AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, Dad. I’m okay.”
Chapter 18
“So?” Smoke asked as he set the plastic bag in the center seat between us. “How did it go?”
“It went,” I said. “A little crazy at first, but it’s all okay now. Though, I’m worried about Harlan. He might jump on a plane to Vegas and have some words with Knox. And by words, I mean fists.”
“Where is Harlan in the lineup of siblings?” Smoke asked. He pulled out an energy drink and set it in the drink holder and then ripped into a chocolate bar. He held it out to me first and I shook my head.
“Harlan is the second youngest,” I explained. “Grady is the oldest. He’s 37 and the architect of the family. Killian is next. He’s 35 and is the family engineer. Then there’s Chase who’s 33. He’s the numbers guy. Harlan’s 30 and the family hothead.”
“You didn’t say what Harlan does for the business.”
“He’s the General Contractor. Electric, plumbing, drywall, demolition. He knows about it all. Supervises the crews. He’s the trade guy.”
Smoke crushed the chocolate bar and then reached for the energy drink.
“You eat like a twenty-year-old college kid on a finals deadline,” I said with a laugh.
He grinned. “I don’t normally eat this way. But I need the sugar and caffeine. I didn’t get a lot of sleep the last few nights.”
My cheeks heated and I cleared my throat. “Yeah. So, that’s my family.”
“Any of your brothers married? Have families?”
“Nope. They’re not even dating anyone seriously. I was going to be the first.” I snorted. “My mom is hungry for grandbabies.”
“Sounds about right,” he said with a chuckle. He polished off the rest of the drink. “You need to use the bathroom?”
I shook my head.
“You sure? I want to get a few more hours under our belt before we have to stop again.”
“I’m good,” I assured him.
An hour later, I was squirming in my seat. Smoke saw, and without a word, he turned off the highway to a gas station.
An hour after that pit stop Smoke wanted to stretch his legs, so we stopped at a rest area. We dragged our feet getting back into the truck.
Neither of us admitted it, but we weren’t ready for our road trip to come to an end. When it ended, there would be no reason for us to talk, to laugh, to share stories about our families.
So long as we were on the road, we were in a bubble, a little pocket that was just the two of us.
I thought it would’ve been uncomfortable, us driving together after the intimacy we had shared. But the physical intimacy seemed to bleed into our conversations and made them more personal and easy.
The sun set and when we were thirty minutes from Waco, Smoke pulled into an abandoned lot.
“Everything okay?” I asked, facing him.
He squeezed the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white. And then he looked at me with wanting eyes.
“Smoke,” I said quietly. “We can’t. We agreed.”
“I know. But why can’t we?”
“Because Tavy is my best friend and the idea of doing anything that would hurt her, hurts me. And I’m not willing to risk our friendship for—” I gestured back and forth between us “—a few rolls in the hay with her really hot dad.”
I mashed down the desire that hummed beneath the surface of my skin. I clenched my hands and sat on them so I wouldn’t reach for him. So I wouldn’t unzip my jeans and ask him to make me feel the way I wanted to feel.
