Page 98 of Sweet Temptation

“Well, no one’s going to be kissing anyone if we don’t get our booth looking right,” Cress continued. “We should probably get to work.”

I quickly finished my slice before joining everyone to paint the booth. It was a fun afternoon, but most of us got covered in paint when some of the boys decided to start chasing us with their paintbrushes.

Cress, Anna, and I were laughing as we made our way back to the dorms when the booth was finally finished.

“We look like works of art,” I said, laughing at the splats of paint covering my clothes and hair. I had no doubt it was probably on my face too.

“Yeah, on reflection, I probably should have warned you guys to wear old clothes,” Cress said. “Or organized some coveralls to protect them. Sorry your outfits are ruined.”

“Are you kidding?” Anna said. “I think the pink paint adds pizzazz. I want to do this to all my outfits.” I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, but she sounded serious. “I’m not so sure about the paint in my hair though.”

“Yeah, me neither,” I added. I was probably going to have to wash it a million times to get the pink streaks out.

We were almost at our dorm when we ran into Luther, Kaden, and Noah. They were walking toward us, and they struggled to hide their reactions when they caught sight of our paint-covered clothes. Kaden was smiling sweetly while Luther’s eyes lit up brightly. I knew he was thinking of all the different ways he could tease us. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Noah. Not after Thursday night.

“Evening, ladies,” Luther said. “You’re all looking fabulous.”

“Aren’t we?” Anna agreed. “I always thought pink was my color.”

“Indeed,” he replied. “Now, was there wrestling involved with the paint, or did you all just happily roll around in it?”

“Perhaps there was a bit of both,” Anna sassed him.

“I think it’s cute,” Kaden said. He was looking directly at Cress, and I wasn’t sure he’d meant to share his thoughts out loud because the two of them immediately started blushing and refused to make eye contact. Cress definitely had a thing for Kaden, and I think he might have a thing for her too.

As the others talked, I finally risked a glance in Noah’s direction. He was staring straight at me. He didn’t look nearly as terrible as he had the other night, and the cut on his head seemed to be healing nicely. But his expression was more reserved than normal, and it was impossible to know what he was thinking.

“Can I talk to you, Isobel?” he asked when he caught my gaze.

The others all fell silent, and I slowly started to nod. I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to him. Especially not when I’d had such a good day. But I wasn’t sure I knew how to say no to this guy.

“We’ll catch you inside,” Cress said, as Luther and Kaden also made their excuses to leave.

Within moments, Noah and I were standing alone in the dusky evening light. I waited for him to say something, but he remained quiet as he stared at me.

“You wanted to talk?”

He blew out a breath and nodded. “I wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier this week,” he said. “I shouldn’t have made you feel bad about trying to move on in PE, and I shouldn’t have taken my frustrations out on you at the soccer field. I was out of line, and it was unfair to you, especially when you were only being kind.”

“Oh,” I murmured. “Don’t worry. It’s fine.”

“It’s not,” he said. “Not really. I haven’t been myself this week. My grandfather dragged me out of school and…” He shook his head. “Sorry, you don’t need to hear me complaining.”

“I don’t mind.”

But Noah didn’t elaborate. It didn’t stop me from wondering what was going on with his grandfather and why he’d taken Noah out of school. He’d mentioned something about his grandfather pressuring him the other night, and I wished I knew what was happening. Did it have anything to do with me or Matthew? Or perhaps it was related to the financial difficulties the Hastings’ company was going through. I knew I couldn’t ask him though. He clearly didn’t want to talk about it with me.

We were both quiet and the seconds between us dragged out. Finally, I broke the silence. “Well, I should probably go inside and get cleaned up before dinner.”

I moved to walk past him, but he reached out and lightly touched my arm. It was the smallest brush of his skin against mine, and yet my whole body buzzed from it. “I like the pink,” he said, with the softest smile. “Kaden was right. It is cute.”

I struggled to swallow as I nodded. He looked like he wanted to say more, but the sound of people walking up behind me made him tear his gaze from mine.

“Have a good night, Isobel,” he said before striding away.

I watched him leave and didn’t move until he’d disappeared from sight. I wasn’t sure what to make of my interaction with Noah, but I appreciated his apology. Maybe it was a sign we were moving in the right direction and one day this would all be behind us.

When I went to bed, my mind kept replaying the small smile he’d given me as he’d looked at the pink paint in my hair.

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