I stop, my butt perched at the end of the booth. “Where are you taking me?”
Noah grins. “I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.”
I can’t remember the last time a man surprised me with something. Finding my ex, Mathis, in bed with my ex-best friend doesn’t count!
“Did you fall in?” Noah asks when I return to the table.
“No, I didn’t fall in,” I say, giving him a look. “I just had to freshen up.” That’s a complete lie. Okay, not complete. I did go to the bathroom and freshen up, after I found Ricky for a quick chat.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Hand in hand, Noah and I leave The Loading Dock an
d make the short trip into town. Without a word, Noah pulls into an empty parking lot, lit only by two dim streetlights.
“This is my surprise?” I look around, confused.
Noah gets out of his car and walks around to my side. He opens the door and holds out his hand. “Do you trust me?”
“Weirdly,” I say, slipping my hand into his, “I do.”
Helping me from the car, Noah shuts the door, wraps an arm around my waist, and guides me though the parking lot. When I finally focus on where we are, I stop in my tracks.
“Is that what I think it is?”
“Well,” he says, his voice seductive. “I did say it was a rite of passage.”
“Oh my gosh, Noah.” I get a giddy feeling in my stomach. Silly, I know, considering I’m a grown woman, and a guy has brought me to a football field to make out, but it’s the thought behind the make-out session that counts. “Are you going to kiss me under the bleachers?”
“No.” He shakes his head, leading me toward the large metal stands. “We’re going to kiss on the bleachers. You’ll have to wait to see what happens beneath them.”
Noah laughs when I pick up speed, practically dragging him to the bleachers. We climb the small set of stairs, and I squeal as we sit down three rows up. “Holy smokes!” I take a few deep breaths, fidgeting around. “You could’ve warned me that these bleachers would be cold.”
In one swift move, Noah lifts me and situates me on his lap. My legs draped over his, I wrap an arm around his shoulder and make myself comfortable.
The air is crisp and clean—still warm, yet offering the occasional cool breeze as the sun dips beyond the horizon. As the orange and red hues fade to black, stars scatter across the sky. The sight is utterly breathtaking and not something I’m used to seeing in the city.
“It’s so beautiful here. Look at all those stars.”
“So. Incredibly. Breathtaking.”
I turn to Noah. There are a million beautiful stars in the massive southern sky, and this sweet man only has eyes for me. Something happens inside my heart, inside my soul. Something I’ve never felt before. Something I want to keep feeling.
Noah kisses my flushed cheek. “Breathe,” he whispers. But I find it impossible when he’s looking at me like he wants to devour me. He points toward the sky. “Look, there’s the Big Dipper, and over there’s Orion’s Belt.”
I scan the black canvas. It’s full of stars, but I have no idea what he’s looking at. “Where?”
Noah leans in until we’re cheek to cheek. “See those three stars lined up?” He points to the left, and sure enough, there are three stars in a row. There’s also a flutter in my belly, and I wonder if he can sense it. I wonder if he gets this strange feeling somewhere deep inside every time we touch, or maybe it’s just me.
“Now I see it.”
“That’s Orion’s Belt. And right over here,” he says, spinning me the other direction, “is Ursa Major.”
“You’re really good at this. I couldn’t locate a constellation if my life depended on it.”
My back pressed against Noah’s chest, I feel him shrug. He drops his chin to my shoulder. “When Nova was a baby, I started rocking her to sleep on the porch swing. It became a ritual for us. We’d rock and look at the stars until she dozed off. My mom always says I need to break her of it, that she’s too old to be rocked every night, but I can’t. That’s our time, you know?”
I nod, a shiver running through me as a cool breeze whips over us. Noah wraps his arms around me from behind, holding me close.