Page 13 of The Beach House
We wanted some time alone together at the beach house, but it wasn’t easy. Sure, his room might beright therenext to mine, but the walls in this place were thin. And that didn’t exactly scream romantic or sexy to me. Not with my best friend and his parents around.
“Stop what?” he asked, undoing his belt now, still grinning at me.
“You arenotdoing a striptease in the bathroom,” I hissed at him, blushing and disappearing back behind the shower curtain to rinse my hair. “So not fair. Remind me why we thought we could handle not having any time to ourselves here?”
“What’s the matter, Elle? Need a cold shower?”
I told him to shut up again, smiling when I heard him laugh. It was maddening to be so close to him all the time and not really be able to…doanything. It wasn’t even easy to find somewhere else to sneak off to. And after our narrow escape near the pool the other day when his parents came back early, I was not about to risk getting caught again.
When I stepped out of the shower, towel wrapped round me, I found Noah finishing up cleaning his teeth, his hair looking tidier than it had a few minutes before. I knocked my hip into him to nudge him out of the way so I could get to my stuff.
Noah just kind of hovered by the side of the sink, though, arms folded lightly over his chest and his eyes on me.
“What?”
He shrugged. “Just thinking.”
“About what?”
“I love you” was his simple answer, accompanied by a small, genuine smile.
He leaned over to give me a quick kiss on the lips, only a light, little one. He made to leave, but I tugged on his T-shirt to pull him back.
“Hey, you don’t get away that easy, mister.” And I kissed him full on the mouth, a smile forming on my face. His arms curled round my waist and he squeezed me closer. God, he smelled so good. Had he always smelled this good? I dragged my fingers through his hair, probably messing it up again.
“Okay. I’m definitely going this time,” he said, drawing away and giving me one last peck on the lips, “beforeI’mthe one who needs a cold shower.”
It turned out Rachel was arriving a few hours earlier than we’d expected, so Lee left to pick her up from the bus station. The beach house wasn’t really built for an extra person, but we’d make do having Rachel here too. Lee had an old airbed set up in Noah’s room he’d be sleeping on.
I was cuddled up on the sofa with Noah, the two of us watching TV with his parents, when we heard Lee’s car pull up outside.
“Sounds like the other pair of lovebirds are here,” June said, and she and Matthew got up to go and greet them. I listened to their conversation for a few minutes. Lee took Rachel’s bag through to the bedroom.
I’d been cool with Rachel coming—but now that she was actually here, it felt weird.
I shook myself. I couldn’t think like that. It’d be nice having another girl around for a change. And it might mean I didn’t feel so guilty about trying to get some time alone with Noah and not hanging out with Lee so much this year.
I looked at the TV and saw that Noah had switched the channel, settling on some NASCAR program. I watched it for about twenty seconds, then said, “No way are we watching this. There’s got to be something else on. Like cartoons.”
“Cartoons? You’re kidding me, right?”
I scowled at Noah and made to pick up the remote from the arm of the couch. He snatched it and held it above his head.
“Noah!” I complained, and scrambled up on the sofa, trying to make a grab—but he kept moving it out of my reach, and I ended up falling across him, almost straddling him, our noses very nearly touching. We looked at each other for a long, long moment; I was biding my time, waiting to lunge for the remote again.
Noah reached up with his free hand to brush some hair behind my ear, and his fingertips lingered near the base of my neck. Then—
I shrieked, falling back onto the sofa and trying to scramble away. Noah was too fast, though, and was lying across me, pinning me down, tickling me ruthlessly. I gasped for air, I was laughing so hard. I wriggled, kicked, pushed his hands away. Nothing worked.
I was wriggling so much that I was right on the edge of the sofa, and Noah let the two of us tumble on to the floor with a loud thud.
“Noah!” I shrieked. “Noah, stop it!”
He chuckled, grinning mischievously, a devilish gleam in his electric blue eyes. But then his mom called from down the hallway, “Keep your clothes on!”
We both paused. Sometimes I could see where Lee got it from, when June wasn’t above embarrassing us like that. My cheeks were turning red, I could tell, and Noah bit his lip, holding back a laugh. I swatted his chest while my hand was free, because the look on his face was making me want to burst into giggles too. I bit the inside of my cheeks hard.
“Hey, you guys.”
