The Summer Girlfriend (Heart Beach, #1)(82)

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At breakfast the next morning, Jeremiah couldn’t help gazing across the table at Noelle as she talked with Robin about the talent show. He was replaying scenes from last night in his head, how she’d straddled him and teased him as she’d lowered herself onto him inch by delicious inch. When Noelle caught eyes with him, she blushed and lost her train of thought. He grinned and focused on finishing his cereal.

While Noelle and Robin practiced with the girls in the backyard, Jeremiah swam in the pool. Amara waded in the shallow end. Celeste and Percy were locked away in Celeste’s office. Again, Jeremiah thought about asking them if they needed help, but he didn’t want to intrude. Or worse, ruin the fragile peace that he and Percy had established over the last couple weeks. So instead, he waited for Noelle while she practiced with the girls. They were getting better. Even if they didn’t place in the talent show, they’d definitely finish the summer with more confidence, thanks to Noelle.

Afterward, he and Noelle walked to the beach. Usually, he spent most of his time at the beach trying to become one with the ocean. Something he’d inherited from his Grandma Minnie. But today, he lay under the umbrella beside Noelle and listened as she read aloud from The Missing Women. He was trying his best to focus, but he was distracted by how lovely Noelle looked in her bikini. Unable to help himself, he lightly brushed his fingers across her belly button. She laughed and gave him a pointed look.

“Are you listening to me?” she asked.

“I’m trying to. I swear,” he said. “But your beauty is distracting. I can’t help it.”

“Hmm. Well, you’re not so bad yourself,” she whispered, leaning down to press her mouth against his for a kiss. She pulled away and rolled back onto her towel. “Do you want me to keep reading or should I stop?”

“Keep reading.” He folded his hands on top of his chest. “I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow as she started to read again. As promised, he didn’t move his hands, even though he really wanted to. He even closed his eyes so that he could better listen. But after a few minutes, Noelle stopped reading. He peeked an eye open and found her staring at him. The corner of her mouth lifted in a slight smirk.

“What?” he said. “I was listening, I promise.”

“I know, but I’m done reading now.”

She leaned over to kiss him again, and he laughed and pulled her closer.





Chapter Twenty-Five




They got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the drive home. Noelle was driving this time. She wanted to know what it was like to drive Jeremiah’s car, and as she suspected, it drove smoothly. She barely felt any bumps in the road, and it didn’t rattle like her Accord.

“What kind of car is this again?” she asked as she seamlessly switched lanes.

Jeremiah replied with the name of a foreign car brand that she’d never heard of before.

“You like driving it?” he asked. He’d reclined the passenger seat and was watching her with a lazy grin.

“I love it,” she said, and he laughed.

Once the traffic began to clear up, Jeremiah turned down the radio.

“Do you wanna stay over at my place tonight?” he asked.

She looked at him with a soft smile and nodded. They had so little time left before summer ended. She wanted to be around him as much as she could.

She took the exit for Jersey City and drove through the downtown area, past Hidden Gems Books and the hair salon where Tati worked. Jeremiah instructed her to make a right on a street that was lined with brownstones. People were walking their dogs and sitting on their stoops. By the grace of the parking gods, there was an open spot right in front of his apartment.

Noelle looked at Jeremiah and grimaced. “This is where you find out that if someone asked me to parallel park or walk barefoot on burning hot coals, I’d choose the coals easily.”

He snorted and opened his door. “I’ll do it.”

Noelle got out of the car and waited on the sidewalk as Jeremiah parallel parked. There was something about the way he flattened his hand against the steering wheel as he backed into the spot and checked his rearview mirror. Why did she find something so simple as him parallel parking to be so sexy?

As Jeremiah unlocked his apartment door, he sent Noelle a nervous glance.

“I don’t have people over that often,” he said as he turned the knob and stepped inside, holding the door open for her.

From his apprehensive expression, she was expecting to walk into a messy apartment that wasn’t ready for guests. However, his apartment was spotless. Gray-and oat-colored furniture was situated throughout the space, and large windows faced the street. Birds chirped happily on the tree branches outside.

“Wow,” Noelle said, eyes scanning her surroundings. “I walk by these kinds of brownstones all the time, and I’ve always wondered what they looked like on the inside.” She turned to him. He was standing by the couch. “Your apartment looks like it’s straight out of a catalog.”

He laughed. “That’s probably because I hired somebody to help me decorate. I wouldn’t have done this on my own.”

“They did a great job.”

Jeremiah lived in a cozy, curated apartment of someone who’d planted roots. It didn’t look like the apartment of someone who was moving in three weeks.