“Exactly,” Noah said. “Contradiction keeps me interesting.”
“Mission accomplished,” Eli murmured.
Noah shrugged. “I like quiet fresh starts, not loud ones.”
Eli’s chest did that thing again, a tug, like a string pulling from somewhere behind his ribs.
He liked that answerwaytoo much.
There was noise all around them: volunteers arguing about the correct height for the garland, a kid dropping a box of ornaments with a crash, and someone wolf-whistling at the Mariah key change, but it all felt oddly far away. Eli’s focus narrowed to a pair of blue-gray eyes, and the steam curling up between him and their owner.
His heart thumped, heavy and clear.
Noah glanced down first, taking a quick sip of cocoa as though he needed something to do with his mouth. “We should probably finish the window before Gloria comes back to inspect it. She terrifies me.”
“Which one is Gloria?” Eli asked.
“The Garland Task Force commander,” Noah said. “You met her. Gray cardigan, eyes of judgment.”
“Oh,her.” Eli gave an exaggerated shiver. “Yeah, she scares me too.”
They got back to work, but the air between them had shifted. Now it was charged, a little sharper. Every time their shoulders brushed, Eli felt it. Every time Noah reached past him for a hook or a strand of ribbon, Eli was acutely aware of how close they were. Noah didn’t touch Eli. He didn’t need to.
Eli felt the heat of him anyway, warm, alive, and right beside him.
He forced himself to breathe evenly.
This is fine.
This is completely normal behavior around a former-probably-crush who doesn’t know he used to be a drawing secret.
By the time they’d almost finished, the community center looked like a midway point between chaos and magic, with twinkle lights glowing, wreaths hung, and the stage halfway transformed.
“You need to come back and do more of this. You’re good at it,” Noah said with a smile.
“At following instructions?”
“At…this.” Noah gestured at the chaos. “People. Projects. Not freaking out when Gloria starts talking about ‘aesthetic integrity.’”
“That was terrifying,” Eli said. “She had a stapler.”
“Exactly,” Noah said. “And you didn’t run.”
“You told me not to, remember?”
Noah smiled. “And you listened.”
Eli didn’t know what to do with how that made him feel. He was aware of warmth. Noah’s words steadied him.
Most of all, Eli feltwanted.
“This place is growing on me,” he admitted quietly.
“Mapleford does that,” Noah said. “It sneaks up on you.”
“And you?” Eli asked before thinking. “Doyousneak up on people too?”
Noah blinked, and then the slowest, sweetest smile stretched his mouth.
