“Since this is purely hypothetical,” Noah said, “I’d have to know how you managed to get stranded before I decide if I like you the appropriate amount.”
I sighed and nudged the toes of my white Keds—which were now tinged green—together. “I heard they had some really good coffee over here?”
Noah chuckled. “Well, as long as you aren’t out hunting for innocent pens to gnaw on, I suppose.”
“Hey, that was one time!” I pointed an accusing finger at the ground as my head shot up. “One time.”
“One time too many. What’s the address? I’m heading out the door now.”
I rattled off their address and wrapped a strand of sticky, Jell-O-stained hair around my finger out of habit. “Thank you. Seriously. You rock.”
I winced.
Yourock?
What iswrong with you, Emma?
“Um, and Noah?” I hesitated, a finger pushing gently against my cheek as I tested it for stickiness. “Bring a towel or two? I don’t want to get your car dirty.”
“Emma…” Noah trailed off before letting out a breath. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. I’ll bring towels.”
“Thanks.” I sighed, and a weight lifted from my chest as I flicked a piece of Jell-O off my knee. “You’re the best.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Noah said, and I got a quick goodbye in before he hung up.
* * *
It was a hot, sticky, uneventful wait until I saw Noah’s black Audi pulling around the curb like my knight in shining Armani.
I winced as I approached the rolled-down window of Noah’s passenger door. “Would you believe me if I said this wasn’t just an excuse to see your car again?”
“Considering that would mean you willingly doused yourself in a mysterious green substance, I’d say I believe you,” Noah said before hopping out of his side of the car. He circled the front without taking his eyes off me, and all sorts of questions were brewing in his gaze.
“It’s Jell-O,” I said as he opened my door. Towels covered the front seat, and I felt a smidgen better about asking Noah to bring his fancy car to pick me up. If I stained his car green, I didn’t think any sort of payment plan could help me.
“Of course, it is,” Noah said, as if Jell-O-covered girls asked him for rides home every other day.
I used the tips of my fingers to balance on the towel while crouching into the car. There was nothing ladylike about how I lowered myself onto the seat, but I wasn’t willing to risk ruining his car just to save my modesty.
And if I happened to angle my butt in an eye-pleasing manner while I maneuvered myself through the door—in hopes of Noah possibly checking out how much junk I had in my trunk—then the Jell-O was fully to blame.
Not me.
He propped the door open and looked down at me. “I’m trying not to ask.”
“You’re failing,” I said as I leaned carefully against the towels and let my eyes fall shut in much needed rest. The door closed with aclick, and shortly after that, Noah was sliding into the driver’s seat.
The silence lasted a total of ten seconds as he pulled away from the curb.
“So, was this particularly good coffee you heard about in a residential home?” Noah asked. “And does it explain your current state of… disarray?”
I winced again as I opened my eyes, and I tried to fight off the blush that was rising from my neck. Ireallydidn’t want to share this particular story with Noah. “It’s kind of embarrassing.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
His eyes were still stealing glances at my sticky face, so I heaved a breath and dove right in.
“I was helping to shape young talent when my piano student morphed into a possessed demon child and didthisto me,” I said succinctly before throwing in a careless shrug to drive it home. As if it didn’t bother me that Jell-O was getting into the nooks and crannies of my body.
