Evie smiled shyly for a second time and buried her face into her father's neck. Noah, in turn, raised his eyebrows, amused by the total change in attitude. The girl mumbled something. Ruby scampered by with a bag of potato chips. (Good. She was alive then.) Moving his eyes from his daughter's tutu to Cait's face, he gave the usual smirk.
Realizing that he wasn't about to get out of the store soon enough to smoke the cigarette he'd withdrawn, he pulled the thing from his mouth and handed it to Evie. She held onto it tightly. "Don't crush it. I don't want to have to tell Mommy I had to leave you at the store. She'd be sad, you know." Again, he moved his attention back to this hallmark of his past. He wiped a thumb across his lips. "Does your subconscious think it necessary to forget all or only some of the people you've slept with? My own is partial to the 'some.'"