said with a sexy smile, and I debated whether or not I could kiss him senseless before my mom came back.
But she returned right then to majorly mom-block me. When I saw her, my smile slipped off my face. My ears started ringing, and my heart stopped beating. Like, literally stopped and then slowly started up again, so slow that I thought I might pass out.
She was carrying my scrapbook. My Felix Morrison scrapbook that I’d kept throughout middle school and half of high school.
This. Was. Not. Happening.
“I’ve been packing up Juliet’s room, and I found this. She spent so much time on this scrapbook. I threatened to take it away from her more than once if she didn’t do better in school and spend less time looking up things to print out.” She was so joyful. She thought she was helping. Doing a good thing.
Not ruining my entire world.
“What’s this?” Noah asked when she placed it in front of me, reaching out to touch it. I wanted to scream, to tell him not to look, to grab it and run away so that he’d never see it. But it was like being trapped in a real-life nightmare. I was paralyzed in place, unable to move, unable to blink, unable to do anything besides just sit there and watch.
Even if I had been able to act, it was already too late. He opened it and I saw the microseconds when his expression changed—from curiosity to confusion to understanding.
His whole visage darkened. His betrayal and pain were etched into his face. “What is this, Juliet?” he demanded.
CHAPTER THIRTY
My mother might not have known exactly what was happening, but she had the good sense to excuse herself, leaving us alone.
“Noah, let me explain—”
“What is this?” he repeated, his teeth clenched together. I’d seen him angry before, but