Page 79 of Saved By Noel
Clark laughed, then he leaned closer to me, my back against my apartment door. He caged me in with a hand on either side. His voice was low and velvety when he spoke. “Of course, yourbirthdaywouldbe three days before Christmas, Clara, daughter of Joseph and Holly.”
When he closed the gap between our lips, I thought my heart might implode from the weight of pure joy. My brain was overwhelmed processing all the addictive sensations—that soft tickle of Clark’s beard against my face. The possessive grip of his hand on my waist. The solid mass of his biceps beneath my fingers. The leftover hint of the gingerbread cheesecake we’d shared lingering on his tongue.
Clark found a hotel a few minutes away from my apartment last night. After he left, I thought back on everything he had told me at Crown Center. His declaration of love was better than anything I could have dreamed up in a movie script. He explained everything I needed to understand about why his behavior with me had been so inconsistent.
And finally, I've figured out the Clark Noel Magic Eye illusion.
Underneath the confusing surface layer of closed-off grouchiness is the true image of Clark. And I think it’s the spitting image of my cabin. Slightly dark on the outside, secluded, self-contained, hidden in the woods. But there’s smoke rising out of the chimney from the warm, cozy fire inside. Clark may initially come across as unsentimental or gruff, and he certainly prefers solitude. But inside is a blazing, inviting fire, a sunroom full of bright light and life. A man who is steady, reliable, sacrificial, practical. A man who deeply loves his close circle of people, even if it might not look like cinnamon-roll-hero grand gestures.
A man who lovesme.And good gracious, do I love him back.
My phone dings with a text from Sydney.
SYD
Happy birthday, girl! Hope it’s an amazing day?
I snort a laugh at the question mark at the end of her text. I’m not sure if Clark has filled Davis in on yesterday’s events yet, so I call Syd. She answers after the first ring.
“Happy Birthday!”
“Thanks, Syd!” I smile as I tell her, “It’s going to be an amazing day because I’m spending it with the man I love.”
Syd’s resulting scream likely alerted the entire town of Noel to good news.
“Ohmygosh! I’ve been dying to talk ever since Davis told me that Clark was on his way there but I felt like I should give you space and I didn’t know how you would react and I’ve been DYING, Clara!” Syd gushes the run-on sentence so quickly I nearly miss half of what she says. Her voice sobers as she adds, “Seriously though, I was worried I might have lost you forever after Clark messed up.”
“I would never have abandoned our friendship, Syd,” I reassure her. “I may have had to get creative in avoiding Clark at all costs, but I never could have abandoned you or the town completely. But now, prepare yourself to get sick of me because I’m going to be there constantly visiting my man. Have I mentioned yet that Clark and I are in love?” I finish with a smile, earning another squeal from Sydney.
We talk for a few minutes until I realize that it’s already 9:00 a.m. We hang up, and I shower quickly, scrunching in my curl cream and applying makeup in record time. I’m picking Clark up for a birthday brunch, and then we’ll have most of the day together. Tonight, we’ll join my parents for our annual dinner andNutcrackerballet birthday tradition. When I called them last night to give an update on the Clark situation, they cheered with delight on speaker phone. Madison gladly gave up her claim to our fourth ballet ticket, happily insistent that I take Clark instead.
I arrive at Clark’s hotel, and he’s already waiting in the parking lot for me. He grins when he sees me pull in—the kind of smile that lights up his whole face. My eyes sting with tears of gratitude that I get to see this happy side of him.I hope I see this for the rest of my life, I think as Clark opens the passenger door.
“Happy birthday, gorgeous,” he says before leaning over to kiss me. I think he intended it to be a quick “good morning” peck, but the magnetism between our lips quickly takes over and turns it into a deeper, lingering kiss. The love we’d stuffed down for so long finally has an outlet, and neither of us is trying to stifle it anymore.
Over brunch, Clark asks questions about my Aunt Gloria, somehow intuiting that today is a day that I miss her extra big. I share stories of her as my ballet instructor, as my babysitter, as the stereotypical spoiling auntie. I tell him about the day she gave me my birthstone ring as I twirl it around my finger, and he rubs his thumb across the back of my other hand.
Afterward, I take Clark to my favorite local plant shop with a coffee bar inside. As my birthday gift, he buys me the pricey Hindu Rope Hoya I’ve been denying myself for years. “You have to keep it at the cabin though,” he says as the cashier carefully packages it for us. “I need to make sure you have motivation to make regular trips to Noel.”
I reach up and run my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. “I have a much more compelling reason to visit Noel than a plant.” He gives me a soft smile before I add, “I can’t be away from Syd for too long.”
Clark pinches my side before leaning in to press a kiss to my neck. The high schooler working the cash register obviously doesn’t know how to respond, cheeks turning beet red. I smile at her and pull Clark’s arm away before she melts into an awkward puddle.
After dropping the plant off at my apartment, we head to a department store to purchase something for Clark to wear to the ballet tonight. He can’t exactly wear his token t-shirt and baseball cap. As big of a fan as I am of that particular ensemble.
He comes out of the dressing room wearing gray dress pants and a deep blue button-up shirt. Holding his hands out to his sides, he asks, “This okay? What do you think?”
I suck in a breath. “I think you’re testing my self-control to not make out with you in the middle of the department store.”
Clark’s teasing smile reappears on his face as he grabs my hand to pull me to him. “What do I have to do to break the limits of that control?”
I give a wry smile back. “A song and dance might do the trick.”
“Not happening.” His expression softens into serious lines as he tucks a curl behind my ear. He leans in close, grazing his nose along my nose, my cheek, my jawline. My feigned resistance is already overpowered by the time he murmurs, “What if I told you I chose this shirt color to match your eyes? The eyes that have haunted my subconscious ever since the first night I stumbled into your bathroom. The deep, ocean-blue pools that I’d happily get lost in forever.”
My pulse pounds in my neck, and my voice comes out as a whisper. “Well, when you put it that way.” And then his lips are on mine again, dismissing all sense of time. One minute my hands are splayed flat against Clark’s chest. The next, they’re clutching fistfuls of his dress shirt as though that shirt was the only thing between me and a fall to my death.
Breaking apart, Clark glances down and chuckles. “I’d better go purchase this shirt before you do any damage to store property.”
