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“I guess so,” Dakota said.
“You guess so?” Noah leaned against the high front desk area where contractors squared their orders and bills. “Why the lack of confidence? You’re usually Mr. Smooth Moves.”
Dakota had thought this very thing since leaving Leah after their make out session at the park and then on her front step. He’d kissed women before. Lots of women, and he’d enjoyed kissing them. What he felt while kissing Leah, however, had… changed him. He started picturing doing all sorts of things with her. Everything from the ice skating she’d mentioned to things as mundane as grocery shopping. And he’d certainly spent a good deal of Friday night envisioning what it would be like to have her trapped beneath him, naked and begging for him to touch her everywhere.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s different with Leah.”
“Different?” Noah adjusted his Brenton Sawmill baseball cap and gave Dakota a confused look. “What do you mean bydifferent?”
Dakota shrugged. “Just… she’s not like other women I’ve dated.” Other women had never consumed his thoughts like this. October was peak season for him with tourists, but he didn’t have his usual focus right now. One of his annual customers noticed yesterday, calling him “distracted but still kickass.” Those gentle-but-heating-quickly kisses he shared with Leah were awakening him. He was hyperaware of the world around him as if someone—Leah—had flicked a switch inside him to thenuclearposition.
There was also the matter of Leah being so guarded. He’d had to nearly beg for a date with her. Sure, she’d initiated the kissing on their date, but she’d asked to go slow and appeared to think carefully about every move when it came to interacting with him. What kind of hurt had she experienced in the past? And could he track that asshole down and introduce him to his fists?
“Wait a minute.” Noah put his hands on Dakota’s shoulders and stared into his eyes. “Say it ain’t so, bro.”
Dakota shook off his friend’s grip. “Say what ain’t so?”
Noah gave him a pointed look, one eyebrow arched over a hazel eye.
“Aw, c’mon, man. We had one date, one kiss.” Dakota had waved off his friend, but actually it had been several kisses. Remembering the way Leah had tasted made him a little hard even days later.
Noah leaned his elbows on the desk behind him and shook his head. “Dude, the look on your face right now speaks volumes.”
“Speaks volumes about what?” Dakota’s father came into the main office from his personal office.
“Nothing,” Dakota said, not realizing William had been back there this whole time.
“Leah,” Noah said.
“Oh, I like her.” William stood beside Noah, a wide smile on his face. Actually they both had wide smiles. They looked like a couple of idiots.
“Dad, you met her once,” Dakota said.
William wiggled two fingers in Dakota’s face, almost hitting his nose. “I’ve met Leahtwice. Once at the school ribbon-cutting ceremony and once while you two kids were on your date. Talk around the town is she’s an amazing teacher.”
At this statement, Dakota smiled.
“There’s that look again,” Noah said.
“Shut up, dude. Don’t you have some wood to deliver somewhere?” Dakota asked, giving Noah a slight push toward the doors. “Like New Zealand?”
“I can bug the shit out you from anywhere, bro.” He waved his cell phone. “By the way, when are we going on that New Zealand adventure we’ve been planning all our lives?”
“When you stop blowing all your money on prostitutes and can afford to go.” The two of them had literally been talking about going to New Zealand since they’d done a report on the beautiful country in fourth grade.
“Prostitutes, yeah right. You know why I can’t go. I shouldn’t have teased you with that trip when I’m the reason we haven’t done it yet.” Noah jammed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.
“But you’ve got a good reason, man.”
Nana.
She lived with Noah. She’d raised him after his mother died in a car accident when he was six. They had been taking care of each other ever since, and Noah was the most loyal of grandsons. He’d never do anything that was purely for himself—like jet off to New Zealand.
William squeezed Noah’s shoulder. “You know Chennie and I would look out for your grandmother if you boys wanted to take off.”
Noah elbowed William. “And you guys would be scarred for life.”
“This is probably true.” Nana was known for being a... handful. Turning to Dakota, William asked, “What brings you in, son?”
