Page 41 of First Love, Second Draft

“Well, I don’t care what you want to call it, because right now I’m calling the shots. And you, little lady, are getting into that tub.”

“Don’t call melittle lady. And I’m keeping my robe on.”

“Fine.” He lifted her from the toilet and stepped toward the tub. “But only until you’re beneath the bubbles, then I’m taking that robe and burning it.”

She started to squirm. “Absolutely not.”

“Keep that up, babe, I’m going to drop you.”

“Don’t call mebabe.”

“I’m about to call youwet.”

“You’re not taking my robe away.”

“At least let me wash it.”

“That’ll take too long. Deal’s off. I’m not getting in the tub. Put me down.” She started hitting his shoulder. His bad shoulder.

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“I mean it, put me down this instant.”

“Fine.” He couldn’t hold on to her squirming like that anyway. He dropped her into the tub.

She screamed. A gush of soapy water splashed over the edge of the tub. One of her hands latched onto his shirt just as his foot slipped on the tile floor. He fell forward. His face dove in the water. Then his shoulders. Next thing he knew, he was in the tub on top of Gracie.

“What are you doing?” Gracie shrieked inches away from his face.

“You pulled me in.” He spit out a soap bubble.

“Well, get out.”

“I’m trying.” His hands kept connecting with her robe and her skin and lots of things that his hands probably shouldn’t be connecting with, because now his hands were giving him all sorts of ideas. So he opted to stop moving all together.

She must have reached the same conclusion. She stopped splashing. Stopped moving. Definitely stopped shrieking.

They stared at each other for seconds. Minutes. Honestly, he wasn’t sure.

Her lashes, spiked with water, blinked several times. “What are you doing?” she whispered. Calm. Gentle. Almost like she wasn’t mad at him. Almost like she might be thinking the same thing he was thinking. Especially when her hazel-eyed gaze lowered to his mouth.

“What are you doing?” she asked again.

What was he doing? Trying to stay afloat in dangerous waters, that’s what he was doing. His body shook with restraint. He needed to get out of this tub. Right now.

But he also needed to kiss her with every fiber of his being.

“Gracie, I—”

A deep throat cleared.

Noah barely had time to glimpse a tall man standing in the doorway before Gracie’s sudsy palm smacked his face. “Luke,” Gracie sputtered. “I didn’t expect you.”

“I can see that.”

“That’s Luke?” Noah asked right before she dunked his head in the water with all her flailing.

“Didn’t mean to interrupt,” he heard Luke say when his head came out of the water.

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