Page 34 of Kiss the Girl
I left him alone and finished the movie, then muted the volume as the credits rolled. I leaned back against the cushions and watched him in the light of the TV, his face relaxed as he slept.
I should probably have woken him up, but I wasn’t in a hurry. The couch was comfortable, and I had nowhere to be. And I wanted the opportunity to study him openly in a way I hadn’t been able to since we’d met.
He was definitely my type, looks-wise. But I liked his personality too. He was easy-going and kind, two things I’d learned to value from my dad. And he was so cute with his niece. It was clear he’d be a good dad too. It was too bad I wasn’t staying, because if I were, I’d be into him. Or maybe it was a very good thing I was leaving in a couple of months, because I was a little bit into him already.
How often had I been in a guy’s apartment and felt comfortable enough to lean my head back and rest for a minute without worrying about the message I was sending? Or how my hair looked? Or what he was thinking? Maybe never?
“Grace.”
Something tickled my toes and I wiggled them.
“Grace.” A male voice, a little louder, definitely more amused.
I blinked my eyes open. I’d fallen asleep, stretched out, and apparently had decided that the most comfortable place for my feet was in Noah’s lap. His hand was resting across my shins, his thigh warm and firm against my Achilles.
“You fell asleep.”
I shook my head to clear it.
“I also fell asleep. I have to say I’m surprised, Grace. You’re blowing my image of wholesome small-town girls.”
I rubbed my eyes and didn’t bother sitting up straighter. I liked my feet right where they were. “What are you talking about?” I asked around a yawn.
“We got to second base before we even met, and now we’ve slept together without even going on a date.”
I took advantage of my position to hit him with my heel. “If you want me to help you with Christmas Town, you better stop talking.”
His hand tightened for a second around my leg. “If I have to.”
“You have to.” But I still didn’t make any effort to move away. “How’s it going with all the booth planning, anyway?”
“It’s good,” he said. “Especially now that I don’t have to deal with Glynnis. It feels anticlimactic, to be honest. Who’s going to be in charge instead?”
“Taylor Bixby.”
“As in Bixby Café?”
She nodded. “I like her. She graduated with Tabitha. I don’t remember her as being one of those take-charge types, but she must be if she can start and run her own café.”
“So do I wait for orders from her?”
“Yeah. Get the donut recipe from Ritzau, order your stuff so you have the nonperishables here in plenty of time, order the perishable stuff for delivery closer to Christmas, and then work on the booth. I’m sure it’ll make Taylor’s life easier if she’s not having to micromanage everyone the way Glynnis did. Taylor seems more mellow. Did you get the team to buy in?”
He picked up my foot and set to work massaging it, almost absent-mindedly, like his hands always needed to be busy while he thought.
It was definitely not absent-minded for me. He kneaded the tendon in my arch that always got sore at the end of a day on my feet in Handy’s, and I bit back a moan that would have embarrassed us both when he hit it just right.
“The team went for it,” he said. “I got them on board, and they’re willing to come back to campus on Saturdays next month in shifts to work on the basics.”
It was hard to concentrate on his words when he was working such magic on my feet, and maybe that was why I made my next offer. “Instead of working on it at school, we can do it at my parents’ place. Dad has a shop out back, and he’ll enjoy supervising.”
“You don’t have to do that,” he protested. “You’re already doing too much.”
“It’s fine. My dad will honestly enjoy it. He feels better every week. He’s not ready to come back to work full-time, but he’s getting restless.”
His hands stilled, and I opened my eyes to see what was wrong. He was staring at me. “You’re amazing,” he said.
I closed my eyes, unnerved by the directness of his words and his expression. It felt…intimate, with my feet nestled in his lap.
