“I haven’t really been what you would call happy or anything close to it since I left,” he replied.
My fingers tightened around the wheel. There was a similar tightness in my throat. “And where did you run from?”
I realized right away that those perhaps weren’t the best word choices. He said he left but I went with ran. We both knew I was right. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw him flinch.
I couldn’t really help it. Words often just came out of my mouth without a second thought. I always heard people—usually televangelists and politicians and the like—go over that old saw of the truth setting you free.
In my experience, the truth usually got me into trouble.
Right about then, I wished that the filter everyone else had and used in their heads worked for me.
Still, despite all that, my stomach tightened a little and my hands gripped the steering wheel a little harder. Will he actually tell me something? I could place him, of course. The boy from the park.
But it just felt like there was so much more than that. Memories from those days were hazy things.
“Back east,” he said.
“East’s a big place,” I replied. I turned down Pine Street. I glanced in the mirrors, but no one was following. I didn’t know whether that was a good sign or bad. My body couldn’t decide, either.
As her ex, as well as the small size of the town, he must have known where she lived. However, he didn’t strike me as the subtle type, and I tended to trust my instincts when it came to character judgments.
No, if Bobby intended on following us, he’d have made it obvious.
A mess of tingles and anxiety tangled and writhed along the front of my stomach and up and down my spine. Like I was waiting for my prom date to show up or something.
“Yeah, it is,” he replied pointedly.
“Care to narrow it down a little?” I asked. I took a right down Spruce Drive. I don’t think there was a single spruce tree anywhere nearby. Just like there weren’t any poplars anywhere near my house.
It was funny how random thoughts like that break into your mind. I saw Dash glance at the reflective green street name signs and wondered if he thought the same thing.
He breathed in a deep breath, his shoulders rising and chest expanding to fill out his cotton button-down. “North east. That’s about as specific as I want to get,” he said on the exhalation. “How about you? Ever get out of this place for a while? See something of the world?”
My fingers tightened around the wheel again. I didn’t expect this. I didn’t expect him asking me questions. Ever since he got here he seemed like he was a Just the facts, ma’am type of guy.
“No, not really. I know, that sounds really bad. What kind of person stays in their hometown when they grow up these days?” I made myself smile a little. Tried making it sound like a joke. “I thought I wanted all that, once. Travel, seeing the world, a big career. But things happen, you know?”
He glanced at me, and then back at the road. “I know.”
I could tell that we both itched to say something, anything, on the last few minutes back.
Or was that just me? Was I projecting?
He could be sitting there, wanting a quiet ride back. It had just been so long since I’d felt anything like this towards a man.
I suppose the last one was Bobby, but it had been since high school when I’d just wanted to be near him, hear him talk, that sort of thing.
Sometimes silence begs to be filled, like an empty, aching stomach. That was one of those moments for me.
“There’s a police car in your driveway,” Dash said.
“What? Oh, hell!” I said. I’d been so focused on my own thoughts that I didn’t see the black trunk of the big old Crown Vic poking out over the sidewalk.
I stopped short, pulling up to the curb.
“Do you think he saw us?” Dash said.
I sat there, waiting, fingers still wrapped around the steering wheel. The vinyl covering was uncomfortably warm in my grip, but I didn’t let up.
“No. Around here, they’d just come up to the car if they saw. And that’s the sheriff. Bobby’s dad.”
Dash grinned a hard, humorless grin. “You think Bobby tattled to daddy about us?”
He waited in silence for a few moments before adding, “So, I take it this is bad?”
My immediate reaction was, Yes, this is bad! What if he’s mad and decides to throw us both in the drunk tank until he decides what to do with us?
Burbly panic started low in my stomach. It threatened to crawl up around my heart and out my throat.
I swallowed it down. This was just starting to get interesting with Dash. And besides, we’d also just managed to get all my clothes back. All that effort wasn’t going to be for nothing.
Then an idea occurred to me, just as one also occurred to him.
“Wait here,” he said. He reached for the door handle.
I knew I needed to stop him, that the sheriff would not take kindly to seeing the man who’d knocked his son to the pavement.
So I reached over and grabbed his hand.
As if by instinct, his fingers tightened around mine. A thrum of energy shot between us so sudden and startling that we couldn't help but lock eyes.
Then his eyes flicked down to my lips and back up again.
He just thought about kissing me!
Then I thought about kissing him and everything just went straight down the rabbit hole.
“Dash…” I said.
I could feel the desire bouncing off the insides of the Ranger’s cab, amplifying and intensifying. The air almost crackled with it.
His fingers tightened even more around mine, almost to the point of pain. He held me too hard to escape, but I didn’t want to escape. I swallowed against the sudden dryness in my mouth.
Like two magnets, unable to help our natures, we drifted closer to each other until all I could see was his face filling my vision.
He smelled a little of the leather of his riding suit. And something else. Some mild cologne or aftershave that invited me to lean in closer, to inhale more deeply.
I wondered how his lips tasted.
His other hand reached up and touched my cheek, his palm hot against my skin. His eyes flicked down to my lips and then back up again.
This is crazy! You haven’t even known him a day! I thought. What followed almost instantly was: That’s wrong. You’ve known him a lot longer than that. You both know that, too.
But all those memories were still locked away. Well, most of them anyway.
My eyes started closing, my whole body tingling in anticipation.
His face came closer. So close now. So close that even with my eyes closed I could feel his nearness. The sensation of it tickled and tingled along my skin.
Sometimes the best feeling of all is suspense, anticipation unfulfilled.
“I’m sorry, I can’t,” he said, and pulled back.
When he pulled back, it was like he peeled some portion of me out, too. I snatched my hand back and put them both back around the wheel.
“Right,” I said.
“Now, I’m going to go deal with this sheriff,” Dash said. He once more reached for the door handle.
“And I seem to remember telling you to stay here. And keep your head down.”
I pre-empted him, swinging my door open and stepping out. Then I slammed it shut hard enough to rock the truck on its squeaky suspension.