Page 35 of The Best I Never Had

“I’ll save you a seat,” Gabriel says, blowing me a kiss.

“You’re developing quite the fan club,” Camila whispers, jerking her head in the opposite direction from Gabriel to where Owen is standing, watching us.

Owen heads my way as Camila and Mira saunter off. “You ready for this?”

“It’s a night at a dive bar. You’re putting me in my natural habitat,” I say. If anyone wouldn’t be comfortable at a dive bar, I’d guess it would be him with his pressed collared shirts and lack of tattoos.

The smile he gives me is small but no less earth-shattering. “My family can be a lot.”

“I’ve been called a lot my whole life,” I say. “I can take it.”

“I know you can,” he says, his voice low and quiet. It shoots through, heat rushing to every corner of my body.

I take an abrupt step back. “We should probably, you know … not talk like this.”

Owen blinks and backs away, too. “Oh, yeah. Of course. Sorry.”

Owen turns suddenly for the door and walks away from me without another word, and I fall into step a couple of feet behind him, like a sad, reluctant baby duck. There’s a tightness in his shoulders that’s not normally there.

“I hear you’re the permanent designated driver around here,” I say. It’s the opposite of what I just promised myself. I shouldn’t keep encouraging conversation when I’m trying to put distance between us.

Owen flicks the keys around his finger again. “Yup.”

“Don’t you ever just want to let loose with your family?”

He looks over his shoulder, his feet never faltering. “Of course.”

“Then why don’t you?”

He lets out a heavy sigh. “Because they ask me to drive.”

“Have you ever told them you don’t want to?”

He stops on a dime, twirling to face me. “What’s with all the questions, Thea? I thought we weren’t spending time together.”

It’s the harshest he’s ever spoken to me, and I’m a bit taken aback. But I’m also happy to see him not just saying whatever he thinks I want to hear.

“We aren’t. I’m just wondering.”

He runs a hand down his face. “No, I guess I’ve never blatantly said it before.”

“Camila told me you like driving, that you want to take care of everyone.”

Owen blinks a few times, like this is news that his brain can’t process in regular time.

I shrug. “Just seems like everyone’s making assumptions right now, and it may be worth a conversation.”

Owen watches me for a couple of seconds, something in his gaze softening. But one of his cousins calls out from the door of the bus, and the indifferent mask slips back into place. “I can handle my family, Thea.”

It feels like a slap, even though it’s true. This isn’t my place. I have no place with this family, just a transient role to help the real new member of their family settle in.

“Yeah, of course you can. Let’s go,” I say, turning away from the flash of regret I spot in his eyes.

Addy and Harrison are on opposite sides of the front row, and Addy bounces as she pulls me down to sit next to her.

“I’ve barely seen you today,” she says with a little squeeze of my arm. “Harrison can handle a bit of space.”

“No, I can’t,” Harrison says, winking before turning his attention back to his own seat buddy.