Noah reached up with his free hand to brush some hair behind my ear, and his fingertips lingered near the base of my neck. Then—

I shrieked, falling back onto the sofa and trying to scramble away. Noah was too fast, though, and was lying across me, pinning me down, tickling me ruthlessly. I gasped for air, I was laughing so hard. I wriggled, kicked, pushed his hands away. Nothing worked.

I was wriggling so much that I was right on the edge of the sofa, and Noah let the two of us tumble on to the floor with a loud thud.

“Noah!” I shrieked. “Noah, stop it!”

He chuckled, grinning mischievously, a devilish gleam in his electric blue eyes. But then his mom called from down the hallway, “Keep your clothes on!”

We both paused. Sometimes I could see where Lee got it from, when June wasn’t above embarrassing us like that. My cheeks were turning red, I could tell, and Noah bit his lip, holding back a laugh. I swatted his chest while my hand was free, because the look on his face was making me want to burst into giggles too. I bit the inside of my cheeks hard.

“Hey, you guys.”

We both looked over to the doorway, where Rachel had stuck her head in. She gave a small wave, which I would’ve returned if my hands hadn’t been pinned between my chest and Noah’s.

“Hey,” we responded.

I said, “Welcome to the madhouse. Sorry, sorry. Beach house.”

“Rach, come on, my parents want to show you the beach.”

I had never been so glad for Lee’s excitable nature as when he wrapped his arms round Rachel’s waist and pulled her away, out of the house. I heard the back door rattle closed behind them and, through the windows, saw them all heading down toward the beach.

I turned back to Noah, wiggling one of my hands free to run it through his hair, pushing it away from his face.

He shot me one of his rare smiles then. Not his trademark sexy smirk, or even half a smile. It was the one that flashed the dimple in his left cheek and was so infectious that I had to smile back at him, getting that warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach.

“So, tomorrow night.”

“Huh?” Did I miss something?

“I was thinking we could do something tonight,” he said, “but we can’t because we’re all going to this steakhouse, apparently, to welcome Rachel. But we’ll do something tomorrow. Just me and you.”

“Did you have anything in particular in mind?”

He tapped his nose. “I’ve got a few things up my sleeve.”

“It doesn’t involve a monster truck rally, though, right?”

He laughed and tweaked my nose, making me grimace and scrunch up my face. “No, it doesn’t. I know you, Elle. Trust me, you’ll love it. If it goes to plan.”