Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“Wow. She’s becoming a good friend, huh?”
“Yeah, she is.”
My mother tilted her head. “Or is she something more?”
I felt bad not being honest about the complicated feelings I had for Noelle. But what was I supposed to say? We took a shower together the other day, and it got complicated. I fingered her, and then she watched me come?
“No. Nothing’s going on there. She’s just a friend.”
“Well, I wouldn’t blame you if you liked her.”
Mom and I talked for a few more minutes and then turned on a movie to watch together. For lots of reasons, this moment felt important to me.
Soon after the film ended, Noelle’s parents and my dad came home from the lights festival. I decided to head upstairs.
It seemed Noelle hadn’t gone to the beach tonight; I could see the light on beneath the door in her room. When I got to my room, the plastic Easter egg I’d handed her earlier was sitting on my desk.
My heart raced as I opened it to find the sticky note folded inside.
I took a deep breath in and read it.
• • •
At 6:15 the following morning, Noelle was waiting for me when I strolled out.
She pointed to her watch. “You’re fifteen minutes late.”
“I am. Sorry.”
“You didn’t go out last night. I’m surprised you overslept.”
I’d been up all night thinking about her note, debating whether to sneak into her room before morning. But the bedrooms in the house were pretty close together. If I’d gone into her room, there was a good chance someone would’ve heard. That probably saved me.
She might’ve been expecting me to acknowledge the egg, but I chose not to.
“Ready to go?” I asked.
She stretched. “Yeah.”
We took off down the gravel road, and neither of us said anything until we stopped for a break at our usual halfway point.
“I left something in your room last night,” Noelle said.
My eyes darted to hers. “I know.”
“You didn’t say anything…so I wasn’t sure if you saw it.”
“I saw it,” I answered.
I was being a dick. But talking about it wasn’t going to get us anywhere, especially since I still felt guilty whenever I pondered the various ways I could educate Noelle.
When we got back to the house, our parents were having breakfast. I almost jetted upstairs like usual, but after last night, I decided I owed it to my mother to give her more of my time, even if that meant spending more time with my father, too.
So I got a bowl of cereal and took a seat. My presence at the table didn’t go unnoticed.
“It’s so nice to have you with us for breakfast.” Mom smiled.
“It’s about time you graced us with your presence in the morning,” my father added.
Noelle got her coffee and sat in the chair across from me.
Dad buttered some bread. “Rodney says you’ve been doing a pretty good job. He’s having you sit in on some client meetings and conduct research, I hear.”
“You’ve been calling him to find out how I’m doing?”
“We text. I was curious as to whether he saw potential in you.”
“He doesn’t criticize my every move, and he shares his knowledge, rather than constantly needing to challenge me or set me up to fail.”
My father went quiet. The entire table did.
Noelle changed the subject. “Ashley’s coming next week.”
“Oh, that’s right,” her mother said.
“This is your friend from home?” I asked.
“Yeah.” She looked over at me. “She’s coming for a week.”
Damn. A week? That was probably a good thing. It would keep some space between Noelle and me.
“Well, that’s exciting,” my mother said. “We’ll have the spare room downstairs ready for her.”
Throughout the rest of breakfast, I stole glances at Noelle from across the table. She did this thing where she licked her lips after taking a sip of her coffee, and every time, my dick twitched. The sheen of sweat over the cleavage coming out of her tank top turned me on, too. Everything about her turned me on lately, and it’d been worse than ever since she left me the egg.
After breakfast, our parents announced that they were leaving for a farmer’s market about a half hour away. I tried to act casual about that, but alarm bells sounded in my head. Noelle and I were going to be alone again. I didn’t trust myself, not with how damn horny I felt this morning.
It didn’t help that as our parents prepared to go, Noelle lingered in the kitchen. I suspected she was waiting for some direction from me once we were in the clear.
My heart raced the moment I heard my father’s car start. It sped up even more as I heard the sound of the engine disappearing down the road. I knew what I was about to do.
“Go upstairs and get in the shower,” I told her. “I’ll meet you there.”