“No, but I was going to say I heard back from the adoption investigators looking into my birth parents.” I’d been meaning to tell him today but got sidetracked, so now’s the perfect distraction from my thoughts. “They might have a lead. I’m meeting with them next week.”
He doesn’t say anything for a moment. Then he gives his head a shake like he was zoning out.
“Killer, that’s amazing. Are you nervous? Happy? It’s hard to tell from your resting rex face.”
I smile, even if he can’t see it. “Actually, I’m excited. It feels so silly to me now that I was always so scared to find out more.”
He raises my claw and presses it to his covered mouth before he looks up and down the street, then leads me across the cobblestones. But the moment we’re in the middle, he tugs my hand, pulling me to a stop.
“What are you doing? We’re gonna get run over,” I whisper.
He looks up and down the street again. “It’s all clear. Just a flower ghost and his T. rex.”
I chuckle, but he doesn’t move.
“You know I kissed you right here the night we met.”
I grin, and butterflies tickle my stomach because I can still feel that moment so distinctly inside my body. How urgent it felt but also the way he took his time as if we both needed to savor every second.
There was no way I wasn’t destined to fall in love with him.
From the outside, there’s nothing about this moment that could give away what it feels like. I’m sure we look ridiculous to any passersby. But still, I’m staring up into his sapphire eyes, peeking through those eye cutouts.
And even though my costume is trembling because of the fan, I’ve never felt more swept off my feet.
“Wanna take the risk and kiss me again?” I breathe out. “But I warn you, my teeth are pretty sharp.”
My big dino head wobbles as his shoulders shake.
“Promise you won’t bite?” he says, his voice layered in the gravel that hits me in all the right places.
I shrug, flirting like a good dinosaur.
We stand in silence as his hands slowly lift to my blown-up dome, the air crackling with that all-too-familiar chemistry that’s always ignited between us.
I’m expecting he’ll help it off me so we can kiss, but instead, Noah smashes his covered face into mine, dramatically kissing me the way kids make their dolls make out.
I scream-laugh as he wraps his arms around me. “Noah.”
His deep rumble of a laugh rolls off him before I jump ten feet in the air because a horn honks behind us.
“Oh my god.”
“Oh shit.” Noah laughs as he grabs my claw and pulls me across the street to the safety of the sidewalk, making me swish-swish-swish the whole way while I try and keep up.
“Is it ‘romance isn’t dead’ or ‘romance makes you dead’? I can’t remember,” I say, a bit breathless as he stares down at me.
“You’re asking a guy in the afterlife. I carry a bias. But still, sorry about that. Are you okay? I was aiming for a moment, not the ER.”
I nod, feeling the head wobble. “Right as rain, but I’d be even better if our ride would find us because then I could be a respectable Rexy and make out in the back of a stranger’s car.”
“God, I love how classy you are.” He fake smooches me again, making me laugh, before taking my hand. “The Uber should be over by the park. I think they’re already rerouting, expecting traffic for the lookie-loos who drive up and down to see decorations.” He glances down at his phone. “We should try and hurry.”
“Is the car close?” He’s walking faster, holding my outstretched arm behind him as he pulls me along. I keep yapping. “Because I feel like there’s a decent chance that I’ll get whatever you call rug burn but for polyester if we keep sprinting for blocks. The inside of my legs are gonna look like Hot Pockets—”
His head turns back over his shoulder. “Hot Pockets?”
“Yeah, like burnt perfection because I might start an electrical fire from the friction.” I laugh. “Slow down.”
