Page 78 of On the Rocks

“Whatcha thinking about, Noah Becker?”

“Just you, Ruby Grace,” I mused, meeting her gaze again. “Always you.”

Her eyes softened, one hand leaving the mug and reaching out for mine. She folded her palm over my knuckles, lacing her fingers with mine, a thumb brushing my wrist.

“Tell me last night was real,” she whispered.

I swallowed, squeezing her hand in mine. “It was real,” I promised her. “It was perfect.”

She nodded, closing her eyes on a smile before she took another sip of her tea. For a while, we just sat there, eyes wandering over the other, gentle smiles on our lips. There was so much I wanted to tell her in that moment, so much I wanted to make known, but I knew it wasn’t the right time. Or the right place. There were things I needed to do before I made my big gesture, before I showed her the way it could be, if she were to choose me.

If she were to give me the honor of being the next man she called her own.

“I want to take you somewhere,” I said after a while, smoothing my thumb over her palm. “Will you go somewhere with me?”

“Where?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to tell you. Not yet. But… will you go with me?”

She leaned up, placing her mug on the bedside table before she took my face in her hands. “Anywhere.”

I smiled.

“But, not today,” she said next. “Today, I need to deal with… all ofthis.” She gestured to the space around us, as if her former fiancé and her family and the rest of the town were right there in my bedroom with us. Then, she turned my hand over, checking the time on my heart monitor watch with another groan. “Starting with church. In like an hour.”

I chuckled. “I understand.”

Reaching for her hand again, I squeezed it in mine, frowning as I watched her. She was so young —tooyoung to be faced with the hardship she was about to endure. It wasn’t going to be easy to break off an engagement, especially not in this town.

Andespeciallynot with her family.

“Why don’t you take a few days?” I offered. “I’ll be right here, but you do what you have to do. Okay?”

Her lips formed a brief smile before it fell again. “Okay. Yeah. I think that’s best.”

“Do you want me to come with you? To be with you for any of it?”

She sighed at that. “No,” she said, rubbing her free hand down her face. “As much as I know it’d be easier that way, this is something I need to handle on my own.”

“I get that,” I said, lacing our fingertips together. “How about you save Friday for me, then?”

“Friday,” she mused.

I nodded. “Gives me some time to get everything together.”

At that, she cocked a beautiful eyebrow. “What are you planning, Noah Becker?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out, Ruby Grace Barnett,” I retorted, kissing her nose, her cheeks, and then capturing her lips. She inhaled at the connection, breathing into me, a sigh leaving her lips when I finally pulled back.

Her mouth curved into a playful smile. “Last night, you said I have strawberry smoothie lips.”

“You do,” I said, running my thumb over said lips. The bottom one stuck to my skin, pulling down to expose her teeth before it popped back up.

That sight shot electricity straight down to my cock.

I groaned, shaking my head and readjusting myself in my shorts as I slid my hand back into her hair. “I thought that the first time I saw you back in town. And every day since, I wondered if they tasted like a strawberry smoothie, too.”

“And do they?”