More, I’m head-to-toe confused, with a cherry on top.
Because it sounds an awful lot like my mom thinksshe’s the fixer.
Chapter Thirty-One
After the heated discussion at the open house, Wanda let me know she and Rita were ushering my mom and my grandma home so I could wrap up the event and spend a couple of hours with Noah.
“I suggest you take ’em, hon. You’ve worked nonstop these past two weeks, so you owe it to us, as well as yourself.” She softened her bossiness with a wink, a trick I was going to have to learn and use. “I’ve got Diane and Mt. Saint Helens, don’t you worry.”
At the beginning of my time at Lakeview, I would’ve still played martyr, rushing home to help as fast as I could. Tired, mentally exhausted, and in desperate need of getting my hands and lips on Noah, I didn’t bother claiming that wasn’t necessary—I wouldn’t want to lie to one of my grandmas, after all.
Noah slows the truck emblazoned with his company name, glancing over his shoulder before turning down a winding lane, and my pulse beats wildly as I drink him in.
When interest in the property grew bigger than Jan could handle—although it was mostly her desire to chat and find future friends combined with her utter disregard for sticking to a schedule—he jumped in and played tour guide to keep things moving.
Same when we were tidying up, me with my awkward finger brace, and him with those impressive arm muscles as I thanked him profusely for his help.
After I locked up, he told me he could take me out, drop me at my grandmother’s, or he could take me home.
“I’ve been out long enough,” I said with a flirty twirl of my hair. “Your place sounds perfect.”
He helped me into his truck, careful to smooth my skirt before closing the door. Too eager to be next to him, I scooted across the bench seat as he rounded the hood, my heart soaring higher once he fired up the engine and draped his arm around me.
But now we’re pulling up to his house, and my intrusive thoughts filter through and make me start second-guessing everything, from the looming situation with my mom to getting in deeper with Noah, and I never even checked with Arlene. “Is your grandma going to be upset about this?”
Noah’s low laugh vibrates across my skin, and he squeezes me tighter, until my side is plastered against his, only one booty cheek on the seat. “For finding me so devilishly handsome? No.”
“For other reasons?” I ask, passing up a perfectly good opportunity to mock his generous ego. “I never asked how she’d feel about us dating.”
Firm fingers coax my chin up, tipping my face to his. “As you’ve lectured me plenty of times, it’s nobody’s business. I think everyone was just surprised I came out on top—nobody more so than the doctor, from the looks of it.”
He’s so grunty about Carlos showing up, which shouldn’t leave me so giddy. “He wasn’t completely blindsided, although probably a little surprised. Not about the grandmas shoving us together—they’ve been doing that since I arrived. He’s a great guy and all, I just…”
Dang, I walked into that one, and this is why I plan out so much of what I say and do. I’m not even sure what Noah and I are, only that around him, my heart speaks louder than my anxieties.
“Fell for me instead,” he says so confidently, and it’s terrifyingly close to true.
How can he be so sure?
Perhaps it’s the way I’ve practically climbed in his lap.
If only our inconvenient attraction didn’t spring a dozen more concerns, all about that hazy, volatile bitch, the future. I’ve nevernotaccomplished what I set out to do, and that’s return to Miami.
But there’s no denying I’m falling, like I tripped off a cliff I didn’t see the edge of until it was too late. I gnaw on my lower lip, afraid of speaking and not speaking what I’m feeling. I meet his steady gaze, laying myself bare as I whisper, “It sorta snuck up on me.”
“Not me. It smacked me in the face that night at the comedy club.” His smile spreads as he lowers his mouth to mine for the lightest brush of a kiss that leaves my lips begging for more. “You’ve been about the only thing on my mind since. Plants and Mia. Playing referee between my grandparents and wondering what Mia’s doing. Mud and Mia, a combination I’m definitely interested in exploring further.”
He holds me close for elongated seconds I wish to burrow inside of and live. With his arms around me, the warmth of his body seeping into mine, it feels like nothing can touch me. He has this mysterious way of sensing what I need, giving it to me so freely.
Rather than looking to me, he’d be the type to fix alongside me, tempting me to want things I gave up finding long ago—a partner, a best friend, a lover, my person.
“Ready?” he asks, dropping his arm from my shoulders to snag hold of my hand. The driver’s side door swings open with a light squeak of hinges, muggy air greeting us immediately.
I’m absolutely ready to get to the lover part with this rugged, ridiculously sexy man who keeps showing up for me. So, giving myself a quick talking-to about not needing to know our entire story to live it, I nod, thinking how proud my grannies would be. They’ve taught me a lot about regrets this summer, and according to the stats, people more often regretted the risks they didn’t take than those they did.
I’m due for a risk, especially one I get to choose for myself.
And before he’s even swept me inside to do deliciously wicked things to me, I already know that missing this night with Noah is something I’d regret forever.
