Page 122 of After All This Time

He laughs, sitting there and studying my face. “Do you know women like you are hard to come by?”

I blink my eyes repeatedly to register the random subject change.

My lips pucker out, flattening into a semi-curved line, and my eyebrows lower themselves. “Women. Like. Me.”

“Yes, women like you. It’s hard to find a woman who’s not afraid to be brutally honest with you even if it might hurt. You already know how attractive I find that quality about you. So, that’s enough of that.” He moves on to something else. “You have one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen. You knew how inevitable it was that you were going to run into me at the hospital. You knew you’d have to deal with my bullshit antics. For who knows how long. And yet…you still came.”

I can’t get one word in because my brain doesn’t want to connect with my mouth.

Letting Noah ramble on is the best solution.

I’m slowly melting into a pile of mush, hearing him talk about me. He’s talking about his feelings. For me. Tears are pouring out of my eyes. I can’t control it, so I let them fall.

“You didn’t think I’d end this without mentioning your talent for words, did you?”

I laugh through my tears.

“You have a gift for writing, Dani. A lot of people wish they had your talent. I don’t know anybody who writes like you. You have this incredible ability to immerse readers into a story. Many of them can see themselves through the characters you write and your book isn’t even out yet. It’s fucking magic what you do.” He takes a moment to catch his breath, his eyes working up to my face. “God, you’re distracting.”

“And you don’t think that you are?”

He tugs on my shirt, his hands gripping tightly on my waist. “We’re talking about you. Not me.” He smiles, the fire in his eyes dissipating as his pupils dilate. “When I’m around you, I have this indescribable out-of-body experience. I’m floating in the sky. Dani, you’re right there with me. My sunshine. The light that scares away the darkness inside of me. I need you in my life. I need my sunshine.”

Fuck me, that was the most romantic shit I’ve ever heard.

His hands return back on my face, cupping it like a gentle giant.

I put my hands on top of his. Breathing in and out, I do my best to slow down my rapid heartbeat. Once I calm down, I know I have to say something. This is my chance to tell him how I really feel about him. “Before we go any further, I need to tell you something.”

“Okay, Sunshine.”

He removes his hands from my face, giving me the space to move around if I need to.

“I’m sorry to tell you this but…” I pause out of curiosity to see how he’d react.

His facial expressions are unreadable. He looks around the room, trying to figure out what he did wrong.

God, this is all real.

Bella did tell me to go live out my own version of a romance novel.

This is it.

“You’ve been reading too many romance books, my friend.”

A sad expression appears on his face as he looks away from me. He’s avoiding every possibility of looking at me right now. “That’s not even remotely funny,” he says through a breath, looking down at the floor next to him.

“Hey, Lover Boy.”

He doesn’t reply, so I resort to returning my hands to his cheeks.

Sitting in front of him, I tilt his head up so I can see his handsome face. “You know what you are?”

He shakes his head, grinning ear to ear.

“The best thing that’s ever happened to me. Yes, I knew I’d run into you. It was inevitable. But, you know what? If I didn’t come back home, I would’ve missed out on all this. All these feelings. Being there for your family. Being there for you. You drive me absolutely insane but in the best possible way. My body always craves to be in close proximity to yours. I want to be around you. All. The. Damn. Time.”

He looks at me, listening intently.

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