Page 195 of After All This Time

“Noah, I need to go.”

“You said you didn’t want to go.”

“I changed my mind, and I don’t want to be late for my appointment.”

“What if I changed my mind?” He pouts, giving me goo-goo eyes.

“God, you’re such a pain in the ass.”

“But you love me anyway?”

I shake my head, grinning. “Of course, I love you.”

I run out the front door, waving to Noah and running to Bella’s car.

I hop in and she looks at me.

“Ready to get our hair done?” Bella asks, scrunching her nose.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” I chuckle.

After forty-five minutes of girl talk and hair makeovers, Bella drops me off back at the house.

When I open the front door and walk into the house, Noah’s standing there, wearing a white button-down shirt and black pants.

He’s staring at me, taking in the dramatic haircut I decided to go for.

My hair lands right at my clavicle now.

“Wow,” he says.

“You don’t like it?” I ask, whipping my head back and forth.

He laughs, taking a moment to admire me. “It’s short.” He pauses. “I assumed you were just getting a trim.”

“I wanted a change. It was getting way too much for me to manage.”

He walks over to me, running his fingers through my hair. Meeting my gaze, he smiles at me. “I love it.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying.”

“You really like it?”

“I don’t like it, Dani. I love it.”

“I can go back to the hair salon and have them reattach my hair.”

He shakes his head. “No.” Kissing my forehead, he grabs me by the hand. “There’s something I want to show you.”

He guides me into the bedroom.

Holy shit. My jaw is on the floor.

There are lit candles filling up every square inch of my childhood bedroom, except the area near the bookcase.

I love him.

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