I shook my head. “Work’s going to be fine – I’ve got daycare and a big enough car for carrying kids around.”
“You’ve got a car? Or do your parents have a car?”
He had me there. “Well, the Subaru belongs to my dad. But he said I could use it as much as I wanted.”
“Sure, sure – Subaru’s are good cars, tons of people in Denver have them. But that car’s, what, twenty years old?”
I sighed. “Twenty-two.”
“And you’re going to be going back and forth, forty-five minutes each way every day.”
“Something like that.” I could tell where he was going with this, and I knew I had no retort in mind.
“You ask me, it’s only a matter of time before that car breaks down. Imagine being stranded on the side of the highway with two screaming kids. But if you were to live with me, you’d be ten minutes away with no highway time. And you don’t need to worry about a car ? I’d buy you the biggest, safest one we could find for the twins.”
I said nothing, feeling a bit defeated. Seeming to sense this, he rose from the couch and came over to where I was seated on the bed, taking a place next to me. Emmy wriggled a bit in my arms, and I handed her over to her father.
Noah was more than happy to take her. She nuzzled into her father’s chest, letting out one more burp as she did.
“There you go, little lass,” he said. He stroked Emmy’s cheek with his index finger, and I realized I could very easily watch him all day with his daughter.
Emmy started to fall asleep, and Noah turned his attention back to me.
“I know this is a metric ton to process,” he said. “But I really, truly think that you moving in with me would be for the best. And at the risk of sounding crass, I’m more than good on the cash front.”
“Looking up women’s skirts really pays the bills, huh?” I asked with a small smile, trying to inject some humor into the situation.
He chuckled – mission accomplished.
“That’s not how I would prefer to describe my career, but that’s one way to put it. No – what I mean is that while I was raising Cammy, all I did was work; work and save money. I eventually hired an accountant to help me out with my savings, invest them into some stocks, some properties around town – that sort of thing. The point is that these twins will never have to want for anything.”
I could sense by the guarded way he was speaking about the issue that Noah didn’t care at all to talk about money. He was only letting me know so I understood that I didn’t have to worry about the kids being well taken care of.
“That’s good,” I said. “And don’t get me wrong – I’m glad to hear it. But before we can get to that point, there’s still the huge hurdle of having to tell both my parents and your daughter how we got here.”
Just mentioning it was enough to make my blood run cold, and fear take hold of me. Whether or not Noah felt the same way, he didn’t show it. He was calm and stoic as ever.
“There’s no getting around it,” he said. “We have to tell them, and we have to tell them soon. Each day that we don’t only makes it worse.”
“I agree, we should do it soon. And by soon, I mean in the next day or two.”
Noah glanced aside for a moment as if he were deciding what he wanted to do.
“Tomorrow – what’re you doing?”
“Nothing. No work for the next few months, at least.”
“Let’s do it then. We’ll do it together. How about pizza, tomorrow night. I can invite Cammy, and we can drop the bomb then.”
“Won’t they think it’s weird that we’re doing another dinner like that after tonight?”
“Maybe. But it doesn’t matter if they think it’s weird, so long as we tell them. It’s not going to be easy, and if I’m lucky I’m going to get no more than a punch to the face from your father. But it’ll be done, the truth will be out, and we’ll be able to make our next moves without this hanging over our heads.”
He was right. Every single word he said was true. But all I could do was hang my head, dread running through me in anticipation of the task at hand.
Noah didn’t let me sit there like that for long. He placed his hands on my shoulders and gazed into my eyes.
“We’re going to get through this, alright? It’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to do it together. Understand me?”