Page 105 of On the Rocks

We both breathed into the kiss, inhaling each other, and when she let out a soft, longing moan, all the blood rushed to where her leg rested between my legs.

I groaned, rolling my hips to let her feel me. “It hasn’t even been twenty minutes, and I want to bury myself in you again.”

She bit her lip on a smile. “What are you waiting for?”

“Energy,” I confessed honestly.

Ruby Grace laughed, kissing my nose before she balanced over me again. For a while we just stared at each other, listening to the insects, fingers trailing lightly over each other’s skin.

“I think I want to do it,” she whispered after a while.

I groaned. “Me, too, woman, but I need water. And a protein bar. And, like, at least thirty more minutes.”

“Not that,” Ruby Grace said, wide grin splitting her face. I counted the freckles that dotted her cheeks as she shook her head. “I mean AmeriCorps.”

My heart stopped at that. “Yeah?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I can’t believe you applied for me. I was so overcome with emotion when you told me… I just wanted to throw myself into your arms and thank you and thankGodfor sending you into my life. It was the first moment I realized you loved me… before you even told me. Because no one had ever done anything like that for me before. Ever.”

I ran my hand down her cheek. “So, you want to go?”

“I do.”

“Good,” I said, smirking. “Because an email came through to my inbox yesterday. They want a phone interview for the position in Utah.”

Her lips parted. “What?”

“They want—”

“AN INTERVIEW!” Ruby Grace screeched, throwing her arms around me and rolling until she was on top, surrounding me in every way with every limb as she squeezed and squealed. “Oh, my God. Noah!”

I laughed. “If this is the reaction I get, I’m going to apply for every job that exists in AmeriCorps.”

Ruby Grace just squeezed me more before sitting up. She straddled me now, her legs around my waist as she pressed her hands to my chest. Her eyes searched mine, worry etched in the creases. “And you’ll wait for me? If I go?”

“Are you kidding?” I asked, maneuvering until I was sitting up, too. We were chest to chest, then, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close. “Anything, Ruby Grace. I’d do anything for you.”

She kissed me, long and slow, our bodies melding together again before she fluttered her eyes open once more.

“I’ll go, if they hire me. But only on one condition.”

“And what’s that?”

“Well,twoconditions.”

I chuckled. “Okay. You going to tell me what they are or just keep adding on?”

“One, you have to come visit me. Every chance you get. And I’ll come home when I can, too.”

“That’s a given.”

“And two,” she said, trailing her finger down my chest and tapping it once. “When I’m done, we sail around the world together.”

I threw my head back on a laugh. “It takes a lot of money to do that, Ruby Grace. And a sailboat.”

She frowned. “Fine. Then when I’m done, we go sailing. Period. We can drive down to Florida, or up to Maine. Charter a boat. Whatever we have to do to get you on the open seas.”

I smiled. “Why is this a condition?”