Page 86 of One Little Kiss
“We could’ve just walked back here,” Noelle says as she climbs out of the car. She turns to face me. “Okay, what do we have to do here?”
I furrow my brows as I pretend to study the list. As if I don’t know it all by heart. As if I didn’t spend the better part of the last few days hashing out exactly how this would go and what I’d say. “Hmm. It looks like we need to go on the swings.”
“The swings, huh?” She turns to eye the swings, which are currently occupied by another team. “That’s a…random choice.”
Her tone is sarcastic. I know she’s caught on. How could she not?
“Not really,” I admit.
“You know,” she says slowly as she turns to face me. “Shoving pastries into my mouth at Madeline’s, wearing my comfiest clothes, and now swinging at my favorite playground…” She tilts her head to the side and purses her lips, her eyes gleaming with emotion. “It’s all my favorite things.”
“Really?” I rock back on my heels, my hands in my pockets to keep from reaching for her as I pretend to consider this.
“Mmmhmm.” She crosses her arms and I can see her lips twitching. “I seem to recall a morning in your kitchen where I mentioned all of these things and how they’d be…”
She trails off and swallows, and I take pity on her.
“Your perfect date?” I offer.
She nods.
“It does seem like that, doesn’t it?” I meet her gaze and hold it, and the air between us crackles as the tension builds. It’s hard to draw in enough oxygen as I move closer to her. I pull my hands out of my pockets, but I don’t reach for her. Not yet.
She holds my gaze for a long beat, and I see the moment her poker face cracks. Her lips start to tremble and her eyes get shiny with unshed tears. “Elijah….”
Then I reach for her. Finally. I pull her into my arms and she burrows into me like we were both just waiting for this moment.
I hold her tight and settle my lips against her temple as she draws in shaky breaths against my chest.
“Okay, you caught me,” I say, pretending to be put out. “The entire list is made up of all the things you love.”
Her arms are trapped between us as I wrap my arms even tighter around her back. But she moves them so she’s clutching the fabric of my shirt as she sniffs. “Why?”
I kiss her temple because for a second I don’t know how to answer. “I guess I thought that was obvious.”
She pulls back slightly and tilts her head so she can see me. This close I can read everything in her eyes—the hope and the fear.
It’s an exact mirror of what I’m feeling right now. This hope is terrifying. Like standing on top of a cliff and looking down. If she still decides she doesn’t want this…
Doesn’t want me…
I push aside the thoughts.
“I messed up with our date.” I cringe. Any speeches I’d had planned fly out the window as I look into her eyes. “I wanted to show you that we could be…different. But the thing is… I don’t want different. I don’t need different. I never meant to make you feel like you had to be somebody else…”
Her expression grows tight with emotion, her lips pressing together.
“You are my best friend and you are the girl I fell for. I don’t need us to be anything but what we are.”
She lets out a huff that’s part laughter and part sob. “Two dorks who watch bad movies and play video games together?”
“Not just that,” I say. “We also eat too many carbs.”
Her lips tremble and she bursts out in a laugh at the same time the tears she’s been holding back spill over.
I’m honestly not sure if this is good or bad so I just hold her tight, stroke her back, and kiss the top of her head again as she sniffs and takes a few deep breaths.
“So all this…” She pulls back a bit as she talks, but I don’t let go of her completely. “It’s all the things I love, huh?”
