Page 39 of Strong Side
“What are you doing?” she asks, putting her hand on my chest.
“I just want to kiss my girlfriend,” I say loud enough for the girls to hear me.
Noelle’s eyes go wide. “Oh, okay?—”
I don’t let her finish. I keep one hand on the bar, and I wrap the other around her neck and pull her into me.
Our lips touch, and even though I kissed her in the car, I lose all sense of control right here in the middle of the grocery store. I tilt my head to deepen the kiss, and she lets me.
“Excuse me, sir. Are you checking out?”
We’re interrupted by the cashier, who looks to be the same age as my grandma.
When I pull back from Noelle, her eyes are still closed, lips wet. I take my thumb and brush it across her bottom lip, then lean in again and kiss her one more time.
She opens her eyes this time when I pull back. “Wow,” she whispers.
“Any day now, kids,” the cashier says loudly.
Noelle and I both laugh.
“We’d better move. I feel like we’re in trouble,” she says, sliding her hand down to my stomach, making my muscles contract. She must feel it because she looks up at my face.
A throat clears next to us.
“Good to see you, Noelle!” Zoey chirps.
Noelle looks at her incredulously.
They walk away, and then I finish paying for my groceries.
After I get everything in the trunk, I get in the car, and Noelle is watching me.
“You good?” I ask her. I can’t read the look on her face.
“Did you kiss me like that because you wanted to kiss me, or did you kiss me like that because they were there, watching?”
I take her hand in mine. “I kissed you because I absolutely wanted to. But it also served a purpose.”
“What purpose?” she asks.
“It’ll keep them talking, which will definitely get back to Trey.” I wink at her. “Now, let’s go home. I need to eat and sleep.” I lean in and kiss her again because I really did want to kiss her in the store and I never want to think that any of this is for show.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
NOELLE
After Casey gotto eat and I nibbled on a snack, we go back to his room to watch a movie. I don’t intend on staying long tonight, but I don’t really want to leave yet. I’m hoping we can have another lesson, but I know he’s tired.
“Whatcha thinking about over there, pretty girl?” He rolls onto his side to face me.
Trey would have never been in tune with me enough to have any inkling that I was lost in thought. But also, he wouldn’t have asked because he didn’t care what I was thinking. And most of the time, I kept quiet because I didn’t want to set him off.
I try not to make comparisons because Casey is a totally different person. It’s just nice to have someone genuinely care about me.
Rolling to my side to face him, I decide I’m going to make the move tonight—the one I’ve been dreaming about for days and fantasized about while he was away.
