His laugh was breathy and tired. “At least real me is better than dream me.”
“Luckily for you, or I’d never consider doing it again.” I winked at him and hauled myself up on my elbows.
“You’re considering doing it again? I feel honored,” he said dryly, but he was smiling. “Here’s an idea: stay over, and I’ll let you do it again tomorrow.”
“You’ll let me?”
“I’m generous like that.”
I laughed, dropping my head back. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
He grinned and tapped me on the nose. “You have no idea.”
***
I rolled over, stretching my arms out. It felt good to wake up my muscles this way, and God only knew I needed to wake them up.
I patted around the mattress feeling for Noah. He wasn’t in the bed with me, so I rubbed my eyes and rolled over. Sitting up slowly, I listened for any indication that Noah was in the house.
There was nothing.
Not even a shuffle.
I reached out toward the nightstand and grabbed my phone. The time showed almost nine, and I frowned at the new message icon. There were three unread texts, so I clicked the notification. The first was from my mom, and there was more than one.
MOM: Where r u?????
MOM: Reagan, answer ur phone
MOM: Why aren’t u replying????
MOM: Why aren’t u home????
MOM: What’s going on???
MOM: WHERE R U???????
Whoops. I should have told her I wasn’t coming home. I tapped out a quick reply and told her I’d spent the night at Noah’s and I was sorry for not calling.
Living at home was not working for me.
The next message was from Halley.
HALLEY: Where the fuck are you? Your mom showed up at my house at six a.m. absolutely hysterical. I almost called her an ambulance.
I grimaced and hit reply.
ME: Stayed at Noah’s and forgot to tell her. Sorry.
I sent it and opened the other message—it was from Noah, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I read it.
NOAH: At work. Didn’t want to wake you. Left you the spare key by the kitchen sink so you can lock up if you leave.
NOAH: Not that you have to leave. I finish at one if you want to stay at mine.
NOAH: There’s some female shit in the bathroom from when my mom visited last month. Shampoo and shit. I left you towels just in case.
I smiled. I wasn’t going to stay, but I appreciated the offer. I had to get home to get my ass whooped by my mom for giving her a heart attack. But I would take him up on that shower.
ME: Thanks! My mom is pissed at me for not telling her I was staying out, so I need to go home. Do you want me to hide the key?
My phone beeped that the battery was almost dead. I grimaced and glanced around the room, my eyes falling on a cord on the other side of the bed. I launched myself over with a silent prayer that it would fit my phone and just about peed with happiness when I saw that it did.
I plugged it in and left it on Noah’s pillow before I went in search of his bathroom. It was weird walking around his house totally naked, so I grabbed my boobs with my arm and ran to the nearest door.
It was, thankfully, the bathroom.
I closed the door in case Poosh came up—I didn’t know if she could get her little legs up the stairs, and anyway, I didn’t know if she was a voyeur or not.
I turned on the shower and hunted through the drawers and the cupboard above the sink. I desperately needed to take off my makeup, but the chances that Noah would have anything to remove it with were slim. Still, I was nothing if not determined, and my search paid off with a half-empty packet of wet wipes that weren’t entirely wet anymore.
Between almost all the wipes and a sponge, I managed to get yesterday’s makeup off my face and stepped into the shower. As he’d said, there was shampoo and conditioner on the shelf, and I washed the mess out of my hair.
Thank God I had hair ties in my purse.
When I was done soaking under the hot water, I stepped out and wrapped myself in the towels. I winced a little at the fact they were white. My hair had a tendency to leak a little purple after it’d been washed, especially when the color was fresh like mine was.
Note to self: buy Noah a new towel.
I clutched the towel over my boobs and went back into the bedroom. I wished like hell I’d stuffed a pair of clean panties into my purse, just in case, but Ava had talked me out of it.
I blew out a long breath and sat on the side of the bed Noah had slept on. My phone showed a few new messages again, and I bit the inside of my cheek when I opened the one from my mom.
MOM: OH MY GOD YOU’RE ALIVE
MOM: U can sleep with who u like but just tell me ur out next time!!!!!!!!
Yeah… Thanks, Mom?
ME: I’ll be home soon. Can you or Dad pick me up from Noah’s? It’s the other side of town.
MOM: Ur dad is doing deliveries, he’ll be done in an hour. Text me the address. XOXOX
I did just that with a huge thank you and another apology before I checked Halley’s response.
HALLEY: NOAH’S??? DID YOU SLEEP WITH HIM?
HALLEY: Hahahahaahaha Ava owes me $20
Right.
Of course.
Their bet.
No wonder Ava had talked me out of packing spare panties.
ME: Good, you can buy me a drink with that if you wanna know about it.
What? I wasn’t going to give that information away for free. I moved on to Noah’s reply.
NOAH: Don’t worry about the key. I’ll get it next time I see you.
My lips twitched into a smile. The thought of seeing him again unleashed butterflies in my stomach. It was stupid because we had such a great connection, but if last night had taught me anything, it was that I had feelings for Noah.
Strong, solid feelings.
Ones that I didn’t think were going to go anywhere anytime soon.
Even if they did scare me a little.
Okay, they scared me a lot. He was the kind of guy who could break my heart—and not just break it but decimate it. He was literally my dream guy. He ticked every single box I had and probably some I wasn’t yet aware of.
And he was just so damn perfect for me, and that was definitely a scary thing.
I could see myself falling in love with Noah. If I’d known him any longer than two weeks, I’d say I already was. I didn’t believe you could fall in love quickly, so it really didn’t matter how strong my feelings for him were.
They weren’t love.
Not yet.
One day, but not today.
I put down my phone and went on a hunt for my clothes. Did I have enough time to clean my underwear and dry them off if I put them in the sun? I didn’t really want to put dirty panties on, but I didn’t have much of a choice.
They were all I had, after all.
I located my bra, my dress, and my shoes, but my panties were nowhere to be found. Frowning, I threw my clothes on the bed and got onto the floor. Had they accidentally gone under the bed?
A peek under the frame said no.
They’d disappeared.
How did panties disappear? They didn’t have legs, and as far as I knew, they—
Oh, my God.
I froze.
No, panties didn’t have legs.
But Poosh did.
I scrambled to my feet and ran downstairs. The towel on top of my head fell off halfway down the stairs, but I left it there and went in search of Noah’s dog. She was nowhere to be found in the living room, so I walked through into the kitchen.