Page 68

For example, Noah introduced her as his girlfriend to his coworker. That meant something.

They were leaving dinner when a man near the entrance called Noah’s name.

“Cole,” Noah greeted him before turning naturally toward Claire. “This is my girlfriend, Claire.”

The word still caught her off guard.

Not because she had never heard Noah call her his girlfriend. Half of Manhattan had apparently reached that conclusion before they had.

It was different. Noah was not confirming someone else’s assumption.

He was choosing the word himself.

Claire’s coworkers already believed Noah was her boyfriend. Noah introduced her as his girlfriend to his coworkers because she really was.

They even made tentative plans for a double date with Cole and his girlfriend, Julia.

The day after their first kiss, Avery caught her smiling at absolutely nothing while at work.

“You kissed, didn’t you?” she asked.

Claire froze. “. . .Maybe.”

Avery pointed across the office. “Victoria owes me lunch.”

She couldn’t believe her coworker-turned-sort-of-friend and their boss were placing bets on her and Noah kissing.

“You’ve smiled more in the last week or two than you have since you started here,” Avery told her. “He makes you happy.”

“He does,” she agreed.

Another thing was now she could kiss Noah whenever she wanted to. She was quite enjoying that change.

The previous evening, he had been standing at her counter making coffee when she had walked over and kissed him simply because she could.

Noah had stared at her for half a second afterward. “What was that for?”

“Do I need a reason?”

His smile had answered for him.

On Saturday morning, Claire stood at the stove attempting pancakes while Noah cut strawberries beside her. She was supposed to be watching the pancakes cook.

One was already dangerously close to burning, but Claire had temporarily decided Noah’s face was more important.

She found herself staring at him.

Noah noticed. “What?”

“Nothing.”

He waited. Claire looked at him and said, “This is still weird.”

Noah nodded. “Yeah.”

“And you’re still annoying.”

“I know.”