Page 51 of Mr. Picture Perfect
The next second, Mindy steps out from the restaurant. “Ugh, sorry about that,” she says, then lifts her key fob and silences her car. “Alarm’s too damned sensitive. What’re you doing out here?”
I stare at her, all my words glued to my throat.
“Oh, and where’s Cole?” she goes on, glancing one way down the street, then the other. “Did he have to run home?”
Cole, who remains completely hidden from Mindy’s vantage point, stares up at me from the ground with a silent grimace.
He apparently chooses not to make his presence known.
I decide on the fly to honor that choice.
“Y-Yeah,” I answer, facing her completely as I turn my back on Cole, as if to further shield him from sight. “He had to go home. To help his grandma. She’s doing gardening. Nighttime gardening. In the dark. At nighttime.”
Mindy appears to find that odd for a second and a half, then shrugs it off. “Nadine has a question or two to ask you. Something about live streaming and whether the Spruce Press’s website has the capability. I gotta say, I sure donotenvy these guys and what they’re about to be put through. I mean, a live stream? In bikinis with their man parts showing? The fuck …?”
And with that, I’m ushered back inside as Mindy continues to ramble on, but not before peering over my shoulder at Cole with a look of confusion and apology.
Chapter 10
Cole
Worse things have happened in my life.
For some reason, I can’t think of any.
I sit in my car halfway down the street for an hour as I stare at the front of the restaurant waiting for everyone to leave. Namely: Noah. The minutes crawl by with excruciating indifference to my pain.
Why does the world fall apart every time we kiss?
Are these signs? Do I even believe in signs? Should I start?
Honestly, I don’t think I’d care if there were a dozen signs that I shouldn’t keep going after Noah. How can I possibly give up now afterhestarts making moves on me? I don’t even care that it went all wrong and ended with me on the street in front of a screaming car. I’ll set off a hundred alarms and drop on the hard pavement a hundred more times if it means getting to kiss Noah again.
I should probably be mortified, but my head is spinning with so much happiness right now. I can’t stop smiling, squeezing the steering wheel in front of me, and giggling.
I can still feel the way his fingers clung to my body.
The urgent force with which he pressed his soft, puckered lips against mine.
How his breath crashed joyfully on my cheek as we kissed.
How it felt like nothing else existed in the world but us.
Or at least until I lost my balance, fell against a car, and made a whole lot of things exist at once.
That kiss shouldn’t count as our first. Neither should the one I stole on the sidewalk near my house yesterday. We need a real first kiss. One that isn’t interrupted. One that goes on as long as we both want it to. One that isn’t spent in fear of who’s watching or who knows.
A kiss we both deserve.
I’m nearly asleep at the wheel by the time people start to leave the restaurant. I stir, fully alert now, and watch from my car. They all seem to exit at once, everyone from the photo shoot—including Noah. I wait with tortured patience as Nadine and the others make their very slow and wordy goodbyes. Didn’t they all talk enough inside? What more is there to possibly say? I drum my fingers on the steering wheel as they continue their conversations in front of the restaurant, unaware of anything at all, oblivious to the world around them, happy and relaxed and clueless.
Except for Noah.
He stands among their circle, but he keeps glancing away, as if similarly ready for the ordeal to come to an official end. He peers down the street one way, then the other, hugging himself while gnawing on the inside of his cheek, appearing apprehensive.
Is Noah looking for me? Would it be crazy to think I’m tangled in his every thought as well?
Sweet merciful fortune comes my way as the crowd begins to disperse. Nadine and Dean and two others head off one way, while several of the rest take off in the other. Mindy slips blithely into her car, unaware of the fact that twoverythirsty guys were on the hood just an hour ago, then drives away.
