Page 91 of Where I Found You
To put it mildly. He’d left Elisa standing on her front porch, crying as he stalked away and never looked back. She stiffened. “You bailed.”
Noah ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t know what to do. You were hysterical over the fight you and your dad had. And there had already been so many years of whispers and judging stares. I felt stupid for not knowing—for making things worse by being me.” He swallowed. “By being a Hebert.”
The heat that had flooded her moments ago waned, leaving a chill in its wake. Elisa hugged herself, rubbing her bare arms with her hands. “I had no idea you didn’t know the connection, or I’d have tried to break it to you a little more gently.”
“Sometimes I wondered how I hadn’t known, too.” He fiddled with an empty hanger on the cart, eyes averted. “I think my parents tried to keep the details of their issues from me at first. Then Mom moved us to Shreveport so suddenly, the rumor mill didn’t have time to reach me. I was a middle-schooler, more focused on how all of this affected me—not nearly as concerned about who else was affected, you know?”
He didn’t seem to be expecting an answer, but she nodded anyway.
“And when I came back every summer after that, I stayed close to the Blue Pirogue. Fishing, reading, doing chores around the inn. In hindsight, Grandpa kept me pretty busy—maybe on purpose.” He met her gaze, a season of memories filling his eyes. “Until that one summer, anyway.”
The warmth was back.
Noah crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring her posture. “I know the fight with your dad that day was about me.”
“He was upset we were hanging out. I tried to tell him the full story, help him see you weren’t who he thought you were.” Elisa closed her eyes. Even now, twelve years later, she could see the fire in her dad’s eyes. The betrayal radiating off his face. A glimpse of the inevitable choice she would have to make. It’d been one of the only times—thelasttime—she hadn’t calmed down like a good girl.
But Noah hadn’t left her with a choice, after all.
Elisa opened her eyes, hugging herself tighter. “I’d been emotional that day—really stuffing a lot down. When you came to pick me up, I…I don’t know, I finally feltsafeenough to let it all out with you. Be honest and vulnerable, for the first time since Mom died.”
Noah’s eyes softened. He reached for her, but she edged backward.
“Being real hadn’t gone over so well with my dad. He didn’t appreciate how I felt or what I said about you. And then it seemed like being vulnerable with you went even worse.”
“I handled it poorly.” Regret filled Noah’s eyes. “But I knew your dad was jaded, after everything that happened with my dad and your aunt. I guess that’s why I thought it better to walk away. Take myself out of the equation.” He dipped his chin. “And then there were the letters.”
Elisa frowned. “What letters?”
“Someone sent threatening letters to the inn that summer, warning me away from you.” Noah shook his head. “They were pretty intense.”
Her mouth opened. She scrambled for words through her surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Your dad had made up his mind about me. I knew how much losing your mom affected you—I sure wasn’t trying to get in the middle of you and the only parent you had left.”
The information absorbed slowly, filling the cracks of her memory. So much was starting to make sense, like the last pieces of a puzzle finally coming together. “Noah…”
He took a ragged breath. “I had planned to talk to you when I came over that day. Tell you that we were obviously at a dead end…that your dad was too hung up on this old feud to ever give us a chance. Then he was sitting there cleaning his hunting rifle, and you dropped that bomb about your aunt…” He shook his head. “It was too much.”
How well she remembered the explosion. Then her breath hitched. “You’re saying mydadsent those letters?”
She didn’t need to wait for Noah’s confirming nod to realize that was exactly something her father would do. Controlling, passive-aggressive—getting the final word without causing a public scene.
Being the master puppeteer.
“Now I’m the one who feels stupid. I had no idea.” She reached for Noah’s hand, her thoughts churning. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”
“Well, you didn’t deserve for me to walk away.” He turned his palm so their fingers threaded. “But as I was saying…I know I can do better.”
Resolve, along with a surge of frustration Elisa struggled to hide, flooded her veins. She might have been eighteen and dependent on her father back then, but now—like Noah said, things could be different. She just had to trust him.
It was as simple—and as impossible—as that.
Elisa tugged at their joined fingers, pulling him a step closer. “Sign me up for that whole ‘do better’ thing, too.”
“I’ve got a permanent marker right here.” Noah smiled, lowering his head so his forehead rested against hers. Then he eased back. “But if your dad doesn’t sign off on the inn after this mitigation, I’m going tohaveto sell the Blue Pirogue. Which means I’ll most likely not be able to stay in Magnolia Bay.”
Elisa reached up with her free hand and pressed her fingers into the crease forming between his eyes. It relaxed beneath her touch. “I won’t let that happen.”
