The Kissing Booth: Unavoidable

Part 2 - Chapter 3 - Back to Mexico Part 2

I see Noah up at the bar and notice he's keeping an eye on our table while he is there.  I wonder if he's worried about someone trying to hit on Elle again.  Noah returns to the table and he passes everyone their drinks.  He and Darren are such gentlemen and usually take turns getting our drinks for us, but tonight Noah has been getting them each time.  We're keeping things pretty low key tonight but I still find myself wondering if Elle is drinking tonight.  She seems happy but again, not quite her crazy, partying self.  Is she just pretending to drink tonight?  If Elle isn't going to answer any questions, maybe I'll have to try to figure it out for myself. 

Noah immediately puts his arm around Elle as soon as he sits down, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek.   I had always felt a little jealous of the way Noah looks at Elle. I know how much my husband loves me, but everyone who sees Noah looking at his wife can't help but see his feelings for her.  The love he has for her is written all over his face when he looks at her.

"Your drink looks yummy, can I try it?"  I grab Elle's drink before she has a chance to respond.  Both her and Noah grab for the drink, but I'm too quick and take a sip.

"Mmm, that is good!"  I hand the drink back without saying anything more.  Elle gives me kind of a questioning look, but I ignore it and act like nothing happened.  I have had quite a bit to drink tonight, but I know Elle's drink was a virgin – no alcohol in there.  Hmm, she's not drinking on this trip, but doesn't want us to know she's not drinking.  I don't care if Elle doesn't want to tell me what is going on, I'm going to get answers from her in the morning.

*****

The next morning, I grab Elle right after breakfast and tell our husbands that we're taking a walk. We walk down the beach, right along the water.

I take a deep breath and launch into my questions. "Okay, what is going on with you, Elle?  I know you haven't been drinking on this trip and Noah has been super protective of you.  Is something wrong, you're not sick are you?  I'm not sure what it is, but I know something is going on with you two!  I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but you have me worried.  You're my best friend, can you just let me know that everything is okay?"

"Slow down, Lex!  I swear everything is okay.  I knew you had been trying to figure out what was going on, but I had no idea you would start jumping to conclusions like this.  It's nothing bad, I swear!"

"Oh, that makes me feel so much better!  I know I should leave it to you to tell me whatever it is when you're ready but both of you have been acting so funny on this trip, I started to get worried."

"I'm sorry about that, Lexi, we were planning to tell you soon."

"Relax, Elle, it's okay if you're not ready to tell me.  I'm just glad you're okay. . ."

Elle interrupted me, "We're gonna have a baby, I'm pregnant!" 

"What?  Oh Elle, I can't believe it!  I'm so happy for you!"  I wrap my arms around her neck and we start jumping up and down together.

"Noah and I are so happy too!  It's so good to be able to tell someone.  You have to swear not to tell anyone though.  We found out the day before the trip and we still need to tell our families and I haven't even told Lee yet. . . and Lee will totally flip if he knows you found out before him."

"I swear, I won't tell anyone!" 

"I didn't think it would be positive, but Noah begged me to take the test.  I'm going to schedule a doctor's appointment as soon as we get home and we'll tell our families after that.  We're obviously still trying to wrap our minds around this news.  Noah has become super protective, as you saw the other night.  He wanted to cancel the trip once we found out, he was worried about us flying and everything."

"Aww, Elle!  You two are going to be such great parents.  I can't wait until you tell everyone, you know I'm not good at keeping secrets!  I don't want to pry but as long as I already made you tell me your news, I might as well.  Was this a surprise?"

"We've been trying since right after Christmas.  It was Noah who brought it up, I thought he was crazy at first but you know Noah can talk me into pretty much anything.  It didn't take long for me to realize that this was something I really wanted too."

Elle's POV

After I spilled our happy news to Lexi, we were heading back towards a seating area near our rooms where we thought we might find our guys when I realized something and stopped suddenly, "Crap, I lost the bet."

"What's that?"  Lexi stopped a few feet in front of me looking back to see why I stopped.

"Noah bet me that I wouldn't be able to keep our secret the whole trip. He thought I would blab to you or Lee and, of course, he was right."  When we were young, Lee and I had all kinds of secrets we would keep from Noah. Usually he could care less about our secrets, but occasionally we would drive him crazy trying to get him to figure out what we were hiding from him. He knew that I was the easiest target and would always come after me to get me to spill it. When we got older, it was Noah and I who kept a huge secret from Lee that almost ended our friendship. Once we were in a real relationship, Noah complained about my oversharing about our personal life with Lee and eventually Lexi also, nothing was a secret from my friends. Once we found out we were having a baby, and I finally convinced Noah that there was no reason to cancel our trip, Noah bet me that I wouldn't be able to keep our secret from our friends the whole trip. "He always teases me that I can't keep a secret, but I swore to him that I had grown out of that."

Lexi smiled at me, adjusting the sun hat she's been wearing since she got burnt yesterday on the beach. "Don't worry, I won't tell him."

"It doesn't matter. He'll know.  It's not a big deal, I just hate that he's always right."  I knew Noah would be fine with me telling Lexi, it wasn't like we were planning to wait a long time to tell everyone. Plus, she was the one who figured out something was going on anyway. I had to tell her.

Darren and Noah were sitting right where we expected them to be and as soon as Noah saw us, he stood up and started walking towards me, picking me up to kiss me as soon as I was close enough. He looked from me to Lexi and back again. Then whispered in my ear with a smirk, "Shelly, you told her, didn't you?"

"Damn it, Noah.  Sometimes I wish you didn't know me so well." That's not true. I love that he knows me so well, just not so much when he uses it to his advantage.

That smirk of his grew into his big smile, showing me his dimples. "Oh, come on Elle. You know you won't mind me collecting my winnings from the bet from you tonight." And Noah is right again.