Alison couldn’t sleep.
After dinner, Noah had shown her to the guest room, smiling softly as he left her to get settled in for the night. She had thanked him, but the words felt hollow as they left her lips, her mind still swirling with thoughts of everything that had happened. How had they gone from pretending to actually... dating? The thought alone made her heart race.
Now, hours later, she lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, her fingers unconsciously tracing the spot where Noah had touched her cheek earlier. His thumb had been so gentle, his proximity overwhelming. The look in his eyes—the heat, the unspoken understanding—it was all too much. And the way he said it, so casually, like it was the most normal thing in the world. “We’re actually dating now, you know?” he had said, and
