Page 45 of The Catcher

“Anything else you need?” Callie asked, turning to face him once more.

“No, I’m good,” Noah replied, his voice soft but sincere.

“Well, I should turn in,” Callie said, her gaze drifting toward the doorway to her bedroom.

“Callie,” Noah called out, his voice catching in his throat.

“Yeah?” she responded, turning back to face him, her expression curious.

“Thank you,” he said, his words heavy with emotion.

“For what?” she asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.

He shrugged, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips. “For this. And for not judging.”

A flicker of understanding passed between them, a silent acknowledgment of the unspoken bond that had formed.

Callie offered him one last smile with a nod before disappearing into her room, leaving Noah alone with his thoughts and the comforting embrace of darkness.

Noah climbed below the blankets, interlocked his fingers behind his head, and stared at the ceiling, watching the shadows of tree branches outside dance and form ghoulish shapes. Minutes passed. He heard Callie tossing and turning, clearing her throat.

“Still awake?” he asked.

“This shift doesn’t make it easy,” she replied.

“How come I’ve never seen you with anyone?”

“What do you mean?” she replied.

“You know, dating and all that.”

There was a long pause.

“I don’t know. I’ve just been focused on my career. With our shifts, it’s not easy on relationships, right?”

“For sure.”

“Was that why you and Lena broke up?”

Noah shifted beneath the blankets. Memories of Lena and Alicia intertwined in his mind, their faces blending into one another in the darkness.

“Not exactly,” he admitted, his voice quiet as he wrestled with the tangled web of his past.

“So it’s complicated,” Callie offered, her tone sympathetic.

“Yeah,” Noah agreed, a hint of bitterness creeping into his words. “Complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

The room fell into silence once more, broken only by the steady rhythm of the storm outside. Noah closed his eyes.

After a few moments, Callie spoke again, her voice soft and tentative.

“Did your relationship with Alicia have something to do with it?”

“That and other things. The reality is Lena and I shouldn’t have ever gotten married. We were young and naive. At least I was. But everything in hindsight, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do you want to meet someone?” Noah asked, shifting the topic away from him.