Page 73 of After All This Time

I close the gap between us.

Her lips are barely grazing mine. And yet it’s enough to send me over the edge.

She sucks her lips in, chest slowly heaving. “We should go.”

She escapes the forcefield around her.

I shake my head, clearing my throat.

God, why did I do that?

“Yeah, we should.” I stop her before she makes her way out the door. “Am I driving or do you want to drive?”

“You can drive.”

I stick my thumbs up in the air as she walks out the door with me trailing behind her.

When we get into the car, my hands are gripping the steering wheel so hard I might break it.

“Noah.”

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

“I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. All I could think about was Dad, Lizzie, and Mom.”

And you.

“If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t get enough sleep last night either.”

“Guess we both have a lot of shit on our minds.”

She nods. “Yeah.”

I back out of the driveway, glancing at the backup camera to make sure there aren’t any cars driving by or any people walking behind us.

Once the coast is clear, we’re off.

It’s been about five minutes since we left the house, which isn’t too long. The Promenade at Sunset Cove is around a ten-minute drive from Crystal Harbor.

The radio blasts our ears with Lorde.

She goes to turn the volume down, but I gesture to her to keep it on. I extend my arm out, twisting the knob clockwise to turn the volume up.

“I didn’t know you liked this song.” She projects her voice, so I can hear it over the music.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.” I glance at her, grinning ear to ear.

She smiles, turning away from me to hide her flushed cheeks.

“The chorus in the song is so freaking good. Here it comes.” She waves her right arm up and down to the rhythm of the song and starts moving the upper half of her body.

She’s dancing while sitting in the driver’s seat. I can barely hear the music over Dani’s singing. While it’s not an award-winning voice, I can’t help but smile the entire time she’s singing the chorus.

I turn down the music a little bit, so I don’t have to yell over it. She'll be able to hear me easier.

“You know if the whole author thing doesn’t work out for you, I think singing might be a great second backup plan,” I tease, even though my tone sounds serious.

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