by Beth Reekles
“Cartoons? You’re kidding me, right?”
I scowled at Noah and made to pick up the remote from the arm of the couch. He snatched it and held it above his head.
“Noah!” I complained, and scrambled up on the sofa, trying to make a grab—but he kept moving it out of my reach, and I ended up falling across him, almost straddling him, our noses very nearly touching. We looked at each other for a long, long moment; I was biding my time, waiting to lunge for the remote again.
Noah reached up with his free hand to brush some hair behind my ear, and his fingertips lingered near the base of my neck. Then—
I shrieked, falling back onto the sofa and trying to scramble away. Noah was too fast, though, and was lying across me, pinning me down, tickling me ruthlessly. I gasped for air, I was laughing so hard. I wriggled, kicked, pushed his hands away. Nothing worked.
I was wriggling so much that I was right on the edge of the sofa, and Noah let the two of us tumble on to the floor with a loud thud.
“Noah!” I shrieked. “Noah, stop it!”
He chuckled, grinning mischievously, a devilish gleam in his electric blue eyes. But then his mom called from down the hallway, “Keep your clothes on!”
We both paused. Sometimes I could see where Lee got it from, when June wasn’t above embarrassing us like that. My cheeks were turning red, I could tell, and Noah bit his lip, holding back a laugh. I swatted his chest while my hand was free, because the look on his face was making me want to burst into giggles too. I bit the inside of my cheeks hard.
“Hey, you guys.”
We both looked over to the doorway, where Rachel had stuck her head in. She gave a small wave, which I would’ve returned if my hands hadn’t been pinned between my chest and Noah’s.
“Hey,” we responded.
I said, “Welcome to the madhouse. Sorry, sorry. Beach house.”
“Rach, come on, my parents want to show you the beach.”
I had never been so glad for Lee’s excitable nature as when he wrapped his arms round Rachel’s waist and pulled her away, out of the house. I heard the back door rattle closed behind them and, through the windows, saw them all heading down toward the beach.
I turned back to Noah, wiggling one of my hands free to run it through his hair, pushing it away from his face.
He shot me one of his rare smiles then. Not his trademark sexy smirk, or even half a smile. It was the one that flashed the dimple in his left cheek and was so infectious that I had to smile back at him, getting that warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach.
“So, tomorrow night.”
“Huh?” Did I miss something?
“I was thinking we could do something tonight,” he said, “but we can’t because we’re all going to this steakhouse, apparently, to welcome Rachel. But we’ll do something tomorrow. Just me and you.”
“Did you have anything in particular in mind?”
He tapped his nose. “I’ve got a few things up my sleeve.”
“It doesn’t involve a monster truck rally, though, right?”
He laughed and tweaked my nose, making me grimace and scrunch up my face. “No, it doesn’t. I know you, Elle. Trust me, you’ll love it. If it goes to plan.”
“To plan?”
He shrugged. “It’s a surprise.”
I groaned, frowning at him. “What’s with you and surprises?” I thought for a moment. “Please tell me you’ve done something unbearably cute and set up another kissing booth so we can, like, re-create all the magic of our first kiss.”
Noah laughed again. “Huh, that would have been an idea. Now I’m feeling like you’re going to be disappointed it’s not that.”
“Can’t you just tell me what we’re doing? It sucks not knowing. I feel like an idiot. I won’t be disappointed if I know what the surprise is. Tell me? Please?”
He grinned impishly, looking startlingly like Lee for a moment. “Now, where’s the fun in that?”
“You just like teasing me like this, don’t you?” I pouted.
“Yup, pretty much.” He dipped his head to give me a quick kiss on the lips before jumping to his feet and offering a hand to help me up. I sighed, still pouting at him, but took his hand and stood up too.
“Are you going to watch the rest of the race with me, Elle?” Noah taunted. I looked from him to the car race still going on the TV and raised my eyebrows as if to say You’re kidding me. Noah laughed and sat back down. I sat right down next to him, snuggling up, and even though I didn’t want to watch the race, I was really, really happy.
* * *
The others weren’t gone long. When they came back, Rachel unpacked a few of her essentials (namely, a swimsuit) and the four of us headed to the beach.
After setting down my towel, I yanked off my T-shirt and stepped out of the shorts I’d put on over my red polka-dot bikini. “I’m going swimming. Anyone else?”
“Um…maybe in ten minutes,” Rachel told me with a bright smile. Her eyes darted over to Lee, and I understood immediately. Right. Alone time. Gotcha.
I didn’t bother looking at Lee or waiting for him to answer. I turned straight to Noah, who was scrolling through his phone. I pulled on his elbow. “Come on. Race you.”
He looked at me with a smirk, one dark eyebrow going up. “Race? What do I get when I win?”
“If you win,” I corrected him pointedly. “Hmm…”
“I’m sure I’ll think of something,” he told me, winking with that cocky arrogance I used to wonder why girls swooned over—it totally worked on me now too. He dropped his phone on his towel and threw his sunglasses down.
“Three,” he said, “two—”
We both took off, kicking up sand, on “two,” like we knew the other would. I was laughing, a massive smile plastered on my face and the sea breeze tangling my hair as I ran. Feet slipping on the dry, fine sand, I felt so childish, racing him down to the water.
I loved it.
And I loved Noah. But, man, I so wanted to beat him right then.
I was pulling ahead; he was about two steps behind me when I dared to glance back at him. The sand was becoming damper and more solid—I could win this race, easy. My feet were almost at the water’s edge now too…
…until Noah breezed past and spun to face me from the water, smirking, the sea around his ankles. I stopped in my tracks at the shore, shocked at losing at the very last second.
“No fair.” I pouted.
He laughed provokingly. “I won fair and square, Shelly,” he said teasingly. “You owe me.”
I took a couple of steps, the water licking my feet. “Ah, but we never agreed on a bet.”
He scoffed, still smirking. “We both know there’s a big fat IOU with your name signed at the bottom,” he teased. “Although we also both knew you were going to lose, so it wasn’t really much of a race.”
“I nearly won.”
“Sure,” he said, in such a way that I started to wonder if he’d let me pull ahead and think I could win.
I felt a scowl tugging at my forehead, but then I smoothed my expression to give him a small, flirty smile. I stepped closer until there was only about an inch of space between us, my arms slipping round his shoulders.
I saw the tiny twitch of his eyebrow going up expectantly, waiting for me to kiss him, and that trademark arrogant smirk of his slipped onto his face again. I went up on my toes, leaning in slowly…
…then shoved him as hard as I could.
It only worked because I managed to catch him so off guard. It was still like pushing a brick wall, though—a brick wall with some seriously hot abs. His eyes widened a little and his mouth formed a tiny circle as he toppled back, off balance, caught totally unaware.
He landed with a massive splash!
The cold water soaked him completely, and I cringed, shriekin
g a little, as it splattered me wet and cold too.
“That,” I told him, “is for throwing me in the pool on our first night here.”
Laughing, Noah pushed himself up and shook the water from his hair.
“Sounds fair.” And he pulled me into a kiss, one that sent sparks through me, giving me that mind-blowing fireworks feeling.
Chapter 6
I’d been nervous at dinner on my first night—which turned out to have been silly. But on Rachel’s first night with us, there was definitely a shift in the atmosphere. I’d panicked that I’d thrown it all off balance by becoming Noah’s girlfriend. But it wasn’t me who’d made things feel so different: it was Rachel. Tonight, it felt much more like I was going to dinner with everyone as Noah’s girlfriend—not as practically part of the family.
Rachel and I were both trying to fit in front of the mirror in the bathroom to do our hair and makeup. I put on the yellow sundress I’d brought, and threw on some gold jewelry too, at Rachel’s suggestion. I’d not thought to bring any with me, but she gushed about how pretty I looked in the dress and offered me a selection of necklaces to go with it.
The weirdness hit me again when we got ready to leave for the steakhouse and I made straight for the passenger side of Lee’s car.
“Oh,” he said. “Um.”
“What’s up?”
“Elle,” Noah called, “why don’t you come ride with us?”
I looked over at him, kind of baffled, because when had I ever not gone with Lee when the option was available? But then I noticed Rachel, clutching her purse and smiling awkwardly at me, and I got it. I brushed it off with an easy smile, saying, “Sure!”—but it didn’t stop me from feeling like a stone had settled in the pit of my stomach.
When we got to the steakhouse and were seated, I ended up next to Rachel, with the boys opposite us. June and Matthew sat on the end by Lee and Rachel, so they’d bear the brunt of the conversation. I was kind of glad. I still felt thrown by the whole situation with the cars earlier.
Even after we’d sat down, though, it was different. Noah’s leg was pressed against mine under the table, and every so often he’d reach across to do something like brush a strand of hair off my face or trace patterns on the back of my hand. He didn’t usually do stuff like that around his family. Neither of us did. Even when the food came, and conversation lulled, there were moments when I’d look up because I felt him watching me—and he’d have this warm, intense look in his bright blue eyes. I had to gaze back down at my plate, poking my food around with a fork, trying not to blush.
Tonight was different, but I tried to tell myself that didn’t have to be a bad thing. We were all having a good time. Everything was fine.
And everything was going fine, until we’d ordered dessert.
“Oh, hey!” Rachel said all of a sudden. “I never said congrats on getting into Harvard, Flynn. That’s so fantastic!”
Noah shifted ever so slightly. I only knew because I felt his knee bump against mine, but it was almost an imperceptible motion. “Thanks. We’re checking out the campus in a couple of days.”
“Didn’t your cousin work at Harvard?” Lee said.
Rachel nodded. “Yeah! He loved it there. He was just working in one of the dorms for a while, but he said everyone was really great, and the campus was really nice.”
Noah nodded. It was the indifferent, uninterested nod that was so typically Flynn—the badass persona Noah put out to everyone at school. I poked him with my foot below the table.
His dad seemed to notice that Noah had gone quiet and said, “It’s an amazing opportunity.”
“Exactly,” I added hastily, hoping my voice sounded reassuring. “You’d have to be crazy to pass it up.”
Noah just looked at me.
Despite June talking to me about Noah going to Harvard at the end of the summer, I deliberately hadn’t brought it up with him yet. We’d been having such fun, and it wasn’t exactly like we’d had much time alone to talk about it.
I got the feeling from the look he gave me then that we really, really did need to talk about it.
I stole a glance at Lee, tearing my eyes from Noah’s impenetrable gaze. My best friend shot me a sympathetic smile. I wished again that Noah were as easy to read as his brother.
“Lemon sorbet?” the waiter said, suddenly appearing with armfuls of carefully balanced plates.
“That’s me.” Rachel put up her hand a little.
I looked at Noah again as desserts were handed out. I felt like I had to say something to break the tension between us.
In the end, I settled for “How’s the food? It looks good. I should’ve ordered something.”
“Here.” A fork was suddenly pushed right in front of my face, a lump of cheesecake and gooey, delicious raspberry sauce on the end of it. “See for yourself.”
I raised my eyebrows slightly at Noah, who was giving me a tiny smirk, one that tugged at the corners of his mouth, acting normal and ignoring the awkward atmosphere left by the college talk. I felt my cheeks warm up but leaned in to take the bite.
I made an appreciative noise—the kind you make when food is melt-in-your-mouth, oh-my-gosh delicious, which made Noah grin at me. I swallowed and bit back a laugh. My eyes crinkled with a suppressed smile.
Then Lee said, “Ew, cooties,” and I burst out laughing, the others chuckling along with me. Forgetting the twist in my gut at the prospect of Noah and I breaking up in just a matter of weeks when he left, and the awkwardness that had been thick in the air before, I just enjoyed myself. Noah held my gaze with that intense look, a sparkle of amusement in his eyes and a mischievous quality to his smile. Even if I did have only a few more weeks with him, I knew I was lucky to have that much.
* * *
I tidied up a few of my things, like dirty laundry and tossed-aside sandals, as Rachel was unpacking the rest of her stuff on the other side of the bedroom. She was telling me how excited she was about the next few days, and about spending some quality time with Lee and his family.
“I wouldn’t bank on quality time with Lee,” I warned her with a laugh. “That’s pretty hard to come by here, with everyone around.”
“Guessing you’re speaking from experience, there.”
“Yup. I don’t think Noah and I have had more than, like, five minutes alone yet.”
A knock on the bathroom door cut our conversation short.
“You ladies decent?” Lee’s hushed voice was muffled by the door; it was kind of hard to hear him. I rolled to the other side of my bed and leaned over to open the door.
“Now you’re all polite because your girlfriend’s here.”
Lee just grinned. “But you know you don’t really count as a girl, Shelly.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What’s up? Did you leave something in here, or are you just missing our room so much already?”
“Our room?” Rachel echoed. We both looked over to see her blinking at us, confusion all over her face. “Did you guys…I thought you and Noah shared this room?”
Lee laughed, reaching over to ruffle my hair. “As if. Nah, me and Elle have always shared. Noah got his own room, since he’s the oldest.”
“Oh. Oh, right. Sure.”
Rachel’s usually bright smile seemed stiff, and she quickly turned back to plugging in her phone charger. I shot Lee a look. Hadn’t he mentioned, when he told her about the beach house, that we shared a room?
Not that it had ever mattered to us, but…Well, I could see how someone like his girlfriend might find it weird.
“I’m so glad to have a different roommate for once,” I told Rachel, trying to lighten the mood. “Someone who’s, like, actually tidy. And doesn’t snore.”
“Speak for yourself,” Lee told me. “Anyway. I didn’t come here to be insulted.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I came be
cause we’re switching rooms.”
“Huh?” Rachel and I shared a look of confusion.
Lee rolled his eyes at me. “Just get in there”—he jerked a thumb over his shoulder—“for, like, an hour or something. I want to spend some alone time with my girlfriend, if you don’t mind.”
I grinned, biting back a laugh. “A connecting bathroom between you guys and us girls isn’t exactly the best way for your parents to keep us separated, I guess.”
“What they don’t know won’t hurt them. We’ll switch back in a bit. Now shoo.” Well, I didn’t need to be told twice. Lee called quietly after me just before I disappeared into the bathroom, “No hanky-panky, Shelly! These walls are thin.”
I snorted, and Rachel questioned, “Hanky-panky, Lee? Seriously?”
I paused before I went into Noah’s room, remembering I was in my pajamas. I didn’t care so much that I had no makeup on; the past few days I hadn’t bothered wearing any, since we’d been down at the beach. But the threadbare gray shorts and the shapeless navy tank top that fit me like a sack weren’t exactly the kind of thing I wanted my boyfriend to see me in.
I looked at myself in the mirror for a moment, then muttered, “Whatever.” Noah had seen me in a worse state than this: he’d held my hair back for me when I got too drunk at a party and puked my guts into a toilet bowl. Compared to that, old pajamas were glamorous. When I yanked open the door to Noah’s bedroom, though, I saw I didn’t need to worry. The room was almost pitch-black, so I could barely even make out the bed. I threw a hand to the wall, finding it after a few moments, and started walking forward tentatively, my other arm feeling around in front of me.
“Noah?” I whispered. I was afraid to talk too loudly in case we were all caught out.
“Polo,” he whispered back, chuckling under his breath. “And you’re supposed to say ‘Marco,’ you know.”
I scowled slightly. “Couldn’t you have put the light on? I can’t s—”