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I wanted to roll my eyes but if Rachel wasn’t doing well, by default, neither was Phoebe. “Are you worried?”
He shrugged. “What can I do about it? I can’t take Phoebe away just because her mom has a few bad hair days. Besides, Phoebe is all she has.”
“Maybe that’s why she goes around sleeping with unavailable men.”
“He was available, Noa. I won’t say whose fault that is, but any man who sleeps around doesn’t belong to anyone.”
The silence between us was awkward and I wanted to kiss him. I just wanted to touch him because it’d been too long.
“I want to kiss you,” I said to him.
He only smiled but he didn’t know that made it harder for me to stand where I was.
“What are you doing Friday night?” he asked.
“Depends,” I said.
“On what?” He leaned forward, his blue eyes sparkling. He’d gotten a haircut since I last saw him. It was still in a bun, just smaller—which I loved.
“If you’re asking me out. Then I’m doing whatever you’re doing.”
He smiled and licked his bottom lip, which of course turned me to putty. “I like your answer. There’s a charity event I was invited to, and I added you as my plus one.” He stood, and I frowned a little.
“Leaving already?” I asked.
He nodded as he brushed the front of his suit jacket. “I have to get back to work. But I’ll pick you up on Friday around seven.”
He left me standing in my kitchen, wondering what the hell this meant.
* * *
By Friday night,I was a nervous wreck. Miranda was zipping up my dress and kissing my cheek as the doorbell rang. She told me to wait there as she got the door and a few moments later, I was walking down the steps, the snug bodice of my blue dress holding me so tightly, I knew I couldn’t fall apart.
When Dexter looked up at me, he stopped mid-sentence, his eyes warming me from the inside out. “Blue…”
He walked toward me and my breath caught in my throat. I was no longer a twenty-seven-year-old woman with a child and a mortgage. I was a seventeen-year-old girl wishing he would finally see me. And he did. Goddamn it, he saw me.
“You look like a dream,” I told him right before he kissed my cheek, and I was stuck breathing him in. He smelled like one, too. I had to be careful because this felt a lot like a new beginning.
“Ready?” he asked, and I nodded before turning to say goodbye to Miranda.
Dexter and I took turns giving Dylan bedtime kisses, mine leaving red stains on his little cheeks.
When we walked outside, I gasped at the limo waiting for us.
“Dexter,” I whispered as I placed my hand over my mouth.
“We never went to prom. I may as well treat this the way I would’ve then,” he said.
I couldn’t help the way my eyes filled. We hadn’t gone to prom because I told Dexter I couldn’t afford a dress. He offered to purchase one for me, but I’d made him promise not to.
“You are amazing,” I told him before pressing my lips to his.
When he didn’t wipe the lipstick away immediately, I laughed. We climbed in the limo and for the first few minutes, I was wide-eyed and excited. Before I could simmer down, Dexter was taking my hands in his. I focused on him, a huge smile on my face.
“You must be wondering what tonight means,” he started, and I pressed my fingers into his palm. “Of course you are.” He glanced down at my hands and stopped, his eyes on the bracelets I was wearing.
Did he not know I felt the same way? To choose between breathing and loving him would be impossible.
