Snowflakes In Autumn (A Novella)

Ten

Noah was setting up the television in the living room while Faith began reading his book. It was the first book in a trilogy.

The man she assumed to be her father was a brilliant profiler who taught at a small but prestigious college. Noah was a former student, now a detective, who called him in to help with a difficult ongoing investigation. They stayed awake until the wee hours working on a case at the professor's house that he shared with his two daughter's, one a teenager and the other just a child.

The details and natural dialog allowed her to play the story in her mind as she read. It was brilliant writing, and very much reflected how Noah was in real life.

"I take it I'm Grace in the book," Faith guessed.

Noah remained behind the television when he answered. "You are."

"If this is a trilogy, how old will I get?"

"In the last book, you're eighteen and about to head off to college."

Though he couldn't see her, Faith nodded her head. "Anything cool ever happen to me?"

Finally, Noah popped his head out, a lazy glare in his eyes with a smile he was struggling to hold back. "Why don't you just read the fucking books and find out?"

Faith let out a heavy, exaggerated breath and frowned at him. "I'm not sure how I feel about you dropping the F bomb so casually, Mr. Scott."

Before Noah could come up with a witty retort or exasperated reply, Faith's cell phone rang on the table beside her, Ryan's face coming up on her screen. She couldn't recall the last time he'd called her twice in the same week, but she supposed the last call ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.

"Hey," she answered. "What's up?"

"Just wondering if you ever talked to Noah?"

Faith's eyes were already on him as he stared back with curiosity. "Yes, Noah and I talked."

"And what did he have to say?"

She knew what was going on. Her brother was wondering just how much Noah had revealed to her. The more revealing, the bigger the waves that would crash into the already tainted relationship she had with her mother, which would spread out to him. "Plenty. He's a bit of a know-it-all, so all of his answers are like ten times longer than they need to be."

Noah shot her another glare, then sat down on the couch beside her.

"That sounds like him," her brother replied. "Listen, I just wanted to see if all this was out of your system before mom got back. She lands in two hours, doesn't she?"

"I don't remember when her plane lands."

"Just check on the fridge. She always puts her flight itinerary there."

The jig was up or would be in only a few moments. "I'm not there, Ryan."

"You're seriously not out of your apartment yet? Today's the second, you know. You should have been out of there two days ago."

Faith tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced over at Noah once more. "I'm out of my apartment, I'm just not at the house at this very moment."

"Well, when mom gets home, try to act natural. I promise you can ask me whatever you want, just don't go to her with your premature mid-life crisis."

Premature mid-life crisis. That's what all this was to him. She should have been able to ask him whatever she wanted this whole time and have him answer honestly. It may have been acting out to him, but this was a situation of his own making. It was years coming, and Ryan should have known that eventually she'd grow tired of being brushed off.

"I won't be there when mom gets home. She and her newest husband can have the house all to themselves for the foreseeable future."

"Where are you, Faith?"

Rather than answer, Faith just handed the phone over to Noah, who seemed ready and willing to accept it.

"Hey, Ryan." ... "I didn't make her do anything. Faith wanted to see me and I made that happen. Simple as that." ... "Sorry, can't do that." ... "I don't give a shit what your mom does. She has no control over me, and she's done controlling Faith." ... "This is where she always belonged, Ryan. You and I both know if the divorce had gone through, your mom wouldn't have even fought for custody of her." ... "Yeah, I did. And I will tell her everything else she asks about because Faith deserves the truth." ... "You know what, if that crazy bitch wants her bad enough, I'm not that difficult to find. She can have at it." ... "I know exactly what I've done, Ryan. Your mom's the one who went to war with me, then ran off like a little chicken shit. Now I'm taking back what's rightfully mine and she can go fuck herself if she's got a problem with that."

Noah pressed a button on her phone, then clenched it in his fist before his grip loosened and the phone fell against the cushion at his side.

"Rightfully yours?" Faith asked, repeating Noah's own words back to him.

His eyes were staring straight ahead until she spoke, then shot over to her. "I meant that I was taking back the chance to be in your life. I don't really give a shit how he took it."

"Oh, I can tell you exactly how he took it. I was waiting for you to piss on my leg to mark your territory during that conversation. You were very..." Faith thought of the right word and found it easily. "Masculine."

Noah rubbed his temples and took a slow breath to calm himself. "You don't belong to me, little snowflake, but you do belong with me. I'm the one who could have taken care of you. I could have provided for you and given you a good life. I would have gotten you help after the shooting and could have showed you you mattered every single day. Your mom didn't do any of that, and that jackass brother of yours didn't do much better."

That never would have worked. Even if her mom hadn't disappeared with them right away and had been fine with giving up custody of her, no judge ever would have allowed a single male college student to be her legal guardian. Noah never had the chance, no matter how the cards were dealt.

"Why have you talked to my brother all these years if he was such a jackass?" Faith asked.

"Because he was my only link to you."