Chapter 17 #2
Yvonne cleared her throat, breaking our trance. “I hate to interrupt this moment,” she said, “But I think your little guy might need to go potty.”
Noah jumped up, scooping the puppy into his arms, being careful with the bandaged leg as I grabbed the leash that Yvonne had given us, clipping it to his oversized collar.
“You don’t need to come,” Noah offered, but I shrugged him off.
“I don’t mind. It’s so pretty here. I’d like a chance to see the stars above the lake.”
Together, we stepped outside and I paused to take a long inhale of the warm air.
The navy sky was scattered with stars, like diamonds strewn across black velvet.
Without the little bit of ambient light from the house and the moon, it would have been pitch black.
But the ripples of moonlight shimmered across the lake and I inhaled deeply, taking it all in.
“This town… this lake… it’s all so beautiful,” I said wistfully.
“I can see why so many people love it here.”
Noah walked patiently beside the puppy as he limped near a shrub at the front of the house. “I’m surprised you like Maple Grove,” Noah said. “I guess I always pictured you as a city girl.”
I chuckled. “Me too. But, I don’t know. Something about the peace here calls to me. I could imagine splitting my time between a small town like this and New York.”
Noah nodded and tilted his face up to the moonlight. “I’ve been toying with that idea myself for a while. I feel like I need to reconnect with my family more and I just can’t do that living all my time in New York.”
A humorless chuckle caught my chest. “If you’re planning to start filming movies on top of your show, I doubt you’ll have much downtime.”
His smile faded. “Then maybe I need to rethink renewing my contract for the show.”
It was a big leap of faith for an actor to give up a steady paycheck on a hit show. I had no doubt Kristen would have a coronary. “Sometimes we need to make space for the bigger things we want in life.”
He glanced over at me, the blue of the moonlight slicing across his beautiful, angular face.
At our feet, the puppy gave a little yip, pulling our attention away. “What are you going to name him?”
“What should we name him?” Noah countered. “He’s our dog, not my dog.”
I gave Noah a small smile, but tilted my head, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Between us, we should think of him as your dog. I don’t want it to be a custody battle later.”
Sadness lingered in his expression for a moment before it lifted. “Okay, then. I was between two names… The first is Oliver. Because it was the first musical I was ever cast in as a kid.”
“That’s cute,” I said.
“I was eight years old and my mom had no idea the love affair she helped start between me and the theater when she took me to that audition. She thought it would just be a way for me to make friends, but then I got the lead role?—”
“And a star was born,” I finished for him.
He laughed and nodded. “Something like that.” I could just picture an adorably young Noah Blue Tripp with his bright blue eyes and dark, floppy hair. I bet he was adorable onstage and off.
“Okay,” I said. “What was the second idea?”
“I was thinking Birdie?—”
A snort escaped me and I quickly covered my face with my hand.
“What’s wrong with Birdie?” he asked, incredulous.
“Nothing! It’s just… Well, you’ll be a grown ass man with a little dog named Birdie!” I didn’t hide my laughter this time.
“Hey! Birdie is an adorable name!” he said, indignantly. “First of all, he was found with a bunch of birds. The ducks helped keep him alive for his first five months. And it was my first romantic leading role… I played Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie.”
I rolled my eyes at that. “Of course you did.”
It wasn’t his gasp that mesmerized me as much as the way his full wet lips parted in mock shock. “What does that mean?”
“It means that you playing a teen heartthrob as your first romantic lead role was practically fortune telling in the making! Look at you! Girls probably swooned over you from the day you hit puberty.”
“And all this comes down to me having a dog named Birdie being somehow emasculating?” He bit his lip to try to stop from smiling… unsuccessfully.
“ No . The visual just struck me as funny initially. It’s a very cute name for a puppy.”
“But it’s a girlie name for a cute puppy, is that right?” he pressed, taking a step closer to me.
He was crowding me, his one hand still holding tight to Birdie’s leash as he skimmed his hand around the small of my back, tugging me into his hold.
“No, I’m not saying that. I’m just picturing you on a front stoop shouting out into the night for Birdie! And the visual makes me giggle.”
“I’m secure enough in myself to be a grown ass man with a small dog named Birdie.” Biting his bottom lip, he dove his fingers into my ribs, tickling me.
I laughed and wriggled against him, gasping for air as he tickled me. “It’s not fair!” I pant. “You’re not ticklish!”
“I am ticklish, you just haven’t found my spot yet!”
I dug my fingers into his sides, feeling around to see if I could get him to squirm like me, but he simply stood there like a statue, towering over me, still biting that annoyingly sexy bottom lip.
Finally I gave up the fight, panting and a little sweaty as he held me securely to his chest, looking down at me, his eyes fastened on my lips.
So close.
His mouth was so close to mine.
Bending, he dragged his nose along mine, our lips nearly brushing and I moaned, closing my eyes and parting them, waiting for his kiss.
His kiss that never came.
A wash of his hot breath skimmed over me as he whispered, “What did I tell you? You have to kiss me.”
I whimpered. “Does this mean that for the rest of our lives I have to always kiss you first?”
His eyes widened at that and he repeated me, his words a breathless whisper. “The rest of our lives?”
Another blush heated my cheeks. “You know what I mean.”
“Do I?” His nose brushed across mine again as he shook his head.
“And to answer your question, no, this won’t be for the rest of our lives.
But for now, I need to know you want this.
That you want me. You drive this train, Rosa.
If you want a kiss, you have to lean forward a quarter of an inch.
That’s all. A quarter of an inch and it’s yours. ”
My breath caught shallowly in my chest. “But won’t that make all this real? Won’t we be blurring too many lines?”
“I think that ship sailed already. But let’s say it does blur the lines. Would that be so bad? We could take a few months and see where this goes. We’ve got at least a year to figure it all out.”
His fingers trailed beneath the hem of my shirt, tracing a line across my belly. I clenched all over as delicious heat pooled between my legs.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I think… I think I want to date my husband.”
“That’s all I needed to hear,” he growled.
“And after this,” I said, “I want you to kiss me, too.”
“After this?” he started to question. But I interrupted him, pushing onto my toes, kissing him.