Page 23 of After All This Time

He turns back around, placing his iced coffee on the desk. His gaze meets mine as he walks closer to me. “Were you just checking me out?”

Does he have eyes in the back of his head?

“What the hell would make you think that?”

He’s so close to me I tense up a bit.

He crosses his arms over his broad chest. This makes his muscles flex even more than when his arms are hanging by the sides of his body.

Why am I paying attention to these things?

Those goddamn black thick-framed glasses he’s wearing are doing things to me. He looks like Buddy Holly. An insanely attractive version of Buddy Holly.

Snap out of it, Dani.

“It’s okay if you were,” he says, smirking.

I roll my eyes, grinning at his smug face. “In your dreams, Kaplan.”

His mouth finds my ear. “If we’re telling the truth here, I totally wasn’t checking you out either.” He winks his left eye as he pulls away.

Gulping a lump of saliva down my throat, I look away to avoid any eye contact.

What the hell was that?

He steps back more, so there’s a good amount of space between us.

I don’t get it. I was dreading coming here because I knew I’d run into Noah. It was inevitable considering he’s part of the family. What I didn’t know was that I’d be losing my mind over his toned muscles. And his constant staring.

Those ocean blue eyes of his are going to kill me.

CHAPTER SIX

noah

Of course, I was checking Dani out.

How could I not?

Why would I tell her that I was? That’s just weird.

When she got up from the chair, I nearly lost my fucking mind. She was wearing nothing else underneath her tank top. Her hard nipples kept peaking through.

Fuck, I can’t stop staring at her. Okay, this is not the time nor the place for this right now.

Before I can say anything, Celia walks into the room.

She goes over to Dani, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Good morning, honey. How did you sleep?”

“Like shit. It’s hard to sleep when nurses are coming in every hour to check on Lizzie. But, it’s okay. She’s more important than sleep.”

This is when my eyes pull towards the hospital bed my sister is lying in.

God, I hope she wakes up. She has to wake up.

Dani has been a nice distraction from everything going on because I’m trying hard to not focus on the chaos. It’s not because I’m in denial and I don’t want to accept what happened.

Life is easier when you ignore the bad shit and live in a world where positivity is the only thing that exists. That’s why I’ve been living in Noahland all my life because it’s easier. I get to make the rules and I’m able to turn the world off when it’s necessary.

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