“Sooo, like the vibe I get from him is that he is totally interested in you,” one said.
“Did he say that?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Well, we asked him if he was single and then told him that our mom was looking to date and showed him her photo.”
“Huh?”
One took her cell phone out, pressed a few buttons on the screen and then showed me.
“Wait . . . that’s your mom?!” The most gorgeous woman filled the screen.
“Yes,” they both said at the same time. “She’s a model.” Also at the same time.
“But when we showed Noah the picture, he didn’t seem interested. At all. And then we asked if he was seeing someone, and he said no, but he’s not really looking right now either. And then I asked if he wasn’t looking because he had already met someone he was into, or whether he wasn’t interested because he wasn’t dating.”
“And?” I pressed.
“Well, that’s when he went all silent and his cheeks flushed and he started blushing and saying stuff like, maybe he’s met someone, but it was complicated, and he wasn’t sure, and . . .”
“Wait. He said he wasn’t sure?”
“Yes,” they replied.
“Really?” I thought for a while. What exactly did that mean, though? That he wasn’t sure about me? Wasn’t sure about kissing me? And why was it complicated? And did he even mean me? I mean . . .
I felt a lot like Sheik Khalifa when Amanda Stone accidentally walked into his bedroom in the middle of the night, looking for the kitchen. How tormented he was with thoughts that he couldn’t make sense of.
“Well, thanks.”
They nodded. “Cool. We got your back, girl.”
I smiled. Wow, no one had ever said that to me before, and I wanted to hug these two girls in front of me who I didn’t even know, but suddenly felt close to. Felt some sisterly bond with. Some “girls must stick together” feeling that, until this moment, had never existed in my life. And then a loud shout cut through the air.
“SWIM!” someone yelled.
“Oh my God, yes!” The twins clapped their hands excitedly and started rushing towards the sea.
“Aren’t you coming?” they shouted at me as they sprinted forward.
“Uh . . . now? In the dark? The sea?” I stared at the mass of black water in front of me.
“Yes,” they shrieked. “Come!”
“Okay!” I shouted, and then looked for Noah. I scanned the crowd of people and, finally, a pair of blue eyes caught my attention.
“Meet you there,” he shouted across the beach as we ran towards the water. I looked in front of me. The twins had started peeling their clothes off, exposing bikinis underneath. I certainly wasn’t going to peel any of my clothes off. Never. And I was sure Noah felt the same way. I looked back at him to have this confirmed, only it wasn’t. And that’s when it happened . . .
CHAPTER 55
In slow motion, the whole world went silent, everyone else disappeared and a light broke through the dark sky above and illuminated Noah from the heavens. I stood dead still, digging my toes into the sand, gripping at it, in case I was going to fall over as Noah peeled—and I mean, that was the only way to describe it—a long, slow, deliberate peeeeeel of his shirt from his muscled torso. I watched, fairly bloody gobsmacked, as he shook his head, his hair flopping from side to side, and then he turned, scrunched the T-shirt up into a ball, which made all the muscles in his arms and torso ripple, and then tossed it across the sand. My jaw sort of dangled open and I realized precisely what I was doing: drooling over a man. I hope Noah didn’t turn around and see me . . .
“Shit!” I slapped my hands over my eyes and started running back towards the sea as Noah turned and his eyes zoned in on mine, as if he knew exactly what I’d been doing. Mortified, I kept on running towards the sea, swept up in the flurry of feet and excitement, but all I really wanted to do was turn around and look at him again, and so I did. I think I caught a one-second glimpse of a shirtless, running Noah before I was no longer running. I was flying. Or maybe it was falling. It was definitely falling, as my foot caught on some driftwood, and I started to tumble. If I hadn’t