29. Sneaking Around
The seatbelt moved over her, and I gave her wrist a yank, pulling her across the seat to me before she buckled herself in. “You don’t have to sit so far away.” Twisting the ignition, I bared my teeth at her and turned back to look out the rear window as I put the truck in gear. “If you recall, I don’t bite hard unless you ask me to.”
She latched her belt buckle and pulled her phone from her bag, already beating at the screen. “What do you think the monthly payment on that will be?”
Flipping through the mortgage breakdown from the email in my memory, I shrugged back at her like it was nothing. But yeah, I was a little anxious about it myself. “Buying a house is one of the most stressful things you can do, so” — I pulled the phone from her fingers and dropped it into the pocket in my door so she couldn’t reach it — “don’t worry about it until you have to. Just be with me right now.”
Our bodies were still in tune, whatever those little voices of doubt in our brains whispered to us, and her palm moved over my thigh without another thought. “I’m sorry if I’m annoying you.”
Math was always a concept too hard for her to grasp, and I sensed the stress in her as she gently rolled out her neck. “I’m so afraid that they won’t give me the loan,” — I caught her eyes getting wider in the corner of my eye — “and even more afraid they will, and I won’t be able to afford the payments.”
I squeezed her hand as I leaned forward to peek down the road while we waited at the end of Jason’s drive. “Everything’s going to be fine. Just focus on the goal, not the how, and the universe will provide.”
Bumping into me with her shoulder, she clicked her teeth back at me. “There he is.” When I raised my eyebrow at the interstate sign to question her, she arced her hand away and whispered, “The magic man.” Laying her head on my shoulder as I took the exit out of town, she shook her head against it. “You always have been the most positive person I have ever met.”
I spent the last twenty years hating my life and dedicated every waking moment to willing some kind of miracle to happen. Laughing under my breath at her always too-high opinion of me, I merged into the bit of traffic littering the road. “Hardly. But this is a no-brainer, Faith. It’s perfect.” I bounced our hands against my leg. “Start picking out furniture. That’s your place now.”
My hand uncurled from the steering wheel for a moment to focus her on anything else. “On to new business.” I glanced over and wiggled my eyebrows. “Let’s talk about how you’re staying with me tonight.”
Cringing at the road, she shook her head and sighed as her whole body deflated. “I’m not sure I’m up for battling it out with your mom on my happy day.”
My finger bounced back at her. “Yeah, well, she’s not invited to this particular blessed event.” When I saw the amenities sign coming up on the right, I lifted my chin at it. “I thought I’d get us a room.”
Squishing air through her throat, she rolled her eyes at herself. “Ever since I got back here, it’s like...” She flipped her hand up from her lap. “I feel like a teenager sneaking around again.”
I slapped on the blinker to move to the passing lane. “Yeah. But now we don’t have to worry about getting caught. So be as freaky and loud as you want.”
The music died, and I glanced at the display when the unit’s ringtone started playing instead. “Dammit.” The edge of my thumb flicked the switch on my steering wheel. “Hey, it’s Doctor Vasser. What’s going on?”
I had a love-hate relationship with everyone I worked with. They were more or less my family since I spent most of my life with them. So they got the short end of the stick sometimes with my mood swings, and I guess they never knew which version of me they’d be getting.
The unit secretary was already sighing to prepare for me to attack her. “Sorry to ruin your weekend, Doc. But I thought I’d give you a heads up that there was an accident at the dirt bike track, and they’re on their way in now.”
Hissing air through my teeth back at her, I bent down to peek out my side mirror as I made my way to the turnaround. “I’m on my way. But I’m out of town, so it’ll take me a minute to get there. Don’t blow up my phone again unless it’s to tell me never mind.”
Flicking the call off before she could answer me, I shook my head and waited for the next car to pass before I spun out into the other lane. “I’m sorry about this. Hopefully, it won’t take too long.”
Sliding her hand up and down my knee, she uncurled from me and straightened up against the seat. “It’s okay. I understand how it is.” Bringing her shoulder up toward her ears, she hummed to herself to taunt me. “I’ll just be lounging around in my jammies, looking at big-screen TVs and kitchen tables.”
I needed her body against me — like if we could reconnect physically, everything else in my life would be easier. “Beds. You need to be looking at beds.” Her love saved me once, and I was counting on her to sort me out this time, too. “Go ahead and order one of those now, if you don’t mind. Everything else is vastly less important.”
Once I got to the top of her driveway, I grabbed her face and pushed my lips against hers. “I’ll call you as soon as I can and let you know what’s up.”
She pulled my hand away — at least she tried to, but I held her tight until she nodded. “I’ll be right here until you come back. I promise.”
Dipping toward my left, I pulled her phone from the door and held it out as I let her go. “Remember, find a bed.”
She backed out of the seat and flicked her eye up at me as she opened the door. “Yes, sir.”
Once she got to her kitchen door, she spun around to blow me a kiss, and I grabbed it before she disappeared.
The truck went into reverse, and I tossed my arm around the back of the seat as I maneuvered the narrow driveway. “If your crazy ass has finally snapped, Dom, just go with it.”
The lip gloss she slathered on earlier rested in the cubby above the stereo, slapping against the wall closest to me when I turned onto the street. I hadn’t been able to even look at one of those little tubes since the night I wrecked my truck, but I slid it into my pocket to have something tangible in my hands that Faith was real this time.