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Hitching a ride with Jett for this cross-country road trip definitely wasn't my brightest idea.
It's been years since we've seen each other face-to-face, but his presence still manages to get under my skin in that maddening way it always has.
I can't let him rattle me, no matter how that heated gaze makes my pulse spike.
“It’s been how many years, Scarlett?” he asks suddenly, as if reading the turbulence in my mind. “Six? Eight?”
I blink, surprised that he’s kept any sort of track. “Seven and change,” I murmur, hating how breathless I sound.
“Time flies.” He shakes his head, mouth quirking.
“I don’t want to sound lame, but tell me what you’ve been up to. I keep up to date through Daniel, but I’m sure there’s more to you than what you tell your brother.”
I’d usually rise to the challenge but I’m not a girl anymore, so easily riled.
I keep my expression carefully neutral. “Work, mostly. Keeping my head down.”
I leave out the part about my firm downsizing my department, not ready to open up that particular wound.
“We’re on a mini-break right now, though. I don’t want to talk about work. I’m actually looking forward to this road trip.”
“Glad to hear it, Scar.” Jett’s grin widens, eyes crinkling at the corners in that achingly familiar way.
“I was half afraid you’d bail and leave me to make awkward small talk with Siri.”
A surprised laugh bubbles up from my chest before I can stop it–a bright, genuine sound that I haven’t heard from myself in far too long.
“Oh trust me, I’d pay good money to hear you try having deep, philosophical conversations with your GPS. But hey,” I shrug, tone turning wry. “No work talk for a bit. Deal?”
There's a flicker of something raw and real in Jett's eyes—a glimpse of vulnerability that catches me off guard.
For a fleeting moment, I'm transported back in time, remembering the boy who once looked at me with that same earnest intensity.
But I quickly shake off the nostalgia, reminding myself that this is not the same Jett I knew back then.
Too much has changed.
My chest tightens, a familiar tide of emotions rising. I take a shaky breath, trying to push them down to regain control.
I’m hyper-aware of everything about him. From the faded t-shirt stretched across his shoulders to the corded veins in his forearms.
God, it's maddening how gorgeous he still is.The chiseled jaw, those incredible cheekbones that could cut glass.
I'm torn between wanting to stare and needing to look away, my skin tingling.
I shake my head. Get it together.
It's only physical proximity and nostalgia, nothing more.
When Jett shifts gears, the back of his hand grazes my thigh, and I suck in a sharp breath, cursing the fluttering deep in my belly.
“You alright there, Scar?”
His voice is all innocent, but I catch the wolfish grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
I answer quickly, perhaps a little too sharply. “Watch the road, hotshot.”
He tosses me a two-fingered salute and a wink. “Yes, ma'am.”
