My stomach sank. “I think I know where this is going.”
“Yeah. Long story short, Poosh is an asshole, and if you ever asked me something, I have no idea what it was.” He pulled his lips into a thin line. “My phone is a fucking doorstop. I went by the store this morning, but they said it’s going to take a couple days to get my number transferred to the new SIM card. I don’t have your number, and I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you.”
“Little bit late,” I admitted. “I’ve been cursing you all morning and coming up with ways to torture you.”
He nodded slowly. “I figured you’d say that.” He smirked. “I wasn’t. I had no way of getting hold of you, and I don’t even know your last name to look you up on Facebook.”
“I’m barely there anyway.” I leaned against the table. “At least I can stop fictionally murdering you now.”
“I appreciate that.”
I grinned. “So you came all this way to find out what I wanted last night?”
“Pretty much. I also never found out who Polly is, and it’s been pissing me off.”
“She was the nine-one-one operator I spoke to when I was in the fire.”
“Thank God for that. I once dated a Polly in Maine and I was beginning to think you’d tracked her down.”
“I’m not that crazy, Noah.”
It was his turn to grin. “What did you want to ask me?”
Oh, shit.
I had to do it face to face.
I wasn’t prepared for this.
My cheeks flushed with warmth. “Um—okay.” I made sure not to look at him while I said it. “When I was in the fire, I told myself that if I got out alive, I’d find out where you lived and if it was close enough, I’d ask you out.”
Even though I was staring at the calendar that was just above his shoulder, I still caught the way his lips pulled into a stupidly sexy grin.
“You did, huh?” Noah pulled his hands from his pockets and folded his arms over his chest.
He did it deliberately. It made his biceps look good.
This wasn’t fair.
“Um, yes.” I cleared my throat.
“And were you going to ask me out last night?”
I nodded.
“Well, this is fun.”
I glared at him. Laughter danced in his bright green eyes. He was enjoying this way too much for my liking—mostly because I was hating every second.
I wasn’t a nervous person by nature, but there was something about him that made butterflies erupt in my stomach. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I knew it was a dangerous thing.
“Have you changed your mind?”
“About what?”
“Asking me out. You said you were going to, but I don’t hear it.”
I opened my mouth but again, nothing came out. Instead, I blushed furiously. Seriously, you could fry eggs on my cheeks. They’d probably come with a taste of face powder, but my cheeks were hot enough to cook them for sure.
Noah grinned and, dropping his arms and came over to me. “Look, I’ll make this easy on you. I have to be at work in” —he checked his watch— “twenty minutes. I don’t have time for you to stand here like an embarrassed goldfish, opening and closing your mouth every two seconds.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
He stopped only a few inches from me and cupped my chin, placing his thumb so that the tip of it brushed the curve of my lower lip. His gaze dropped to my mouth for a second, making my heart beat a little faster. “Reagan, I’d love to go out with you. I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow. Pick somewhere to eat and let me know, okay?”
I swallowed. “I don’t have your number.”
“Right.” His lips pulled to the side. “What’s yours?”
Reluctantly, I pulled myself away from the warmth of his hand on my chin and grabbed a pen and paper to scribble it down, then tore off the corner and gave it to him. “Don’t lose it,” I said, looking him in the eye.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He leaned in and, right before he plucked the torn paper from my hand, he brushed his lips over my cheek.
A shiver tickled down my spine at the brief touch. I fought against it—I didn’t need him knowing how much one tiny kiss had affected me.
“I’ll talk to you later,” he said, giving me one last flash of a smile before he turned around and left.
It felt as though he’d taken all the air in the room with him, because the moment his steps fell out of earshot, I gasped in a huge breath and sat my ass down on the nearest chair.
Which happened to be the floor.
I blew out the breath and, cupping my hands over my face, let out a long shudder to realign whatever that shiver had knocked out of place.
Because it’d done something. I could tell you that. Couldn’t tell you what, but it’d done something.
Who knew a kiss on the cheek could send a girl crazy?
***
“You have to help me!” I begged, pacing back and forth across my room. “I have no clothes for a dinner date!”
“Okay,” Ava said, the line cracking when she breathed out. “Where are you going?”
“Mario’s,” I said, referring to the Italian place on the edge of town. Noah hadn’t seen the beach yet, and even though Creek Falls Cove technically wasn’t inside the town lines, it was close enough. Mario’s was only a two or three minute walk from the access path.
“Are you going to the beach after?”
Sitting on the bed, I finally loosened my grip on the phone I had plastered to the side of my face. “Yes. So I need to be smart but casual. This is an actual date, Ava, and I have nothing to wear!”
Yep. It was the latest inconvenience of the fire. Perhaps the most petty one yet, but an inconvenience was an inconvenience, after all.
Talk about first world problems.
“When are you going?”
“He’s picking me up in an hour.”
“Jesus fucking Christ!” There was a crash on Ava’s side. “And you’re just now telling me? What are you, Cinderella?”
“I forgot!” I flopped back on the bed with a whine. “I autopiloted! Ava! I’m fucked!”
“No. It’s fine. We got this. Okay.” It sounded like she was pumping herself up for a triathlon or something. “We can do this, Reagan!”
“Are you convincing yourself or me?”
“Both of us.”
“It’s not working, Ava.”
“I know. Give me fifteen minutes. I’ll show up with a haul full of dresses and shoes.” She hung up before I could say anything else.
At least we were the same shoe size.
Oh, God, I was going to throw up.
I dropped my phone and got up to pace once again. What the hell was it about Noah that made me feel like this? It was as if I was going to explode. I could barely keep myself together, and I was still wearing my ratty old bathrobe that was covered with faded Superman logos. It was all I had here and honestly, I was more shocked that this hadn’t been thrown out.
Okay. That was better.
Focusing on all the things that were weird about the fact none of my high school clothes had been thrown—