Page 83 of After All This Time

“Noah,” she says.

“What?”

“Calm the hell down. You didn’t need to rescue me with that guy. I can handle doing things myself. I was about to say something very snarky before you intervened.”

“I’m sorry. It just made me uncomfortable.”

Can I still beat the shit out of him?

“You still get these bouts of anger, huh?”

I have these moments when I get angry over the dumbest shit. Something in my body gets worked up. Sometimes I just have to let it out, or it just breaks me down bit by bit.

“You remember that?” I take a bite of my waffle cone.

“I remember one of our family game nights back in middle school and you completely lost it when I won. You ripped the game up and stormed into your bedroom, slamming the door behind you. Your parents thought it fell off the doorframe.” She takes a spoonful of ice cream as I feel my phone buzz through the table.

DIPSHITS

XANDER

Hey, so, we haven’t heard from Dr. Miller yet. I don’t know if she’s going to update us at all. We keep seeing gurneys being pulled out of rooms and into the elevators. She’s swamped with surgeries, man

ME

Shit, how’s my mom?

XANDER

She’s alright. Dani’s mom hasn’t left her side since we got here this morning

ME

That doesn’t surprise me. Speaking of Dani…

XANDER

Did you confess your undying love for her yet?

ME

No, you idiot. She’s been having this really horrible writer’s block, so I took her to Sweet & Salty to see if it’d spark some inspiration for her

XANDER

I’m sorry did you just say Sweet & Salty? As in your mom’s bookshop. The one that exclusively sells romance…

ME

Yes, dipshit

After that, we went to Coastal Shores for lunch and ran into Bella’s sister, Valerie, at the bar

XANDER

Who’s Bella?

ME

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