Free The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks Page A

ward off the chill. For some reason, as she stood there she was reminded of standing on her front porch after a high school dance, waiting for a kiss.
    “I had a great time tonight,” he said. “Thank you for finding me.”
    “I did, too,” she answered.
    He summoned his courage. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
    A simple question. She knew what the answer should be, especially if she wanted to keep her life simple. “I don’t think we should,” was all she had to say, and it would end right here and now. But for a second she didn’t say anything.
    The demon of choice confronted her then, teased her, challenged her. Why couldn’t she say it? She didn’t know. But as she looked in his eyes to find the answer she needed, she saw the man she’d once fallen in love with, and suddenly it all came clear.
    “I’d like that.”
    Noah was surprised. He hadn’t expected her to answer this way. He wanted to touch her then, to take her in his arms, but he didn’t.
    “Can you be here about noon?”
    “Sure. What do you want to do?”
    “You’ll see,” he answered. “I know just the place to go.”
    “Have I ever been there before?”
    “No, but it’s a special place.”
    “Where is it?”
    “It’s a surprise.”
    “Will I like it?”
    “You’ll love it,” he said.
    She turned away before he could attempt a kiss. She didn’t know if he would try but knew for some reason that if he did, she would have a hard time stopping him. She couldn’t handle that right now, with everything going through her head. She slid behind the wheel, breathing a sigh of relief. He shut the door for her, and she started the engine. As the car idled, she rolled down the window just a bit.
    “See you tomorrow,” she said, her eyes reflecting the moonlight.
    Noah waved as she backed the car out. She turned it around, then drove up the lane, heading toward town. He watched the car until the lights vanished behind far-off oak trees and the engine noise was gone. Clem wandered up to him and he squatted down to pet her, paying special attention to her neck, scratching the spot she couldn’t reach anymore. After he looked up the road one last time, they returned to the back porch side by side.
    He sat in the rocker again, this time alone, trying once again to fathom the evening that had just passed. Thinking about it. Replaying it. Seeing it again. Hearing it again. Running it by in slow motion. He didn’t feel like playing his guitar now, didn’t feel like reading. Didn’t know what he felt.
    “She’s engaged,” he finally whispered, and then was silent for hours, his rocker making the only noise. The night was quiet now, with little activity except for Clem, who visited him occasionally, checking on him as if to ask “Are you all right?”
    And sometime after midnight on that clear October evening, it all rushed inward and Noah was overcome with longing. And if anyone had seen him, they would have seen what looked like an old man, someone who’d aged a lifetime in just a couple of hours. Someone bent over in his rocker with his face in his hands and tears in his eyes.
    He didn’t know how to stop them.

Phone Calls
    L on hung up the phone.
    He had called at seven, then at eight-thirty, and now he checked his watch again. Nine forty-five.
    Where was she?
    He knew she was where she had said she would be because he had spoken to the manager earlier. Yes, she had checked in and he had last seen her around six. Going to dinner, he thought. No, he hadn’t seen her since.
    Lon shook his head and leaned back in his chair. He was the last one in the office, as usual, and everything was quiet. But that was normal with an ongoing trial, even if the trial was going well. Law was his passion, and the late hours alone gave him the opportunity to catch up on his work without interruption.
    He knew he would win the case because he mastered the law and charmed the jury. He always did, and losses were infrequent now. Part of it came from being