“Mm.” I press my hands to his shoulders. “It would have been better if you’d hit him.”
Noah shakes his head, laughing under his breath. “I think the board is going to hurt him more than I ever could.”
“God, I wish we could be in there to see it. Do you think he’ll cry?”
“I am choosing to imagine that’s how it goes down, yes.”
I grin. “Still okay with giving up the Albuquerque job? It’s a good opportunity, you know.”
“Mackenzie . . .” He pulls me against him, his hand pressing against my spine. “You’re the best opportunity I could choose.”
I feel warmth flushing my cheeks down into my chest. “Wow, you’re getting downright sappy, aren’t you? What’s next, a sonnet? You know, you could—”
Noah’s mouth really is a very effective method of shutting me up.
I wind my arms around his neck as I sink deeper into his kiss, not caring in the slightest that we’re in a very public hallway of a very public hospital, which anyone could come strolling down. We are officially official now—nothing fake about it. They can just keep walking. I feel his hands curve around my waist to squeeze, and my head starts to dizzy with the potency of his scent, already thinking about how I might persuade him to get out of here with me and take me back home so we can resume his “groveling.”
Noah pulls away with a blissful look on his face, happier and lighter than I’ve ever seen him. And it’s for me. It makes my heart pound and my head spin, and all those notions about fate and destiny are still foreign to me, still a little outside of my wheelhouse—but looking at him now . . . it makes me feel things I never thought were possible.
Noah looks down the hall. “Should we get out of here? If we keep this up, I’m going to drag you into another clos—”
“I think I love you,” I blurt out, blandly, like I’m announcing the weather.
Noah looks at me like I’ve just told him the sky is made of cheese, blinking down at me dazedly as he processes what I’ve said. “You think you love me?”
I nod, feeling the words rising out of my throat before I can stop them. “I’m not totally sure, because I’ve never loved anybody before. Well, except for my grandparents. And Parker, obviously, but that’s just as a friend. I know it’s probably silly, because it hasn’t been that long, but someone said something to me not long ago, and it got me thinking, and I think there’s a good chance that I—”
He shuts me up with another kiss—he really is getting so good at that—and all the nerves that I’d just been experiencing melt away, my pulse thumping in my ears and under every inch of my skin as actual joy pumps through my blood. I relax with the pressure of his mouth, and he lets his lips linger for several seconds, as if he’s savoring this moment.
And when he breaks away, he’s actually beaming. “I love you,” he tells me. “I don’t care how long it’s been. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted, and you’re the only one I ever will want. I don’t care if it’s silly or crazy or whatever else—I love you, Mackenzie.”
“Oh, okay,” I answer airily, still processing everything myself. “Is it okay that I’m still only kind of sure that I love you? Because I don’t want to—”
“I will take”—he presses another heavy kiss to my lips—“whatever you have to give. I just want you. However I can have you.”
“I mean,” I say quietly. “I am pretty sure.”
He grins, lowering to let his lips brush against my cheek. “Pretty sure is good enough for me.”
The happiness I’m feeling is scary, but there is also a sweetness to it, a sense of satisfaction, almost like fitting the last piece of a puzzle to see the picture as a whole. I can’t say if it’s fate that I’m feeling, I don’t know if I’ll ever believe in that—but it’s something incredibly close.
We break apart when we hear more footsteps, Noah clearing his throat as a petite brunette clacks down the hallway, looking preoccupied. She stops short when she sees us, her eyes widening and her mouth parting in surprise. “Dr Taylor? Dr. Carter?”
I cock an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Sorry,” she offers. She points to herself. “I’m Jessica. From Radiology. It’s just, like, so awesome to see you together. You’re the talk of the hospital!”
My eyes widen, realization hitting me.