Everyone but me bursts into laughter.
I can’t laugh. I’m too busy aching for him again.
How did he get so under my skin already?
“What are you doing all the way over there? Come sit with us.”
My aunts and cousins scoot their chairs over as my mother gets up and grabs him a chair from a nearby table.
I sit there and stare, unable to move.
Apparently Noah is not as afflicted as I am because he slides out of the booth and onto the chair.
The one my mother had set right next to me.
I’m overwhelmed with the scent of something woodsy and warm. It’s the same scent that surrounded me last night as I fell asleep with a smile on my lips.
I’m scared to look at him, but also scared tonotlook at him.
So I suck it up, and I do.
My breath catches in my throat when I find he’s already staring down at me, his cocoa powder eyes boring into me.
“Odie,” he says, and it’s a damn good thing I’m already sitting down, because if I weren’t, I’d fall right over.
I’ve always hated that nickname, but now? Now I just might love it.
“Noah.”
“Aww,” Aunt Rita says, placing her hand over her heart. “You two look so good together. Don’t they look so good together, Elaine?”
“Oh, hush,” my mother says. “Leave them be. We didn’t invite him over to make the kids uncomfortable.” She points at his chest. “We want to know what’s up with the kitten.”
Only then do I notice what the women were going wild about.
Pork pokes his head out of Noah’s pocket as if on cue, looks right at me, and meows.
I laugh, then run my finger over his head. “Hey there, buddy. You miss me?”
“Wait, you know him already?” Lucille asks.
I just saw him two hours ago,I want to say, but I don’t. Instead, I nod, still petting him. “Yeah, we got acquainted on Friday after Noah here got Peached.”
“Oh no.” My mother giggles. “You poor thing. That woman is always sneaking those cats around. I have no idea where she gets them.”
“I said the same thing, and she said to me,Cats have sex, Noah, and from the sex comes new cats. That’s how the animal kingdom works.” He shakes his head with a laugh, and I want to laugh, too, but I don’t.
I’m too caught up on the wordsex.
Sex, sex, sex.
It’s what I had with Noah last night.
Good sex.Incrediblesex.
My eyes flit to his, and once again he’s already looking my way.
He gives me a soft, secretive smile. I return it with one of my own.
