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“Sure is,” Betsy says. “Well, it was nice to meet you, Ben. I have to go and get the little ones to bed.”
“I’ll walk out with you,” I say, ready to say goodbye to Ben.
Betsy hems and haws, staring at Ben. “Oh. I figured you two needed to talk about fundraiser ideas.”
I communicate with my eyes to Betsy that I know the game she’s playing and I do not appreciate it.
“I didn’t eat dinner. Want to go grab a pizza and shoot around some ideas?” Ben asks.
I don’t answer.
Betsy swarms me in a hug. “That’s a great idea. Clayton’s at our house, and Sam fed him already. See you two later.” She dislodges from me, and I feel as if I just got off the Tilt-A-Whirl ride.
“You were my ride,” I say to her.
She smiles overly big. “I’m sure Ben can get you home. Right, Ben?”
“Definitely.”
“Great. Glad it all worked out. See you later.” She walks out, falling in line with another parent.
“So?” I ask with a sigh.
“Let’s go.” He looks at the glass case one more time and turns back to me.
I’ve seen the case a million times but have never taken the time to truly look at everything. Why I had to be a part of the shrine with our prom king and queen picture, along with other pictures of him while he attended Willowbrook High, I’ll never understand.
He places his hand on the small of my back, and his touch lingers longer than it should as we walk toward the doors. The worst part is I don’t strip his hand off me when I know I should.
Chapter Thirteen
Ben
The parking lot light shines down on my old truck, and Gillian stops two parking spots away. It’s the same one I used to pick her up in. We’ve made love in the bed more times than I can count.
“I didn’t know that your family still had it.” She steps forward slowly as if she’s approaching a predator.
“My dad had it in the garage on the property. I had Sarge do what he had to so it would run again.”
She looks shocked, as if she thought my money would mean I’d just replace the things that meant the most to me. This truck holds a lot of memories. The majority of them are with her, but also Jude and I squeezing Emmett between us until he’d get so annoyed he’d start swinging. My dad driving us to my mom’s gravesite on her birthday, with shovels and rakes and flowers piled in the back so everyone knew how much she was loved and missed.
I open the door for her. She used to always kiss me and give me a flirtatious smirk before climbing in. This time, she just props herself up on the beat-up vinyl seat and crosses her legs, staring at me to shut the door.
I blink, losing myself down memory lane again.
I round the truck and purposely don’t acknowledge the booster club people pretending not to watch us.
“You cool with being seen with me this time?” I’m not trying to sound like an ass. I honestly want to know.
“Now that it’s been announced to everyone that I’m in charge of the fundraisers, it’s fine.”
“Great. Cheeseburger pizza from By the Slice?”
“You can strip the ‘I know what you love’ look from your face, but yeah.”
I laugh and start the truck, happy that her food preferences haven’t changed. “Good. I haven’t had it since I’ve been back.” I put my hand on the back of her headrest and back out of the spot.
“Really? You used to love the cheeseburger pizza.”
