The Summer Girlfriend (Heart Beach, #1)(58)
“No, it’s okay. Don’t worry.”
She held still as he meticulously pulled the fabric from the zipper.
“Um, you should look at the price tag while you’re back there,” she said.
He noted the price. “It’s fine.”
When he glanced up at the mirror in front of them, he found her watching him.
“It is?” she asked.
He nodded and refocused on the zipper. He tried his best not to imagine touching her anywhere else or undressing her with his eyes.
“I’ve almost got it,” he said.
When he finally pulled the fabric free, the zipper nicked Noelle’s skin a little, and she winced.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” he said, rubbing his thumb against the reddened skin to soothe the spot. He kept his thumb pressed there as he looked up and met her gaze in the mirror.
“It’s okay,” she said.
He let his eyes trail the slope of her neck. He wanted to place his mouth against her beating pulse. He wondered how she would respond if he did. When he met her gaze in the mirror again, she was watching him, her lips slightly parted.
“Okay, I’m back,” Daniela chirped. She paused on the other side of the curtain and chuckled. “I see two sets of feet under there. No funny business in my shop, young people!”
Jeremiah spared one last glance at Noelle before he backed away and stepped out of the dressing room, letting the curtain close behind him.
He held his hands up innocently. “No funny business here.”
Daniela laughed as she disappeared behind the curtain. Jeremiah shook his head to clear his thoughts.
Noelle was torturing him.
No, he was torturing himself.
After Noelle redressed and Daniela took her measurements, Jeremiah paid for the gown, and Daniela promised to have alterations finished before the gala next weekend.
“Thank you,” Noelle said to Jeremiah as they walked home. “Not just for the dress, but for the whole experience. I haven’t tried on dresses like that since senior prom. It was fun.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” he said. And he meant it. Noelle deserved to be fitted for beautiful gowns and to be told over and over again that she was beautiful. She deserved to have fun, and she deserved a break. From the looks of things, she’d been the heart of Hidden Gems Books, and it hadn’t stopped her from losing her job. She’d been given the shitty end of the stick.
He was torn between respecting the professional nature of their agreement and his desire to know more about her. His desire won in the end.
“Can I ask you something?” he said. “It’s personal.”
Chapter Eighteen
Noelle hesitated as she looked at Jeremiah. Last weekend she’d asked him a personal question about why he’d changed his lifestyle. She figured he was allowed to ask her a personal question in return. Plus, she was intrigued that he wanted to know something personal about her.
“Sure,” she said.
“Why did you drop out of college?”
His tone was genuinely curious. She didn’t detect any signs of judgment. But the story behind why she’d dropped out embarrassed her, and she didn’t love talking about it.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” he said quickly, noticing her strained expression. “I’m sorry if I’m being nosy.”
“You’re not being nosy,” she said. “It’s a reasonable question to ask.”
She could lie and come up with a nobler, less scandalous reason as to why she’d dropped out. But he’d been open with her when she’d asked her personal question. She wanted to be open with him too. Even though they were lying to other people about their relationship, she found that she didn’t want to lie to Jeremiah.
So, she told him the truth. She told about winning the essay contest and scholarship money her senior year of high school. She told him about how she’d loved the camaraderie in the dorms at UMD, and how being surrounded by people was something she’d craved back then as an only child. Jeremiah nodded, listening attentively. They walked by a house with wind chimes dangling outside the door, providing background music for their slow stroll. Then she told him about meeting CJ her junior year and everything that happened after her RA found his alcohol in her dorm room. Losing her scholarship and moving back home.
“Who the fuck is your stupid-ass ex?” Jeremiah asked fiercely when she finished talking.
She shouldn’t have found his anger so endearing, but she did, because he was angry on her behalf.
“Nobody,” she said. “He’s irrelevant now.”
“He’s an idiot, that’s what he is,” Jeremiah huffed. “I’m so sorry he did that to you, Noelle.”
“Yeah, me too,” Noelle said. “He was young and scared. I’d like to think that he’d make a different decision today, but who knows. Anyway, I would have kept trying to find ways to come up with the money after it happened, but my mom got into a car accident that summer, and she was in the hospital for a while. I thought it was more important to stay home and help her than going back to school. And I realized that I didn’t have a real plan where college was concerned anyway. I didn’t want to use my sociology degree toward a job. I only knew that I wanted a fulfilling career that provided a stable salary. It took me a long time to find out what I wanted to do.”