Connection - Part Four
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
“We must look weird,” Aiden laughs. “Doing this.”
I let out a laugh, too, gazing around at the admittedly unusual situation we’ve found ourselves in.
The storm clouds completely fill up the sky, letting down a constant, heavy rainfall. It’s only afternoon, but the overcast darkness tinting the air makes it look later than that. It’s chilly out, and occasional sweeps of wind go rushing past now and then, making all the trees shudder.
So it’s no surprise that we’re the only ones at the beach.
The canopy tent that Raj and Noah set up is shivering with rain, the only little shape on the sand as far as the eye can see in either direction. Extra surfboards have been placed in a row to create a protective wall behind us, and Mel knotted sheets of fabric securely to either side, sheltering us from the wild gusts of rain. Now and then one does sweep in from the front, though.
But we all knew this would be the case, and we came prepared.
Everyone ate a hot breakfast, then dressed for the rain and the cold. Our phones have been left in the safe confines of our cars. Thermoses of hot drinks are regularly being passed around, so everyone has a steaming cup of something delicious to keep their hands warm. And a beach chair to sit on, to avoid sinking into the wet sand. The music is in a precarious arrangement – in the dry safety of the cooler, with the lid propped slightly open – but we’ve had no problems yet.
There have been other problems, undoubtedly. At one point Ralph had to rush off to retrieve Tycho, after she started digging so urgently in the sand that it became clear she was about to cause a great deal of distress to some innocent little beach creature burrowed below. Thankfully she was easily distracted, being free to run around in the rain with the beach so empty.
There really is nobody else here. We had no concerns about passing around the slender blunt that Noah rolled, although a lot of us choked on our hits laughing. Tycho is providing us with a great deal of entertainment, slipping wildly around in the wet sand, ears flapping and giant paws flying.
The waves are worked up by the rain, but off in the distance I can just make out the figures of Noelle and Noah on their boards. Now and then a faraway burst of laughter or an excited shout of triumph reaches us when one of them catches a wave.
“This is weirdly fun,” I tell Aiden, meaning it sincerely.
“Yeah, I’m shocked more people don’t make a beach day out of an autumn storm,” Aiden snickers. His affectionate eyes watch Noah go flying gracelessly off of his surfboard, tumbling into the ocean while Noelle bursts into giggles. “It’s fortunate that those two, of all people, have a Guardian around.”
“Oh, they’re experienced, they can handle it.” I pointedly ignore Noah as he pops out of the water with an expression of bewildered surprise on his face, doing everything possible to make that claim seem inaccurate. “Have to say, so far I like Noelle’s idea.”
This has been a surprisingly cozy day. Especially sharing a beach chair and a blanket with Aiden. The glowing warmth of him has been quietly keeping me toasty all this time.
We watch Noelle ride a wave in until she throws off her own balance by victoriously punching her fist into the air. She surfaces close to shore, laughing, and waves for Noah. He paddles in to meet her, his big grin somehow visible from the beach.
I hand them both towels and a cup of hot cider when they stop before us, soaked and panting. The family resemblance is strong when they have matching jubilant grins on their faces like this.
“Waves all to ourselves,” Noah sighs happily, sinking his board into the wet sand. “Beautiful.”
“Nice to be the only ones dumb enough to do something,” Noelle laughs, pushing her wet hair out of her face. “That way you have free run of the whole place.”
I’m finding the Noelle of today hard to connect with the Noelle who gave Gage a stern warning about his behavior in front of Mugshot. Today we’re doing something objectively ridiculous and ill-advised, and it was her idea, and she looks like she’s having a blast. Her cheeks are bright with a vivid blush from the cold salt water, her eyes sparkling with the glow of a good time.
She goes behind the surfboard wall to take off her wetsuit, darts back through the rain to the cover of the canopy, and wraps a towel around her swimsuit, the big grin still on her face. She’s shivering, so Gage hands his blanket up to her. She wraps it around herself over the towel, then drops to sit in one of the beach chairs.
“That was awesome,” she sighs contentedly, curling up in the chair and closing her eyes. “God, I really haven’t surfed in forever. I think the last time I went was with you, Noah. Forgot how good it feels.”
Noah looks up halfway through pulling off his wetsuit, smiling in surprise. Noelle rolls onto her side, blinking away the raindrops clinging to her lashes.
“Okay,” she says, more quietly. “Now I need to just… lay here for a second.”
Noah asks her something in French, and she gives him a thumbs-up. Her eyes briefly flutter open as Gage retrieves the cup of cider she’d set aside and presses it back into her hands. She takes a sip from it, then snuggles down in the beach chair, her fingers clasped around the warm mug.
Gage lets his eyes linger on her for a second, then turns back to Raj, who’s asking him something from his other side. There are a lot of us here – everyone who was hanging out last night, plus Ripley and minus Nikita – and with the constant rush of the rainfall around us we’ve been breaking off into smaller groups for conversations instead of trying to have one big one. That’s been good, I think, because it’s given Noelle a little time to talk alone with both Noah and Gage.
I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to her too much yet, though. She’s right beside me at the moment, but laying still, her eyes closed.
“Would you like us to let you sleep?” I ask tentatively, after a minute.
“I’m not sleeping. Just need to hold still.”
“Okay, no worries, then,” I answer hastily, waving a hand at her. “I wanted to ask about that big project at work you mentioned, but we can talk about that whenever.”
“No, it’s alright,” Noelle murmurs, without opening her eyes. “I’m excited about that, so I’m happy to talk about it. I’m an illustrator, and there’s a project that I really want to get. It would be for a printed encyclopedia. They want an illustration to go with a definition, every couple of pages. I know that an encyclopedia project doesn’t sound exciting-”
“Oh, I mean – I teach science, so that does sound exciting. To me.”
“Good,” she laughs quietly, smearing a little salt water off of her cheek. “There’s a nice long timeframe on the project, too. I think it would be cool, make me draw a bunch of things I’ve never drawn before, and if I get the client, and they’re happy, I’ll look good in front of my boss…”
She pauses, briefly opening her eyes to smile at me. “I also just like the idea of holding an encyclopedia full of my illustrations. I’ll admit that’s my driving goal.”
I smile back at her, twisting my necklace. “That does sound amazing.”
She takes a sip of her cider and gives me a nod of agreement. “My boss said the client really likes my style, so I’ve officially got my hopes up. I’m working really hard on my proposal. I want it to look super serious and professional. Logan is helping me with that, whenever I can get him while he’s not busy. He’s good at letting me know when I need to tone things down.”
I fall silent, contemplating that.
“He didn’t want to come today?” Noah looks at Noelle over his shoulder, squeezing out his long hair. “Logan?”
“Oh, he’s…” Noelle hesitates, tapping her thumb on her mug. “He’s busy with work, so I just told him I’d go hang out with you and your friends. I didn’t want him to worry about me, and I thought he might if I told him our whole, um – surfing plan.”
My eyes drop to the worried fidgeting of her thumb. Something tells me that despite Noah’s best efforts, Noelle is perfectly aware that the atmosphere has improved considerably now that Noah and Logan aren’t around each other. That it was the case last night, too, when we all hung out at the house and had a blast making plans for today.
It’s not lost on Noelle. That much is clear, even if she hasn’t said anything about it.
Noah sits back in his beach chair, then pulls Melanie off of Raj’s lap to sit on his instead. “Hopefully he didn’t mind about extending the trip?”
A troubled little knit appears between Noelle’s eyebrows as Raj firmly takes Melanie back.
“I think maybe he was a little frustrated, but he said he understood. He’s always very understanding, in the end. We’ve been together for like three months, and we’ve never had a single fight.”
Three months… so Noelle, Gage, and Logan all reconnected last spring, remained friends ever since. Then, three months ago, Logan told Noelle he’d always known she was the one? Asked her out and decided things should get serious, serious enough that he should come here to get to know her family better?
And at some point Gage packed up, left France to go traveling alone. That might have been unrelated, though… maybe he was just looking for new places and people for his films.
I don’t know. I also don’t want Noelle to feel like I’m interrogating her, so I decide not to ask more questions. But I notice that Noah is listening intently, quietly taking all of this new information in, too.
Aiden has been resting comfortably in one of his customary long silences. Letting me do the talking for both of us, slowly trailing his fingers in circles on my back. His deep voice catches me by surprise when it rumbles past my ear.
“That’s nice, that Logan is helping you with your proposal.”
“Yeah, he actually made me realize I needed to start it over from scratch.” Noelle crinkles her nose up in self-directed exasperation. “He was right, it was way too silly how I did it before.”
“So Logan is really professional, now?” Noah asks, in a determinedly neutral voice. “That one of the changes since high school?”
Noelle seems to sense an opportunity. She sits up on her elbow, earnestly catching Noah’s eye.
“Yes, Noah, and like I said we don’t fight anymore, so now he’s really everything I’ve always wanted to find. Sometimes you need someone who keeps you grounded, and – holds you down, and makes you see things clearly. I need that.” She lays back in the chair, closing her eyes again. “Otherwise I’d be getting myself into trouble all the time, making decisions that make no sense, running with all my ideas. I’m not doing that anymore.”
I glance around at the beach, where we’re casually parked during the middle of an autumn rainstorm. At Noelle’s suggestion. Noah is thinking the same thing I am, based on his raised eyebrows.
Gage silently turns his head away, revealing that he’s been listening, too.
“Think I will sleep for a moment, actually,” Noelle murmurs, suddenly sounding very tired.
She falls asleep remarkably fast, almost instantly. Noah watches her with fond warmth in his eyes, then glances up as Raj gets to his feet.
“Where are you going?” Noah asks, catching Melanie and pulling her onto his lap.
“You know all kinds of beach treasures wash up in the rain, man.” Raj dramatically flicks the hood of his rain jacket up over his dark curls, adopting the stoic expression of someone about to embark on a grand quest. “And I’m gonna be the one to find them.”
“You’re gonna get soaked, you maniac,” Noah tells him affectionately.
“Hate to tell you this, but we’re all going to be soaked before this is over, Nohea. Inevitably. I would describe everyone here as ‘damp already’. At the very least.”
“Speak for yourself,” Noah says, lighting the blunt back up. “Personally I’m toasty.”
“May as well get the treasures,” Raj finishes brightly, then sets off into the rain.
Tycho goes enthusiastically bounding after him, to a deep sigh from Ralph.
“Gonna have to give her a bath after all this. Well, whatever. At least she’ll be tired.”
Gage looks at Noah in faint surprise. “You guys got treasures around here? Just washing up on the beach? Shit, man. Shouldn’t we go get some, too?”
“Raj sees treasure in anything he wants to,” Noah explains, passing the blunt to Gage. “Presumably that’s why he married me. Why Mel did remains completely unexplained.”
“Stop that,” Melanie giggles, kicking him just hard enough to send a message, but not enough to make him spill his cider. “Anyone could see why.”
“Yeah, man, Noah’s the coolest,” Gage says earnestly, tilting his head back to smile at Mel. “For example, once I saw him brake so hard that our whole car completely broke down.”
“That – sounds like an example of an extremely costly disaster,” Melanie laughs, as Noah drops his head to hide his face against her shoulder.
“Doesn’t mean it was any less awesome,” Gage answers, full of admiration.
“Okay, that car was a piece of shit,” Noah begins defensively. “It was going to fall apart at some point, anyways, it wasn’t my fault. I’m an expert in all things autonomous, so if-”
“Automotive,” Ralph corrects.
“That’s what I meant, obviously!”
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re here, Gage,” Melanie giggles. “I’ve learned so much about Noah’s past that I never knew.”
“The mental image of that,” Ripley sighs happily, grinning from ear to ear. “Nice work, Noah.”
“Alright, whatever,” Noah groans, then holds out a bag of chips to Gage. “Here, to prove I forgive you for that little slip of unnecessary information, I offer you a present. Want a Scorpion chip?”
“Scorpion chip?” Gage repeats, eyeing the bag suspiciously. “Sounds like something the villain in a movie would be trying to inject into the mainframe. Make the whole planetary dome sizzle.”
“Technically they’re just called Scorpions,” Ripley reminds Noah, pointing at the back of the bag.
“That’s worse,” Gage says meditatively, then shrugs and reaches a hand out. “I’ll still try one.”
“Don’t do it, Gage.” Aiden catches his wrist, flashing him a warning look. “It’ll scorch you. You won’t be able to taste anything else for days.”
Gage immediately takes his hand back. “That won’t do, now that I’ve been introduced to both Mugshot and the Big Belly Deli.”
That statement is met with a grin of approval from all Ketterbridge people present. So, all of us.
I hit the blunt, pass it off to Melanie, then lean back against Aiden and close my eyes for a moment. Lulled by the unexpected comfiness of this situation, the laughing voices all around me. By Aiden’s body heat, too, as always. Being with a Heliomancer means pretty much anywhere can be a place of rich warmth.
Ripley and Gage are talking when I check back in sometime later.
“-definitely call that art, man,” Ripley is saying.
“See, I think it is, too, but I don’t want to sound pretentious by talking about it like that, so I’m just gonna let you say it,” Gage answers, drawing a laugh from Ripley. He hesitates, then adds - “I will say a lot of it is just straight-up cheap and dirty. Pretty much all the ones I don’t do on my own. And a lot of the ones I do on my own, too.”
“Just like a lot of my favorite art,” Ripley snickers. “Tell me to shut up if this is an annoying question you get all the time, but – does doing that for work take the fun out of having sex on your own time?”
Noelle – who I thought was still asleep – very slightly turns her head, angling her ear towards the conversation.
“No way, dude,” Gage says cheerfully. “You know the difference between doing something for work, because you have to, and doing it purely because you want to. You might enjoy it, but it doesn’t compare. And there’s also the difference between playing a role and doing something as yourself. They sleep with who I’m playing. They don’t really sleep with Gage, you know what I mean? It’s just not the same.”
The only thing giving away that Noelle is awake and sneakily paying attention is a faint pink blush in her cheeks. I’m a little surprised to catch her listening with obvious curiosity, given that she knows Gage so much better than any of the rest of us. I guess somehow she’s never asked him about this.
Ripley, sensing his curiosity hasn’t gotten him into trouble yet, adds - “Do you have to train or something for this line of work?”
“Oh, yeah, I had to study hard,” Gage answers, with perfect gravity.
There’s a brief silence, and then a snort of laughter from all of us. Gage grins broadly at Ripley, who’s already grinning broadly at him.
“And you do this job full-time?” Ripley asks.
“Yep. Paid jobs when I can get ‘em, uploading myself the rest of the time. Oh, and I also used to do some work for an intimacy therapist back in France. When she needed someone to sleep with a patient as part of their treatment, I’d do it. Could be a little emotional for them, but I don’t really mind that.” Gage crinkles up his nose, but in a playful, smiling way. “It was surprisingly kinda rewarding for me. I hope it was for them, too.”
I can totally see Gage doing something like that. He’d be perfect for it, with his unique way of making everything seem so casual and relaxed, no matter what’s going on. Case in point, the way he’s talking about this.
“You-” Ripley lets out a dazed laugh, staring at Gage with wide eyes. “You really don’t mind telling us any of this, do you?”
“Nope. I’m not ashamed of what I do.”
“Oh, nah, I don’t think you should be!” Ripley clarifies, startled by the suggestion. “Did I make it sound like that?”
“No, you didn’t. Guess I’m just listening out for it, ‘cause – some people act like… well, you probably know what I mean. But yeah, I’m more ashamed of things I’ve done on roller skates.” Gage grimaces deeply, a dark expression coming over his face. “The one time. Never again.”
There’s another short silence as everyone tries to envision Gage’s exceptionally long, lanky self on roller skates. We all must have succeeded around the same time, because everybody breaks into laughter at once.
“God, I can just see it,” Melanie giggles. “Limbs flying everywhere.”
“Yeah, my feet went really high up in the air,” Gage confirms, with a sad sigh. “I’ve seldom seen ‘em that high up. Alas.”
Melanie hides her grin behind her braid, her voice wavering. “Please describe it in great detail.”
“I’d rather not speak about it,” Gage answers, with such grimness that I have to bury my face against Aiden’s chest to smother my laughter.
“No matter how tall the man stands,” Gage adds thoughtfully, “Simple wheels can bring him low.”
“Is that wisdom, Ralph?” Noah laughs.
“Not – no,” Ralph answers helplessly, his shoulders shaking, his forehead in his hand. “Not that time. That was nothing.”
“What the hell was your gangly ass doing trying to get on some roller skates?” Noah asks Gage incredulously.
“The cute girl I was with… I don’t want to talk about it!” Gage closes his eyes, shuddering in horror. “God, that drink went flying everywhere… she said not to worry about it, that it wasn’t an expensive dress anyways, but it was the way she said it, kinda icy – I sort of felt like maybe she meant it was an expensive dress?”
“Oh, no,” I laugh, pressing my fingers to my cheeks.
“It’s her own fault for thinking someone built like you could survive on skates for more than five seconds,” Melanie giggles.
“That’s real nice of you to say, Melanie, thank you,” Gage answers appreciatively.
“I think it’s cool that you’re so open about all this,” Ripley tells Gage, with obvious admiration in his green eyes. “Your work, I mean. Not the roller skates thing.”
“Yeah, no, definitely not the roller skates thing. Nothing that happened that day was anything to be proud of.” Gage drops the grim expression of woeful memories and smiles again at Ripley. “You guys are chill, so that’s part of why I don’t mind talking about it. Some – people can be not so nice about it, but I’m not getting that energy here.”
I’m sure he means that on a general level, but something about the way he says some people makes me think he has a specific one of them in mind.
He pauses, twisting the stud in his ear, then adds -
“And someone told me a long time ago that I should try to be more open with people. Someone whose opinion I hold pretty high.”
Noelle quietly smiles to herself in her beach chair.
Then she gasps and sits up as a wave of salty ocean wind rushes through our little camp, carrying with it a great deal of rain. We all burst into startled laughter, suddenly much more drenched than we were a second ago. Noah protectively closes the cooler lid over the speakers, then looks up in bewilderment as Raj and Tycho come bolting back up to us.
“What-?” Noah begins, then lets out a startled laugh when he sees the big piece of driftwood clasped in Raj’s arms. “What happened-?”
“Clouds are coming, gang!” Raj shouts, glancing over his shoulder in alarm. “Think we might want to take this show on the road!”
Noelle leans out of her chair to peer down the beach. “Is it really much more intense than what’s going on now? We’ve got the tent, so-?”
She cuts herself off with a sharp gasp as we all catch sight of the charcoal grey clouds that Raj already spotted. They’re sweeping down the beach towards us, bringing vast sheets of rain.
“Uh oh.” Melanie swiftly gets to her feet, screwing the lid back on the thermos. “Okay, everyone up.”
“Is – are we panicking?” Ralph asks in alarm, pitching his voice above the rising rush of wind and rain. “We could also stay under the tent until – no? We’re panicking? Okay.”
He gets up to join the rest of us in our sudden rush to pack everything up and break down our tent. Raj starts pulling up surfboards from the sand, Ripley and Gage shove the remaining snacks into our bags, and I try to speed-fold the beach chairs with Aiden.
“Shit!” Noah frantically unknots the fabric walls Melanie made, glancing over his shoulder at the clouds. “This is like when a new building is rushing to open and all the trades are in a panic to get everything done at once!”
“Not just like that, I assume,” Ripley shouts back, watching as Tycho, ecstatic over all the excitement, begins racing in fast circles around the tent.
“Whoever can help get these boards to the car, to me!” Raj bellows.
Ralph and Aiden dive forward to grab some boards, and Ripley rushes after them towards the truck with an armful of beach chairs.
“Do we need to make sure the bonfire is out?” Gage shouts, pointing to the ashen heap that was keeping us warm before.
I let out a slightly hysterical laugh, gesturing at the sheets of rain rushing towards us. “Are you joking?”
“Just trying to be respectful of all the protocols, it’s not my town-”
“Help me with the tent!” Noah shouts, shoving him at one of the poles.
“Is this my fault?” Noelle asks, watching the storm barreling down the beach towards us as Tycho bolts past on another high-speed lap. “I didn’t cause this, did I?”
“No one’s mad,” Noah laughs, pushing her at another tent pole. “Just get that up!”
Noelle, Gage, and Noah all yank up their respective poles at the same time. The fourth immediately wrenches itself free of the sand, and the entire canopy tent goes flying. It briefly lifts all three of them into the air, then crashes down onto the sand when I instinctively seize hold of it to add my weight.
“You guys!” Mel gasps, half-laughing, half-alarmed, unsure if she should drop the armfuls of stuff she has. “Oh – oh shit!”
The tent begins to fly down the beach, dragging all of us with it through the rain and the sand. Everybody starts shouting instructions at once, accomplishing nothing. Tossing my hair out of my eyes, gasping for breath, I’m extremely sure that the tent is going to get away. Either from us or with us.
A flash of movement to my right catches my attention, too fast for me to see clearly. But it was all in bronze and chestnut colors, so I know that rescue is here even before the tent mercifully comes to a sharp stop.
“Yes!” Noah roars triumphantly, springing to his feet. “Aiden! My man!”
“We had it!” Noelle protests, letting Gage pull her up.
“You fucking goons!” Aiden shouts, staggering upright with the tent in his arms, panting through his laughter. “Get your asses to the car right now!”
Gage catches Noelle’s wrist and pulls her back towards Ralph, Ripley, and Mel, who are laughing hard enough to tell me that what just happened looked exactly as stupid as I feared. But there’s no time for anyone to say a word, with the clouds coming straight for us. Everyone dives to grab something, and Raj backs his truck up as close as he can get to the sand.
We all go rushing for the truck, where we bound up into the bed with whatever we’re holding. Ralph is the last one there. He stops on the sand to catch Tycho up in his arms.
“Is that everyone?” he shouts, handing her up to Aiden.
“Wait a sec-” Noelle glances around, her eyes widening in alarm. “Where’s Gage?”
We all look back at the beach, then let out a simultaneous gasp of laughter. The one thing we forgot is the cooler with the speakers inside, and Gage went back for it. We didn’t have a chance to even pause the playlist. The music is muffled, with the lid of the container closed, but still going strong. It grows louder and louder as Gage comes wildly rushing up to us, reaching the height of its volume when he throws himself into the truck bed.
“Yes!” Noelle shouts victoriously, as Ralph hops up into the truck bed and closes it after himself. “We made it! Just in time!”
There’s a silence as we all look up. Noticing that we’re still completely uncovered in the truck bed. Realizing the problem at the same time.
“Oh,” Noelle says.
That’s all anyone has time to say before the rain crashes down on us.
For a second we all just stare at each other through the downpour. We give up and start laughing at the same time, Aiden burying his face in my neck, Noah folding himself over Gage’s vibrating cooler.
“Well, that certainly was a doomed enterprise,” Ripley groans, tilting his head back with his laughter. “Is this why you told us not to panic, Ralph?”
“Yes, for all that helped.”
“This isn’t even the first time we’ve made this mistake,” Noah tells Raj, through the open window into the front of the truck. “Should we be embarrassed?”
“Nature can always defeat man,” Gage answers contemplatively. “Therefore it’s nothing to be ashamed of when she lays it down on us like that.”
“Is that wisdom, Jamie?”
“I don’t know, Noah, why are you asking me?”
“You’re the science boy, and it’s about nature.”
“Okay, then – I guess my problem with it is that man is nature, so-”
“Is this the time or the place for this conversation?” Ralph shouts, holding a drenched Tycho to his chest.
“Oh, god, why did the rest of us park so far away!” Noelle wails, then dissolves into giggles and pokes her head into the front of the truck. “Raj, where’s the nearest liquor store? Just take us there. I don’t want anyone to get sick on my account, we need to warm up!”
A short while later, Noelle pushes open the door of the little liquor store closest to the beach. The man behind the counter glances up, then does a bewildered double-take, spotting me, Noah, Noelle, Gage, and Raj crammed into the doorway, all of us thoroughly soaked.
“Hello,” Noelle calls politely, lifting one hand to wave at him with her credit card. “We don’t want to come in and get your floors all wet. Would you mind running us eight mini bottles of whiskey, please? Bourbon whiskey if you have it, but rye is fine.”
The baffled employee collects his credit card scanner and the bottles, then hurries over to meet us in the doorway.
“Thank you,” Noelle says breathlessly. “Slow day, with the weather, I’m guessing?”
“It – it’s been pretty boring, yeah.” The employee hesitates with the bottles in his hands, glancing between us. “Who wants to take them?”
“You can just pop them in here, that should keep ‘em dry,” Gage says, and opens the cooler.
The store employee pauses in confusion, peering into the cooler playing music at him, empty except for the speakers. He opens his mouth to ask something, then seems to think better of it and hurriedly drops the bottles inside.
“He forgot to ID us,” Noelle realizes, as we rush back over to the truck.
“I think we might have distracted him,” I laugh helplessly. “Especially Gage with his cooler full of music.”
“I’m just gonna put this down now.” Gage places it on the truck near Aiden, who’s taken the wheel from Raj. “I keep forgetting I have it and wondering why I can’t hear what anyone is saying.”
“Okay, warm-up shots,” Noelle announces, as everyone in the truck bed hops down to form a circle in the tiny, rain-soaked parking lot. “I mean to warm us up, not like we’re warming up for something. Unless we are, and we just don’t realize it yet.”
“Oh, yes, Noelle in party mode,” Mel giggles happily. “This is the state fair all over again.”
“Oh, man,” Aiden says, grinning at the memory. “That was fun.”
Noelle holds up her little bottle of whiskey, wincing apologetically. “Aiden, are you sure you don’t mind us doing this?”
Aiden holds out his steaming cup of hot cider, comparing it to the tiny liquor bottles. “Yours might seem like the better option on the surface, but I actually think mine has more to offer.”
“Thoughts I’ve had at work,” Gage comments, causing Aiden to choke on his sip of cider.
“Excellent,” Noelle laughs, holding her bottle up in the downpour. “To questionable, old-timey methods of preventing a cold!”
“To questionable-” Raj, Mel, and I begin, then stop when Noah just shouts “Yeah!”, Ripley and Ralph chorus “Old-timey methods!” and Gage throws back his shot without waiting at all.
“That’s my bad, it was too long,” Noelle laughs. “Oh, well!”
She starts to lift the little bottle to her mouth, then stops, her startled eyes caught on something.
I turn and follow her gaze across the parking lot. There’s a car parked at the other end. Logan is sitting in the driver’s seat, staring at Noelle in blank-faced disbelief.
“Oh,” Noelle murmurs, then lets out a nervous laugh. “Oops. This is gonna be hard to explain.”
She crosses the short distance to his car. He rolls down the window and leans over to stare at her with astonished, indignant eyes.
“Hey,” Noelle says breathlessly, stopping with her hands spread on the side of the car. “How, um – how’s it going? What are you doing here? I thought you had a work thing to do.”
“I was on the phone with one of my guys, and I couldn’t hear anything at the hotel with the wind. I decided to just take the car somewhere more covered and park it.” He shakes his head, eyeing Noelle grimly. “Really, Noelle. I didn’t realize that I’m going to go hang out with Noah and his friends meant you’d be doing shots in a liquor store parking lot in the middle of a storm, in the middle of the afternoon.”
Ripley laughs, a little pink-cheeked from his shot. “She didn’t realize that either, dude. None of this was part of the plan.”
Logan turns his frosty stare on Ripley. “You don’t find this behavior a little shocking?”
Ripley’s shoulders shake with another laugh. “Shocking? Just – being outside in the rain?”
“Ripley’s an artist,” Gage calls over to Logan. “One who loves everything shocking.”
“Then he must be enjoying himself right now,” Logan says stiffly.
“I am!” Ripley gives Logan a big thumbs-up, grinning widely. “Your girlfriend is super cool.”
Logan drops his gaze back to Noelle. “Something told me this came from one of your ideas.”
“I – I was just trying to arrange a beach day,” Noelle says, faltering.
A statement unfortunately punctuated by a growl of distant thunder, and a renewed rush of the rain already spilling down on us.
But it also draws an affectionate laugh from Noah, which apparently catches Noelle off-guard. She looks over her shoulder to see him giving her a fond, dimpled grin. Gage is smiling, too. Trying unsuccessfully to hide it by keeping his lip caught between his teeth.
Noelle stares at the two of them in surprise, then turns back to Logan as he dryly asks -
“So is Ketterbridge like New Orleans? You can just drink out on the sidewalk?”
Noelle frowns at him, suddenly more frustrated than abashed. “Oh, come on, what difference does it really make? We have our designated driver, and no one else was around!”
“That’s fortunate, because this whole picture-” Logan breaks off, staring past us in alarm. “And what is going on over there?”
I turn around to discover that the song playing through the speakers has enough bass beat vibration to make the cooler move on the wet truck bed, so that it’s awkwardly nudging itself forward in little scooching jumps.
The sight is so preposterous that several of us break out laughing at once.
“You’re welcome to join us, Logan,” Noah says, managing in his good mood to make the invitation sound genuinely warm. “Come learn the mysteries of the cooler-”
“No, thank you,” Logan immediately answers, still frowning at Noelle. “I hope you won’t make yourself sick, Noelle, being out in the rain. All of this, really… is this Gage’s influence in action?”
He flashes an accusatory glance at Noah as he says it, like – or was it yours?
Both Noah and Gage break into an indignant frown. Since they’re both standing behind Noelle she doesn’t see that, but a very similar frown comes over her face at the exact same time.
“I’m just having some fun,” she protests, a little wounded. “And Gage didn’t do anything wrong.”
Logan sees the expression in her eyes and pauses. He pulls a smile onto his handsome face, tapping his thumb on the wheel.
“Alright. No problem. I’m just concerned about you.” He reaches over to touch her arm. “Are you bleeding?”
“I just got a scrape from the sand, it’s nothing. There was an issue with the tent.”
“It was some cartoon shit,” Ralph laughs, rubbing his eyes. “You guys flying away screaming while Tycho just ran in circles behind you. Oh, man. Jesus.”
“I think technically I can say I’ve been windsurfing, now,” Noah realizes brightly. “That’s pretty cool.”
“Maybe you should come back to the hotel with me,” Logan tells Noelle, with a nod at the tiny scrape on her arm. “Take a break.”
“No, it’s okay. That’s sweet of you to worry, but I’m fine. Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? We need to eat something hot, so we’re going to Big Belly Deli.”
This is news to everyone present. It gets an immediate cheer from all of us gathered behind her.
Logan looks doubtfully at our soaked selves. “You’re going to walk in there like that?”
“We’ll probably get takeout,” Raj says. “Banned from Big Belly Deli is a fate too cruel to inflict on oneself.”
“Okay.” Logan sits back in the driver’s seat. “I’ll just see you back at the hotel, then, Noelle.”
She steps back from the car and watches it go, her dark hair hiding her expression from the rest of us. Then she startles and looks up as Gage suddenly breaks into a sprint.
He dives forward just in time to get his long arms around the cooler before it can vibrate itself out of the back of the truck.
“Wow, nice save, Gage!” Noah calls, impressed.
“Part of the job,” Gage pants. “Mastery over all things vibrating.”
“Gage!” Noelle blurts out, startled into giggles.
She turns to face us, then blinks when she finds Noah grinning happily down at her.
“Are we really going to the Deli? Because if so-” Noah tilts his head back, and roars at top volume: “EVERYONE BACK IN THE FUCKIN’ TRUCK!”
We all scramble to get there, breathless with laughter. Aiden pulls us out of the little parking lot and onto the windswept road.
Noelle seems relieved to be back in the truck, then a little confused as she stares off at the road Logan drove down.
But overall she’s smiling, so I am, too. This is much more of what I’d hoped for, for her Ketterbridge trip.
~~~~
We all crash so hard, back at Noah, Raj, and Mel’s house.
We were all very cold out at the beach, then we had a little whiskey, and a lot of hot, hearty food, supplemented with mugs of hot chocolate after we got back here. Now that we’ve all dried off and changed clothes and sprawled out in front of the fire, with the afternoon storm-dark around us – we didn’t stand a chance. Noelle laid down on the couch and immediately fell asleep, and everyone else was irresistibly tempted to follow her example.
When my eyes slowly blink open again, my cheek is smushed against Aiden’s chest. We’re cuddled up together in the armchair. I can tell by his breathing that he’s still out, but murmured voices are definitely what woke me up.
Noelle and Noah, I realize after a moment. I was confused about why I couldn’t understand, but now I get it. It’s because the conversation is happening in French.
My eyes slowly blink open to find Noah sitting up on the rug, leaning back against the couch. Noelle has rolled onto her side, so she can drowsily speak to him. Her hand gestures indicate that their discussion is mostly about surfing, and the day we had. Nothing too serious.
It’s nice to see the glitter of happy silver in Noah’s eyes as the two of them quietly chat.
“Oh, god,” Noelle giggles, suddenly switching to English. “Your friends all look like they got knocked out with no warning. Look at Ripley on the rug.”
“Your arrival sent shockwaves through all of Ketterbridge,” Noah says solemnly, to a soft laugh from Noelle.
But her laughter trails off into a guilty sigh.
“Maybe Logan was right, though… today did end up a little wild, didn’t it?”
“Yes, it did,” Noah laughs affectionately, giving her a dimpled smile. “It’s so good to be back in proximity of you and your ideas again.”
Noelle looks at him in thoughtful silence.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Gage murmurs drowsily, from the floor beside Ripley.
Noelle blinks in surprise, then blushes warmly, reaching down to gently cuff Gage’s shoulder. She answers in French, laughing, and whatever she said makes both Gage and Noah smile.
“I’m just gonna go check on the little one,” Noah murmurs, getting up with a deep yawn. “I’ll try not to fall asleep on the stairs.”
“Okay,” Noelle says, closing her eyes. “I’m just gonna sleep for a little longer.”
She’s out, just like that. Noah and Gage exchange a grin with each other. Noah picks his way across the bodies strewn all over the living room and heads upstairs.
I start to close my eyes, then pause for a moment, watching Gage. He’s looking at Noelle, his gaze resting on her sleeping face.
He hesitates, then reaches out and very gently brushes the sand away from the small scrape she got earlier. Then he tugs the blanket further up her shoulder. She doesn’t wake up, but her hand automatically fumbles out to catch hold of it and pull it up to her cheek. A cozy sigh escapes her.
Gage takes his hand back, then closes his eyes again, laying quietly on the rug. Unaware that anyone saw what he did.
Or the warmth of the expression in his eyes as he did it.
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