Meeting You by Katana Collins

Author:Katana Collins
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Katana Collins
Published: 2014-11-30T23:00:00+00:00

Part Five

Noah

NOAH GRITTED HIS teeth as his family settled in for what was traditionally their biggest meal of the year. For most families that meant Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. But for the Tripps? Nope. It meant Father’s Day.

He shifted in the dining room chair, lifting a leg to rest it on his knee. The stupid iridescent jeans that his manager suggested wearing—something about the label signing him for an endorsement deal if they saw him in their jeans—groaned like leather pants every time he moved. He froze as Callie shot him a look.

“Stop fidgeting,” she whispered.

“I’m not.” He smacked her leg with the back of his hand under the table.

This was the one family gathering every year when his siblings would reminisce about their dad. They would raise a glass and toast to Jim Tripp. But Noah and Callie were barely five years old when their dad crashed his motorcycle. What the hell did Noah have to reminisce about? What did he have to toast to a dad he barely knew and could hardly remember? And what he did remember wasn’t exactly all that great. His dad was a guy’s guy. He loved all things sports—and Noah was anything but sporty. He always preferred to go with the girls, helping pick out which movies to rent rather than staying home to watch the game. But those memories he had? They weren’t exactly the kind you could raise a glass and toast to.

Noah clenched his fists in his lap, breathing deep. It was one day a year. One day a year he had to pretend to mourn the loss of something he never really had. He was an actor—he could do this. For the sake of his mother.

One by one, his family members raised a glass of wine and recounted a favorite memory. His older siblings and his mom had lots to talk and laugh about. Noah always felt like an outsider during the annual celebration. He hated it. He hated Father’s Day, and as irrational as it was, he hated his father for leaving him at such a young age.

Steve was telling the story about building the treehouse that hung over the lake. It was a Tripp family legend, that damn treehouse. A legend that everyone got a part of except for Callie and Noah. The entire family pitched in to make it as a fifth birthday gift for the twins.

Noah studied Callie with a sideways glance. She laughed, her dimples deepening alongside of a toothy grin. Moisture glistened around the rims of her eyes, and she swiped away a runaway tear with the back of her knuckle.

Her connection to this man they barely knew made Noah all the more aware of his own vacant heart. Was he just dead inside? How was it that he could care so little for the man who was his father?

“Your turn, Noah,” his mom said, nodding with a tilt to her lips.

Thank God for his extra big bite of pie. It bought him those extra few seconds to compose himself.

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