Chapter Twenty
Jayson
Walking to my truck behind Chloe, I hear her muttering to herself and it doesn’t sound like she’s happy. If I were a betting man, I would say that I’m the topic of conversation. I begin to say something and remember my dad’s advice: “When a woman’s upset, leave her alone, until she’s ready to talk…or risk her wrath.” I think I will follow my old man’s advice. He and my mom have been together for 25 years so he must know what he’s talking about.
Once we’re in the truck, there is nothing but silence; if it were nighttime, the crickets would be louder than any noise in this truck. I keep looking over at her and all I see is a stony look that lets me she is still pissed. I open my mouth and as I do, I get a look that says “shut the hell up” so I close it quickly. Yeah, my dad knows what he’s talking about all right.
Turning on the music, I hope it mellows Chloe out before we get home. As my luck would have it, Picture to Burn by Taylor Swift comes on…great, that’s just what I need…a song about how sorry men are. And after that, Stupid Boy by Keith Urban starts up…I shift in my seat and from out of the corner of my eye, I see a slight smile on Chloe’s face.
“Are you enjoying this,” I ask her?
She tries to keep a mean look on her face and finally starts to laugh. At least she’s laughing now… thank you sweet baby Jesus! Once she stops laughing, she says, “Just because I’m laughing doesn’t mean you are out of the doghouse yet.”
Nodding my head, I think, “Well, shit; I guess that would have been too easy.”
I decide not to say anything because well, I’m not dumb enough to do that. As Connor would say, we may be pretty, but we aren’t stupid. I cringe at the fact that I just referred to myself as pretty. I need to get Connor out of my head because anything he would have to say will get me in more trouble. I wish this ride was over; I’m ready to get home and see what I can do to fix this with my girl. I think about just that and I decide that’s the first thing I’m fixing…I’m sick of this slow crap…I want her to be mine exclusively. And no matter how mad she is, I will make her see that anything else is not an option.