Page 26 of Just My Type (The Boston Hearts #3)

“I would venture to say it was a very big deal to Noah.” Pam furrows her brow in a way that tells me she’s arguing with herself over what to say next, and I’m instantly curious because Pam always knows what to say.

Finally, she shakes her head and speaks.

“He hasn’t dated much in the last three years. ”

“How much is not much?” Amelia takes the words right out of my mouth.

Pam looks directly at me. “At all. He hasn’t dated at all.”

“Oh, my god,” Jo squeals, literally kicking her feet. “I love this so much. He’s been pining for you, and now it’s finally happening and we’re going to marry brothers and like I said, everyone’s going to live happily ever after.”

I have to metaphorically slap my hand over my mouth to keep from blurting out that I don’t have to get married because Noah and I are, in fact, already very, very married. For the moment. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Too late,” Jo says. “Getting ahead of myself is my very best thing. And I need something to distract me from the fact that my wedding is still a month away. I want to get married right this minute.”

“That can definitely be arranged if that’s what you want, Jo Jo.” Jordan sidles up to the bonfire and picks Jo up from her chair, sitting down himself and settling her on his lap.

Jo kisses his cheek and leans against him. “Nah, I want the whole wild party, but I just wish it wasn’t so far away. And that I wasn’t so impatient.”

Jordan chuckles, wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to the side of her head. Seeing the two of them together, how much they love each other, has my heart squeezing. “It’s my favorite thing about you.”

“Everything about her is your favorite thing,” Elliot says, leaning down to kiss Amelia and taking the chair next to her, capturing her hand in his.

“Like you’re any better.” Cooper grabs the bag of marshmallows from Cece’s lap and plops down on the grass.

“Simps. Both of you. You too, Dad,” he says, as Rob settles on the arm of Pam’s chair, wrapping an arm around her and stealing a sip of wine from her glass.

The look on Cooper’s face is soft as he glances at all the couples, and I can tell he likes seeing everyone settled, even as he lives to give them all shit.

I think he’s a caretaker through and through.

“What are we talking about over here?” Noah asks, appearing next to my chair. His deep voice and the way he ghosts his fingers over my bare shoulder have a shiver rolling down my spine and lust curling in my belly.

“How our older brothers are displaying embarrassingly simp-level behavior.”

Noah opens his mouth and then slams it shut, glancing down at me, and I’m one hundred percent sure he was about to say something that would out us as…

whatever we are…and stopped himself, not knowing whether I would want it broadcast. His care and understanding of what I might want or need makes me even more sure that telling everyone was exactly the right thing to do. For me and for him.

I smile and nod at him, hoping he gets the message, and I know he does because the grin that breaks across his face is dazzling and has my throat clogging with unexpected emotion.

“What about me?” he asks Cooper, sitting on the ground in front of my chair, leaning against my legs. “I’m a simp too.” He cranes his neck up to grin at me and then kisses my knee before settling back against me. My entire body goes haywire at the small contact.

“Are you though?” I can’t help but smile at the glint in Cooper’s eye. I love these brothers so much. “I haven’t seen much simp behavior from you. In fact, I didn’t even realize you and Hannah were actually a thing until just this minute, and you know how I hate being out of the loop.”

“For what it’s worth, I didn’t know until like half an hour ago and Hannah is my literal, actual sister.” Jo gives me a stink eye, and I just grin innocently.

“I knew,” Cece says proudly. “I know everything.”

Everyone laughs at that, and Noah reaches around and takes one of my hands in both of his.

When he looks up at me with that same combination of fun and heat that is so uniquely him and kisses my knee again, I think that I have never been so happy and so settled in my life, and for the first time in a long time maybe, just maybe, I am exactly where I am supposed to be, temporary home and all.

I think again about that list I made for him. The one that’s sitting in my phone, unsent.

Brave .

Picking up my phone from the arm of my chair, I unlock it, scrolling to my message thread with Noah.

Me

[Hannah’s fantasy list attached]

Noah’s phone dings, and I watch as he lifts a hip and digs it out of his pocket, unlocking the screen without looking at the notification.

I can tell the exact second he opens the text because he inhales sharply, his shoulders going rigid.

He stares at the screen for a long moment before his thumbs start to type.

I’m already looking at my phone when the message comes through.

Noah

Game on, Gorgeous. Game fucking on.