It felt good.
She felt good.
And for the first time in a long while, I didn’t feel like I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I wasn’t bracing for someone to leave. I wasn’t counting the hours till they did.
I was just…here.
With her.
Eventually, she sighed and stretched, pressing a kiss just over my heart. “Okay,” she said. “We should get up before I decide I never want to leave this bed again.”
“Would that be so bad?”
“Yes,” she said quickly, but she didn’t move.
I waited. Then: “You sure?”
Noelle lifted her head. “Don’t tempt me.”
I tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, let my thumb brush the edge of her jaw. “You tempt easy?”
Her eyes met mine. “With you? Yeah. Unfortunately.”
There was a pause—quiet, steady, maybe even a little dangerous. And I felt it then, even stronger than before.
She was already staying. She didn’t want to admit it yet. Might not even realize it herself. But I saw it in the way her body curled into mine. In the way she didn’t rush to put clothes on. In the way her eyes lingered on my mouth like she hadn’t gotten her fill.
She wasn’t done here.
Not with me.
Not with this town.
Not yet.
CHAPTER 10
Noelle
“Wait a fucking second—you’re staying?”
I held the phone away from my ear as my co-host Shane’s volume increased on the other line. He was understandably shocked…and more than a little annoyed that I’d ghosted him in Atlanta.
“Yeah,” I said. “I just…I think there’s a story here.”
He harrumphed, and I couldfeelhim roll his eyes. “Is that story six foot three and muscular?”
I didn’t dignify that with a response.
“Well?” he pushed. “Is it?”
I exhaled and slumped back against the porch swing at Mabel’s, pulling my legs up under me. Beau was in the restaurant, giving me space to take my call while he made smalltalk with some tourists from up north—but I wanted nothing more than to go back in.
Not to listen to the conversation, just…
…just to be with him.
Damn it.
