I want to see him naked. I want to know if he has any tattoos, and if the golden hair on his arms and legs extends to his chest. I want to feel his bare skin against mine. I want to know what his?—
“Dinner!” someone bellows from the direction of the house. “The vultures are already descending!”
A female voice calls out in a slightly softer tone, “I won’t let them eat all the food. We can make up a couple of plates for later.”
Webb drags his mouth from mine. While I try to catch my breath, he brushes his thumb across my lower lip. “Noelle.” His voice is husky.Needy.
“I liked it,” I blurt. “And it wasn’t too fast.”
A slow smile curves his lips. “I liked it too.” Then he kisses me again, but it’s quick. Tender. Not a repeat of our first kiss, but a promise for later. “A lot. And I can’t wait to do it again.”
I lean against him, tucking my head under his chin. His heart is beating so hard I can feel it. “I can’t wait, either.”
CHAPTER 7
WEBB
“You know,that’s not how the story actually ends.”
Noelle turns away from the movie screen to look at me. “I insisted on reading the book after seeing the movie,” she continues. “In hindsight, maybe I should have waited until I was older. Because the way the actual story ended was kind of upsetting.”
“Upsetting?” I lift my chin at the screen, where the leads are sharing a passionate kiss before riding off into the sunset. “How so?”
She scoots closer, draping her leg over mine. “It actually ends with a cliffhanger. At the end, the narrator explains all these terrible things still in store for the protagonists. So you don’t really know if they find their happy ending or not.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s like some of the old fairy tales that got turned into movies. The actual tale is much more gruesome. Like—” She casts a quick glance at the dozen or so moviegoers sitting on picnic blankets around us, then whispers, “In one of the old fairytales, the evil stepsisters chop off their toes to try to fit their feet into the glass slipper.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. My dad warned me before I read it, but I was insistent.” She gives a little shrug. “That’s when I first learned that the book usuallyisn’tthe same as the movie.”
Noelle shivers as the evening breeze picks up, so I loop my arm around her shoulders and pull her against me. “Not usually,” I agree. “I lovedThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxywhen I read it in middle school. And I was so excited to see the movie. But it wasn’t the same.”
“Nope. I guess part of it comes from trying to condense a full-length novel into an hour and a half movie.” She looks up at the large, inflatable screen, where the credits are now rolling. “I always try to watch some of the credits. Not that I worked in movies, but I appreciate how much work is done behind the scenes. And no one ever watches the credits, you know?”
As evidenced from all the couples and families gathering up their things, I’d say she’s right. While the movie was playing, there had to be at least fifty people gathered in the town park to watch the weekly summer movie feature. But now that the movie’s technically over, Noelle and I are one of only a handful of couples still sitting.
Personally, I’m in no hurry to leave. Leaving means putting an end to another great date, which I’d rather not do. So while everyone else is gathering up their blankets and coolers and travel chairs, I keep my focus on Noelle.
“I never thought about it that way,” I tell her. “With the credits, I mean. I’ve always just left if I’m in a theater, or turned the movie off if I’m at home. Now, I feel kind of guilty.”
“Oh, no, don’t feel guilty,” Noelle replies quickly. “If you don’t work in the entertainment industry, there’s no reason tothink about it like that. And anyway—” She nudges me with her elbow and smiles. “It’s not likemyname is up there.”
“If your name was up there, I’d watch the credits a dozen times.”
“Webb.”
“What? I would.”
Her expression softens. Then she kisses me lightly on the lips. “I’m really glad you came into the diner. Have I mentioned that before?”
I brush a loose strand of hair away from her face and tuck it behind her ear. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, I am.” As the projector shuts off, her features are cast into shadow. “To be honest, when I moved here, dating was the last thing on my mind. But after meeting you, it was hard not to think about it.”
“What changed your mind?”
