Page 116 of Finding Noah

With the bag in my hand once again, I stood just as awkwardly, using the top of the bar to steady myself with my elbow. God, only twenty-six years old, and I was getting off the ground almost as ungracefully as Dad.

How the hell am I gonna chase after a little kid? I thought. I'm too young to be like this. Maybe I'll start doing yoga with Meg or something.

Meg. I sighed, not wanting this creepy, annoying guy to get in the way of the task at hand—getting home to her.

That was all that mattered right now. It was all that would ever matter.

“Have a good day,” I muttered with a trace of bitterness, about to leave, when that look in his eyes caught my attention again.

His thin lips curled into a sneering smile. “Almost like seeing a ghost, huh?”

“What?” I asked, furrowing my brow, certain I hadn't heard him correctly, but … I had.

I knew exactly what he'd said, but I couldn't understand why. I didn't know this guy. I'd never seen him before, apart from that look in his eyes that somehow managed to send shivers trailing down my spine while warning bells clanged noisily in my brain, telling me to get the fuck away and now.

Some cop I am, I thought sardonically.

“Nothin',” the guy said, his smile growing. “Have a good day, buddy.”

“Yeah,” I grumbled. “You too.”

Hurrying past him, I pushed through the door and swung a right. I started to cross the parking lot, my car well within my sights. The scent of the croissant wafted from the open top of the bag, and with one hand, I maneuvered the pastry to the top and brought it to my mouth, taking a bite.

Now, there were defining moments in every person's life. I could think of a few of mine off the top of my head.

The night Seth had dragged me to Tommy's house.

The year Mom had decided to leave her hometown and bring me to River Canyon to start our lives over in a safer place.

The moment I’d spotted the new guy in town, eating his sandwich in The Fisch Market, and decided to become his friend.

The fateful moments in which Seth had shown up, guns a’blazing, and I ran like the wind through a thunderstorm of biblical proportions.

The second I’d laid my eyes on Meg's angelic face and fallen helplessly in love with her and the idea of one day making her mine … even if I was only thirteen at the time.

All of these pivotal, life-changing moments that had helped to define who I was as a person. The pieces scattered throughout my twenty-six years to make Noah Mason the man he was today.

But the thing was, we didn’t always know in those moments that they were happening as they happened, now did we?

If we did, would we allow them to happen?

If I had known that taking that bite of croissant in the middle of the parking lot would be one of them, would I have done it at all? Or would I have waited to get into the safety of my car?

No, I knew the answer to that question.

I would've booked my ass across the asphalt.

Fuck, maybe I never would've stopped at Lisa’s Bean Hut at all.

Because as I chewed, as I took a split second to allow the exquisite flavors of chocolate and light, flaky pastry to burst on my tongue, as I allowed my brain to take a break from the task at hand and think, Damn, Lisa, Les is one lucky guy …

That was the opening someone else needed to strike.

And strike he did, with a quick, sudden jab to my neck, so slight that I barely knew what had bitten me at first.

“Fuck,” I said, startled, nearly dropping the pastry bag again in my haste to slap the offending insect that had stung me. But there was nothing there. “Little shit.”

Must've flown away, I thought, already moving toward my car again.