Page 67 of Small Town Boy

I break our kiss, pulling back, my eyes going wide. Worry flashes through me. Noel simply glares back.

“Wrong Keller twin.”

“No, I know. Trust me, I know the difference between you two.” Because I got the good one… “But, this is his house too. What if he comes home and we’re…”

“He knows that if he’s home before midnight I’ll castrate him.”

Good to know…

“House rules about having a lady friend over?”

“Yup. You’re the first it’s applied to.”

I swoon, loving that I’m the first to be here like this. That I’m the Neil Armstrong of the bachelor pad. Although unlike Neil, part of me is hoping that I’m also going to be the only one. At least where Noel is concerned.

“So what happens if…when…one of you is no longer a bachelor?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

Noel grins, eyes lighting up like he just opened a chocolate bar and found the golden ticket to Wonka’s factory. A shiver runs down my spine, my pulse jumping from his reaction.

“Asking for personal reasons?” He tickles my sides and I squirm in his lap, my core making contact with the hard bulge that’s right there. I gasp, wanting more of that, but he pulls me close and kisses me again. “You mentally redecorating in here?”

“No! No, nothing like that. I’m just curious,” I defend. Shit. “That would be putting the cart before the horse, and I’m not trying to make assumptions⁠—”

He cuts me off with a kiss. Damn, he’s good at that.

“Bronwyn, you can put the cart wherever you want. Front, behind, six miles away. As long as you and I are in it together, I don’t give a damn where it is in relation to the horse.”

Instantly, I melt. If it weren’t for the fact that Noel is still holding me pressed against him, I would be a puddle on the floor. How he knows exactly the right thing to quell my nerves, I’m not sure I will ever understand. But damn it, I like it. No, I think I more than like it.

Just like I more than like him.

We’re just not going to say that part out loud yet.

“To answer your question though, we have a plan. When we decided to buy a house together, we signed an agreement about what happens with, in, to the house should either of us not be bachelors anymore. Do you want to know what that plan is?”

I shake my head. “Maybe someday. Right now I like the cart where it is.”

“Know what I want right now?”

“To teach me how to use a certain stick?”

Noel guffaws, tickling me again. I squeal, shifting in his lap so much I slide off. He doesn’t stop though, tucking me into his side, making sure his fingertips stay on the bare skin from my shirt riding up my torso.

“You know how to use that, Honey. Damn well, I might add. But not where I was going at the moment.”

I wait patiently, staring into his soulful eyes, getting lost in them. They’re deep, just like him, and give away more than his words ever will. Sometimes I think it’s no wonder he’s so quiet. He’s doing all his talking with the way he looks at you.

“Of all the things we’ve talked about, I don’t think I know what your favorite movie is.”

“Really?” I scan my brain. We’ve talked about so much, how was that not one of them? But as I run down our conversations, sure enough, I can’t think of that fun fact coming up. “Oh, well, it’s kind of obscure.”

“Pssh. Try me.”

“Clue.”

19

NOEL