After wandering aimlessly at first, Noah and I dipped in for lunch at a rustic little place called Handlebars, where there weren’t just bearskins and antlers on the walls, but actual animal heads, which should have been creepy but totally fit the vibe.
Afterward, we poked into a rock shop, an antique store and a place that sold homemade fudge. But it was the old-time photo studio tucked between a saloon-themed bar and a souvenir shop that caught my eye.
“Wouldn’t that make a fun keepsake?” I said, mostly to myself.
Noah looked at me like he was checking to see if I was serious. And once he realized I was, he didn’t hesitate—he just took my hand and dragged me inside.
I ended up in a corseted barmaid’s getup—black lace, deep red satin, a skirt with ruffled tiers, and fishnet stockings that made me blush when I caught my reflection. They even gave me a feathered hairpiece and a pair of dainty lace gloves. I looked like trouble. And for the first time in ages, I kind of felt like it.
Noah, on the other hand, had been outfitted as a rugged outlaw—white button-up rolled to the elbows, suspenders slung low, a battered hat tipped just right, and a toy pistol holstered at his hip. It was all too easy to picture him leaning against a saloon post, eyes narrowed, hand twitching toward that gun.
When the photographer assumed we were a couple, Noah glanced at me.
Neither of us corrected him.
What I hadn’t expected was how intimate the shoot would be. Every pose had some variation of his arm around me, my hand on his chest, his face angled close to mine. In one shot, the photographer had me perch my foot in Noah's lap, letting my skirts fall away, placing Noah’s mouth dangerously close to my garters…
But we hadn’t kissed again.
Yet?
I’d had to keep reminding myself that this didn’t mean anything. That we might be blurring the lines, but we were both on vacation.
This was what it felt like to have fun!
Only…
Looking at those pictures later, in the privacy of my hotel room, I could see how real the heat had been between us.
I could see it in my face.
I dropped onto the bed, spread the photos around me, and then went to work texting one of the digital images, along with a few selfies of me and Noah, to my sister.
I wasn’t surprised when the phone immediately buzzed in my hand.
“Hey?” I answered, because yeah, I was practically bursting to chat about today with my sister, but I was also risking an earful of disapproval.
“This is the owner of the coat?” she asked. No hello. No are you having fun? No Blakey and Maxwell miss you so much!
But I was smiling. “Yeah. And yes, I’m totally crushing on him!”
“Crushing? Is that what this is?” Ashley laughed, but then she fell kinda quiet. “You sound…good.”
I just nodded. “I am.” But even though I’d intended to tell her about the kiss under the waterfall, and the moments in his room the night before, I was suddenly afraid of putting all that out there…
Like I’d be jinxing myself.
“The boys just went down for bed, so tell me everything!” It was weird, having my sister’s full attention like this. She was a mom and a wife. And someone always seemed to be needing something from her.
“What about Beckett?” I toed off my sandals and leaned back, getting more comfortable.
“He’s…working late again.” Something in her voice had me frowning.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Mom’s good. The boys are good. I picked up a new client today. But I want to hear about you. Have you…?” She lowered her voice, and I could imagine her glancing around to be sure the twins hadn’t snuck out of bed. “Slept with him?”
“He kissed me,” I said. But before she could get the wrong idea, I rushed to add, “But we decided not to take things any further. He knows about the broken engagement, and he’s…working through some issues with his job at home. So… yeah. No.”
