I shook my head and would have crawled back into bed if it weren’t for Noah’s hand on mine. I couldn’t lose the feel of his skin. The safety of his touch.
“Please. Just trust me, okay?”
For some reason, I pictured us under the stars. Him kissing me as we sat on the dock above the dark water. I would sooner him ask that I jump in and never come back up.
“Okay.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I STAREDat the two wigs laid out on the hotel bedspread. Harper emerged from her place under the covers to sniff them.
He had to be kidding. It was a truly horrible joke. Granted, I hadn’t noticed Noah had a poor sense of humor, but maybe I’d been blinded by the great sex. Now that we hadn’t slept together again for a bit, I was seeing his humor for what it really was.
“I got these too.” I looked up at the sound of his voice, seeing him hold out two pairs of glasses. One with thick, dark rims, the other with wire-and-tortoiseshell frames. “I thought the black ones would go well with the dark wig. The wire with the red one.”
“You’re serious? I mean, you can’t be, but you are.”
Noah’s grin was hesitant. “Yeah. I’m serious. You need to be out and about in a place you love, and you need to feel safe doing it.”
I picked up the auburn wig, which was short enough for a typical man’s haircut, but long enough to have a bit of curl to it. “And no one is supposed to be able to recognize us in bad hair and fake glasses? Just because it worked for Superman, doesn’t mean it will in real life.”
“Yes, it will. Despite how you feel, you’re not as famous as Superman. I bet you could walk around as yourself for a little bit before someone notices. And with these, no one will. Plus Superman didn’t have a wig.”
“Why didn’t you go all the way and get women’s wigs? I could have gone full drag.”
He sniggered. “Randall, the idea is to blend in. And as pretty as you are, you would make one hideous woman, and people would definitely be staring.”
I glared at him. “And two wigs? Am I supposed to switch halfway through the day, throw people off?”
“No. Whichever one you don’t want is for me.”
“Why? People aren’t going to recognize you.” I grimaced at my stupid comment that showed how self-absorbed I really was. He was nearly as likely to be recognized as me.
If my words bothered him, Noah didn’t let on. “It will be fun. We’ll do it together. It will be like we’re playing dress-up.”
“We are playing dress-up.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You know what I mean. Now, which do you want? Black or redhead?”
“I’m not going to—”
“I thought you said you trusted me.” There was the hurt. Just a touch of it, but enough to pull at my heart.
I let out a frustrated sigh. “I’ll be the redhead. With your tan you’d look ridiculous.”
He grinned. “Great! I was hoping you’d say that. I like these glasses.” He shoved the thick frames on his face.
“Yep. Ridiculous.”
“Whatever. We need some ridiculous. At least in a good way.” Noah tossed me the wire-and-tortoiseshell glasses. “Let’s walk the dogs and then leave them here for a bit. I want breakfast, and you’ve always bragged about the French place.”
“Le Panier?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Whatever it’s called. Let’s just get there.”
BEFORE LONG,after a quick walk with the dogs, Noah and I had waited through the always-long line at Le Panier and were seated at the window where we could watch the tourists walk by.
Though we’d ordered room service the night before, I’d only grazed on my food. However, the familiar smells of the bakery worked their magic. My stomach grumbled before we even got our order. And it looked like Noah’s plan was going to work. No one noticed who we really were. Of course, we’d spent roughly half an hour out in the open, so maybe it was too soon to judge.
