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“Preston said he wasn’t sure when, but it was in the plans.”
“Huh. I wonder if Ethan’s coming back, too.”
“Who’s Ethan?”
“Leo’s best friend. Leo’s Ava’s brother.”
“Right. Does it matter?”
I grinned slyly. “Yeah, it does. Ava’s in love with him.”
“With her brother’s best friend?”
“My best friend is dating my brother.”
Noah tilted his head to the side. “Huh. Yeah. You’re right. So Ava’s in love with her brother’s best friend, and I’m guessing he doesn’t know.”
“She won’t even admit it,” I scoffed. “But if they’re coming back to town, I am going to be her worst nightmare.”
“You’re a great friend, aren’t you?”
“I’m just keeping it real.” I turned my attention back to my phone.
ME: Actually, it might be your problem.
HALLEY: Why?
AVA: Why?
ME: Noah just told me that Preston said that Leo is coming back soon. He already has a bromance with Preston which means he’ll have one with Noah if we get together.
HALLEY: Shut up, you’re already together.
AVA: I don’t care if Leo has a bromance with the President. He can bromance who he likes.
ME: You’re forgetting something.
HALLEY: Aaaahahahahahaahahahaha
AVA: What?
ME: If Leo’s coming back, so is Ethan.
AVA: OH BALLS
I burst out laughing.
“What?” Noah craned his neck to see my phone.
I turned it around. “Ava.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Halley thinks we’re together?”
“Seriously? Her dream world is the part of that conversation you want to focus on?”
“Yeah. What did you say before that?”
I tried to move my phone out of his reach, but not only was I backed against the island, he was taller than me. Which meant he had arms that were a lot longer than mine. Which meant he grabbed my phone.
He scrolled, his eyebrows shooting up again.
“Your eyebrows are going to end up stuck to your hairline if you keep raising them like that.” I snatched my phone back before he could stop me.
“It’s you. You make me raise my eyebrows.” He tapped me on the nose. “You think about the possibility of us being together?”
Oh, God.
This was The Talk, wasn’t it? The one two people with a mutual attraction had when they were getting ready to define their relationship.
“Well, I’m standing in your kitchen in one of your old t-shirts after spending two nights in a row with you, so I’m hardly thinking about how to murder you, am I?” I paused. “Actually, hold that thought. I might need to do that if you keep looking at me like that.”
“Looking at you like what?”
“Like you want to have The Talk.”
He gripped the edge of the counter again and leaned forward so that his eyes were eye-level with mine. “Maybe I do want to have The Talk, Reagan. Maybe I have feelings for you, and I want to tell you so we can decide how to move forward.”
Oh, boy.
I swallowed. This was it, wasn’t it? The moment I’d imagined. The one where he told me he felt the same as I did and we could decide what to do about it.
“Well, let’s get this straight right now.” I held up one finger, leaning back. “I’m not walking out of this conversation as your girlfriend. We haven’t known each other long enough to be boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“Completely agree,” Noah said, surprising me. “As far as it goes, we haven’t spent a ton of time together, either. We’ve talked a lot, which counts for something, but we do need to spend more actual person time together.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“Why would I be?”
“Are you reading my mind?”
Noah shook his head. “Reagan, I like you. I really, really fucking like you, and I want to see where things go between us. That doesn’t mean I want to rush into putting a label on anything until we know each other better.”
Well, shit.
A decent guy who agreed with me and didn’t want to rush anything.
“Oh.” I cleared my throat. “Okay. Then in the interest of full disclosure, I happen to really, really fucking like you, too.”
“You say it so romantically.”
“I said it the exact same way you did.”
Noah winked. He straightened, taking a step closer to me, and wrapped one arm around my waist. “We’ve only known each other for, what? A couple of weeks?”
I curled my lips to one side. “Why don’t you check the data on that pretty dick pic you sent me? That’ll tell you.”
He slowly shook his head. “Be serious.”
“I can’t. It’s not in my nature.”
“Reagan…”
“Fine.” I met his eyes. “I really like you, okay? But I’m not going to label anything with you right now. We don’t even know if we’ll fit into each other’s lives. I’m living with my parents right now, I’m fighting every other day with my insurance company, and you haven’t been in town long.”
“You’re right.” He reached up and cupped my face. His thumbs brushed across my cheeks, and he smiled. “I’m still settling into living here. I don’t know many people outside of the station because my job can be demanding. Until I met you, my only friends were the guys I work with. Your life just got flipped upside down and you’re dealing with that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t spend time together and make it so that we fit into each other’s lives.”
