“Tell them to take you first.” He burst out laughing again and I hit him on the shoulder. It was like hitting concrete.
“Ow!” I winced, pulling my hand away.
“Sorry.” He took my hand and looked at it in a way that made my fingers feel like they were on fire.
“You have very big muscles,” I heard myself say without thinking, and then, because it was such an odd thing to say, I started to laugh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. But they are very big! And hard.”
Noah smiled at me, but this time the smile seemed different and it stopped my laughter immediately. “What?”
“I’m having fun,” he suddenly said, and it caught me off guard.
“Me too.”
“I haven’t had fun in a while,” he continued.
“Well, I don’t think I’ve had fun in at least seven years, or so it seems.”
“Maybe you broke a mirror seven years ago and you’re finally coming out of it.”
“What?”
“Seven years’ bad luck?” He raised his brows at me.
I shook my head.
“It’s this thing my gran said to me when I was small. If you break a mirror, you get seven years’ bad luck.”
“That’s awful!” I said.
“But I’ve never broken a mirror. I always handle them with extra care.”
“Huh?” I thought about it for a while. I kind of liked that thought. That maybe I had done something like that, and now, I was finally coming out of it. I smiled at Noah and suddenly wanted to lean in and kiss him on the cheek. But I didn’t.
“Goodnight, Noah,” I said, and turned again.
I felt him move again and, this time, I didn’t try and pull my body away. Instead, I just let it settle where it was, leaning against his big back, and it felt good.
“Night, Zoe.”
God, I loved it when he called me by that name.
CHAPTER 47
“Here we go.” Mienkie passed us two brown paper packets through the car window.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Padkos,” she replied.
“Food for the road,” I repeated, translating the Afrikaans into English. I peered inside one of the bags and saw a sandwich, a juice box and some chocolates and biscuits. I smiled up at her and Tiaan, feeling like we were their kids, going off to school with a thoughtfully packed school lunch. “Thank you so much for your hospitality.”
“And for not killing you,” Tiaan joked, and we all laughed.
“Especially for that!” I said.
“We’re going to miss you. If you are ever in the area again, you must pop in.”
“We definitely will,” Noah said as he started the car.
