He was still holding me; my hand was still on his chest with his on top. His head was resting against mine so that I could feel his words against my scalp. Which made my head feel all tingly and warm.

“It’s late,” I said. “I have an appointment early tomorrow. I should get home.”

I don’t know why I said this. It wasn’t like I was going to be able to go home and go right back to sleep. I was pretty sure I’d be up for hours dissecting this entire evening. And given the overwhelming desire I had to stay right where I was, that was a signal to me that I needed some space to get my head on straight. This wasn’t supposed to be about pretending Noah Douglas was my boyfriend. This was about fixing my fear of kissing and both of us moving on with our lives. I wasn’t dumb enough to think that we could do that together.

I started to disentangle myself from him, and I could sense his reluctance to do the same, but he did.

“I’m walking you home.” He didn’t ask, but he wasn’t commanding me, either. More like it was what was going to happen even if I objected. But I wasn’t going to object. He took me by the hand again while I briefly wondered how insane my hair looked at the moment.

We went outside and the stars overhead were bright, as were the lights in the valley below us. The air was cold and biting, and I sucked in a breath.

“Cold?” he asked.

When I nodded, he released my hand and stopped to take off his hoodie. He handed it to me, and I happily put it on. It was still warm from his body heat and smelled just like him.

He was never getting this thing back. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He took my hand again, and we started walking. We didn’t say anything else, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. More like a comfortable one where we didn’t need to speak and could just . . . be together.

Then we were on Gladys’s front porch with the half moon out and the crisp, slightly pine-scented air surrounding us. He took both of my hands, holding them gently.

“Good night, Miss Nolan. Thank you for allowing me to escort you home.”

He was such a dork, and I loved it. “Good night, Mr. Douglas.” Everything felt like a perfect romantic movie moment that I didn’t want to go to waste.

“I want to try something,” I told him. I couldn’t kiss him normally without losing it, but what if . . . ? I leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. His skin felt warm underneath my lips, and I stayed there, breathing him in. I could feel his surprise, his sharp intake of breath as I stood there and waited.

Huh.