Her Festive Flirtation

In fact, she couldn’t be sure that she was thinking at all. Because now she was caught in Noah’s gaze when she was pretty sure she shouldn’t be. He was so close she could see the grey flecks in his blue eyes. She could see the emotions there, too.

The caution. The interest. The desire.

It had her remembering that he still had her wrist in his hand. And that realisation sent a heady heat slithering from the contact, up and around her arm, settling much too close to her chest. To her heart.

Her other hand was still braced on the lower half of his body. Much too close to his—

‘Um...’ she said, pulling her hands from his body and stepping back. ‘It’s probably okay now.’

‘Yeah,’ he replied in a hoarse voice. He cleared his throat. ‘It was fine before you came in.’

‘Of course.’

There was an awkward beat of silence, but Ava took solace in the fact that it came from both of them. She hadn’t been the only one acting stupidly. She hadn’t been the only one affected.

But thinking about it like that didn’t comfort her as much as she’d hoped.

‘Could you pass me my top?’ Noah asked after a few moments.

‘Yeah, sure.’ She paused. ‘Where is it?’

‘Behind you.’

When she turned back to hand it to him there was a slight smile on his face.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘Nothing,’ he said, pulling on his top.

Disappointment sailed through her as she said goodbye to his abs.

‘I was just thinking it’s going to be an interesting wedding.’

‘That’s one way to put it.’

‘You don’t think so?’

‘I think that I need to get through it in any way that I can. Which,’ she said, considering, ‘might involve alcohol.’

‘Ah. You’re old enough to drink now, aren’t you?’

She cocked an eyebrow. ‘You say that as if you weren’t the one who handed me my first beer.’

His smile widened. ‘See—interesting.’

‘You and I have very different definitions of that,’ she replied, and walked back around the counter. Her breath came out a little more easily now that there was space between them.

‘Probably. But I think it might have the same results.’

Which was precisely what she was worried about. Because after the short, but very eye-opening interaction they’d just had, she was beginning to think her crush was no longer a secret.

Or perhaps she was more concerned that this unexpected flare-up of her crush was no longer a secret. Because if she’d managed to keep it secret after she’d asked him to kiss her for the first time, she certainly hadn’t after she’d thrown herself into their second kiss.

But in the seven years since they’d last seen one another—years during which she hadn’t even heard from him—she had managed to hide her feelings. And if what had just happened between them meant that Noah shared those feelings—

Noah? Sharing her feelings?

She nearly laughed aloud at the ludicrousness of it. She’d always known the reason he’d kissed her the first time had been out of pity. And the second kiss had just happened because he’d been heartbroken and hadn’t known what he was feeling.

Anything they’d shared was in her imagination. Back then and now. No one wanted Ava. No one wanted someone who spoke before she thought. Who was prickly for most of the time and defensive for the rest.

Just because Milo said it doesn’t make it true.

But itdoes, she corrected the voice in her head.

Milo hadn’t wanted to marry her after being with her for five years. He was the best person to know the truth. And if he hadn’t wanted her Noah sure as hell wouldn’t either.

The sooner she realised that, the better.

He was back from the deli in less than fifteen minutes. Ava had graciously allowed him to leave without commenting on the fact that he was buying their food. But maybe it wasn’t grace. Maybe she just needed space to deal with what had happened between them, just as he had.

It was a natural reaction to being around a beautiful woman, he’d told himself on the way to the deli. He hadn’t dated in so long he couldn’t remember. His body had just been reminding him that he had needs; his mind just responding as any person who had needs would.

But when he returned and saw Ava sitting on his balcony, staring out over the mountains visible to most residents of Somerset West, he faltered. Had she looked this forlorn before? This defenceless?

Now she seemed nothing like the spitfire who had tried to save her cat from a blaze and everything like that little girl he’d once saved from being bullied. And when his heart turned in his chest and his arms ached to pull her into his arms, Noah worried that his reaction to her earlier hadn’t just been natural. That it had been...more.

It didn’t help that when her eyes met his—brown and steady—he instinctively knew she wasn’t that little girl who’d needed saving. Her gaze wasn’t as innocent, as trusting, as that little girl’s had been. It was weary, cautious—as if she were ready to defend herself at any moment.

‘This place is just as beautiful on the outside as it is on the inside,’ she said into the silence.

Grateful for the distraction—his thoughts bothered him more than he’d thought they should—he nodded. ‘This particular view sealed the deal for me.’

‘I can imagine.’ She pushed out from the table she’d been sitting at. ‘I’d love to enjoy it some more, but I’m hungry. Like, really hungry. What do you have in there?’

He swung the deli bags out of her reach when she tried to peek inside them, and thought about how similar this was to how they’d been before he’d left. How similar it was to how she’d been before. And how it didn’t make him feel like he needed to protect her.

‘You’ll find out when I serve it.’

‘Spoilsport.’ She followed him to the kitchen. ‘Can I help?’

‘No.’

‘Excuse me?’

He smiled at the disbelief in her voice, and then took his time removing the takeaway dishes from the plastic bag and placing them on the kitchen counter.

When he saw her hovering, he said, ‘Have a seat.’