“What the…”

“I can’t see where I’m going,” he replied, moving past me. “Here, I’ll go first.”

“Why? To catch me if I fall?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether you want to make a habit out of me saving your life.”

“Ha ha ha, very funny.” I poked my tongue out at his back. “Honestly, you save a girl’s life one time and it’s like that’s all you can talk about.”

“It was pretty heroic.”

“Did you know there are caves down here? Hardly anyone goes in them.”

“What are you saying?”

“They’re a good place to hide bodies.”

Noah stopped halfway down the steps and looked at me. “Really, Reagan?”

I shrugged. “Bodies have been found there. I was simply sharing some local trivia.”

“Yeah, that’s what you were doing.”

I grinned when he turned back around.

“I know you’re grinning.”

“Shut up,” I muttered, clutching my shoes close to me. A gentle breeze floated past us, and I shivered. I’d never been so thankful for a sweater in my life.

It helped that this one was soft and smelled like Noah.

I wrapped it around me tightly when we reached the bottom of the steps. The sand was cold between my toes, and I let go of another little shiver as one ran down my spine.

The beach was deserted; we were the only people here tonight. That wasn’t unusual—it was too late in the year for late night parties, and only the locals really knew about this beach.

We couldn’t let the tourists have everything, right?

“You cold?” Noah wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me against him.

I wasn’t, but he didn’t need to know that.

So I nodded.

He was a good person to snuggle up against. Tall. Strong. Handsome. I’d been snuggled against worse.

What? I’d slept in the same bed as Halley and Ava, and Ava was an absolute mess in the morning.

We walked together for a few minutes. The waves rolled up the shore, the gentle crashing sound soothing to my ears. It was nice to just walk with him without either of us talking.

My lips still tingled from the kiss. It was a feeling I didn’t want to forget. Even if it never happened again, I could probably die happy.

I’d kissed the literal man of my dreams.

We turned and walked back toward the stairs where we went up the way we’d come down. It was completely dark by the time we got back to the truck, and Noah held my door for me while I climbed in.

He got in the other side and put in the key to start the truck. It rumbled to life, and I stole a glance at him.

Sweet baby Jesus, he was handsome.

Men like him were why catfights started.

It was evolution. We women were biologically wired to seek out and find the strongest, most manly man we could so we could procreate and keep up the questionable strength of the human line. Noah fit that to a tee.