“Definitely not a mistake,” he whispered.
Even if it was, it was the best mistake I ever made.
Much later—both of us undressed again, sweaty, and me pretty boneless—I thought we’d sleep.
Instead, we talked.
About our best memories from high school—and our worst. First kisses. First cars. First jobs…
Our best meals. His unfortunate habit of biting pens and mine of biting my nails when I got stressed.
He told me he briefly considered quitting med school to be a travel photographer.
I told him I once submitted a photo of my grandma’s lasagna to Food & Wine under a fake name.
We curled toward each other on the bed, legs tangled, fries forgotten, a movie playing in the background.
I didn’t even remember falling asleep.
So, when morning finally came, I wasn’t ready for it.
But the gorgeous man staring down at me? Entirely too cheerful for such an early hour. Of course, he was already showered, dressed, and fully functioning.
“Rise and shine, Faraday.”
I winced as he opened the drapes, sunlight spilling across the bed. “How do you look so cheerful on practically no sleep?”
“Practice,” he said, flashing that maddening grin. “Years of it.”
Right. Emergency room shifts. The kind where forty-eight hours without sleep was practically routine for him.
I groaned and flopped back against the pillows. “Coffee. I need coffee.”
“Already on it.” He handed me a large cardboard cup, and I took a moment just to breathe in the smell of cheap hotel coffee before taking a sip. It had the perfect balance of cream and sugar, exactly how I liked it. Noah remembered. And honestly, that might’ve done more to wake me up than the caffeine itself.
“I don’t think the bus is leaving until ten,” I said, hoping we had a few hours to ease into the day.
“We’re not meeting the bus this morning.” His eyes gleamed, a little too pleased with himself. “I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?” I couldn’t hide the doubt in my voice, which, of course, he picked up on.
“Only if you want to.”
I took another sip of that exquisite coffee and then nodded. There were just a few more days on this trip, and I suddenly didn’t want to waste a single minute.
“All right then. What should I wear?”
STILL NOT SCARED
“And Tay isn’t mad?”
It felt weird ditching everyone on the bus—like we were breaking some unspoken tour rule and definitely risking detention.
“Not exactly.” Noah gave a half-smile, his eyes gleaming. “She may have said something along the lines of how dare we abandon her, but then she gave us her blessing, as long as we meet up with the group at the West Rim Hotel tonight.”
And even though I should have felt worse about sneaking off, I didn’t. I mean, how could I? Sitting on this shuttle, driving toward a destination unknown, with Noah’s gaze on me, hot, heavy, and…full of promise.
I laughed, the sound bubbling up before I could stop it.
