CHAPTER 13
Emma
We kissed!
We kissed! We kissed! We kissed!
Noah and I are walking home from the beach, hand in hand, and my fingers are itching to text Carly with an update.
The update being that I’d just had the best kiss of my life. Kiss es . Plural.
“So, what do you think?”
Uh oh. I’d not been listening.
“Hmm,” I blink up at him. At his gorgeous face. “About what?”
He smiles at me like I’m a cute puppy and butterflies dance in my belly at his expression.
“About us having dinner together?”
YES!
“You want to have dinner? Tonight?” I squeak, all sense of playing it cool long gone. This guy has my heart melting like the ice cream I’d just inhaled.
His smile is indulgent, and he squeezes my hand in his. “We were just discussing what to do with all that leftover food from lunch. And I suggested we make turkey sandwiches for dinner. I baked a loaf of sourdough bread this morning, which would be perfect for sandwiches.”
The man bakes his own bread. Carly is going to die when I tell her this.
“That sounds good.”
We’re at my front door now and I’m reluctant to let him go. Even if it’s only for a bit.
“I’ll go to mine and freshen up. When do you want me back here?”
I glance between my watch and his lips. “Five minutes?”
His chuckle, so deep and rich, warms me. “How about half an hour?”
“Fine,” I grumble, not letting go of his hand.
He leans me back against my door and brushes his lips over mine. Once, twice, three times, until my lips are tingling. And then he kisses me, softly, tenderly, like someone who never wants to stop kissing me.
“Hmmm.” A small moan escapes me as he pulls away and the smile on his lips as he watches me has my knees trembling.
“I agree,” he says, his voice husky. “I’ll be right back.”
Through smitten eyes, I watch him walk back to his house, only opening my door once he’s disappeared through his.
“Come on, Carly, pick up,” I beg my phone when it rings once without being answered.
“Emma!” Carly appears on my screen like the angel she is. “I’ve been dying over here!”
I sit on my couch, my phone wobbling in my still shaking hands. That was one powerful kiss.
“It’s amazing,” I sigh, tilting my head up to the ceiling and saying a silent thank you prayer.
“What is?” she yells, demanding my attention.
“He is. It all is. We kissed.”
She whoops, doing a happy dance with her hand, the only thing she can move easily now at this stage of her pregnancy.
“I knew you would! How was it?”
“Best. Kiss. Ever.”
Carly looks like she’s going to burst. “Tell me everything!”
I open my mouth to spill when a chuckle on the other side of the wall has it snapping shut. How had I forgotten? He can hear everything!
“Carly, he can hear me…” I whisper, watching her eyes widen with comprehension.
“Yes, he can,” Noah calls back, a smile apparent in his voice. “And he’s dying to hear what you’re about to say next.”
Carly and I gape at each other, for once in our lives speechless.
“Umm,” I stammer, watching my face bloom a violent shade of red on the phone in front of me.
“What she was about to say next, Mr. Elf Next Door,” Carly yells, motioning for me to point the phone towards the wall. “Is that she thinks she may have met a nice guy but is waiting for her best friend to give her approval.”
Another chuckle. “Fair enough,” he says, clear as day through the wall. “How about I bake you a cake and we can talk about it?”
My best friend is stunned into silence, and I laugh at her expression. He may not have known it for sure, but Noah had found a direct way to Carly’s approval. And that is straight through her stomach.
“Does that sound OK?” Now his voice is tinged with apprehension and Carly winks at me.
“That sounds fine,” she yells. “Make it a chocolate cake.”
His rich laughter cuts through the plaster between us and I only just stop myself from swooning.
“Will do.”
I make a face at my friend, one that says, “Can you believe this guy?” and wave at her. “I’ll call you later.”
Her eyebrows waggle at me, while her eyes shine with approval. “You’d better. Bye Noah,” she yells with a cheeky grin.
We disconnect the call and I glance at the wall, amazed that he’d been living right there all this time without me knowing him. It seems almost unfathomable, now.
“I’ll be over soon,” he tells me softly and I nod.
“OK,” I say when I remember he can’t see me.
With this settled and a quick text from Carly telling me she loves, loves, LOVES him (he really got her with that whole chocolate cake thing), I jump up to get changed, opting for something a little more comfortable and a little less restrictive around the waist. If Noah’s bread is as good as his cookies, I’ll be indulging a lot more tonight.
“Emma?”
There’s that voice again, this time at my front door, and I run a brush through my hair before rushing to the door.
“Hi!”
He grins at me, his eyes drinking me in like it’s been days, not minutes, since we last saw each other.
“Come in.” I stand aside to let him in, but this time he doesn’t enter straight away. This time, he leans over, his hand around my waist, and kisses me. Like we’ve been kissing like this all our lives.
“Hmmm,” he murmurs against my lips.
“Yes,” I whisper back.
We stare at each other until I blink myself back to my senses, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside.
“I’m hungry.” The smell of his freshly baked bread is making my tummy juices flow.
“Really?” He gapes at me and I shrug. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? Eating until you burst?
“Yup.”
I pull him further into the kitchen where we get to work, me heating up the leftover turkey, him slicing the bread and preparing the cranberry sauce. I hadn’t thought to include it with lunch, but it will make a perfect addition to our dinner sandwiches.
“There!” He smiles proudly at the tray of assembled, monstrous-looking sandwiches. “Are you ready?”
We sit at the table and I lick my lips. “Ready.”
A silence, broken only by my moans and groans, fills the room as we devour the sandwiches, the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten, and once they’re done and we are lounging on the couch, I’m ready to admit it.
“This has been the best Christmas ever.”
He grins at me, scootching closer to my side, his hand holding mine again. “I agree.”
“So, what now?”
He presses a kiss to my temple, breathing me in and I melt into his side. Everything with him feels so easy, so natural, so much like we’ve been doing this together forever.
“Do you have any time off work?” he asks, his lips near my ear causing all sorts of shivers to dance up my spine.
“I have the next week off,” I tell him. The week off work that just a few days ago I’d been dreading. Now it is filled with endless possibilities.
“Me, too,” he grins. “Do you want to maybe…hang out?”
My eyes dart between his blue ones and his ruby red lips and I can’t think of a single thing I’ve ever wanted to do more.
“Yes.”
He lets out a sigh of relief, relaxing back against my couch and pulling me even closer.
“I think the hanging out should start now,” I tell him.
His eyebrows rise in confusion. “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”
I pick up the remote control and nod. “Yes, starting with watching a movie…”
He laughs, pressing a quick kiss to my lips before nodding at the TV. “What do you have in mind?”
I look at the wall, and then at his handsome face, smiling at the way this has all turned out.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
And then I press play and let the wonders of Love Actually wash over us both.