Page 78 of Lured By Shadows

The door shut behind us, muffling the party into a dull buzz.

“Somethin’ up?” Carter asked, twirling his keys around his finger. He didn’t sound guilty or conflicted, just curious.

“No,” I answered quickly, stretching my arms overhead as if I could shake off the heaviness clinging to my chest. “Just tired.”

He yawned, slipping into the driver’s seat. “Same.”

The drive home was quiet. Not awkward, just weighed down by everything we weren’t saying. I leaned my forehead against the cool glass, watching the dark blur of trees pass by in flashes of silver and shadow. Moonlight streaked across the windshield, carving pale lines through the dark that made me feel strangely exposed.

Eventually, the words slipped out. “How long have you known Breeanna?”

Carter sucked in a quick breath through his teeth, clearly not expecting the question. “Yeah… call it two years, give or take.”

His voice softened into a mumble. I didn’t bother untangling it, letting the words dissolve into the low hum of the engine while I sat there wondering why I’d even asked in the first place and why her expression still lingered in my head.

I stared out the window. “Do you know she likes you?”

He smirked, eyes fixed on the road. “’Lot’sa girls like me, Ira.”

“Not the way she does,” I replied quietly.

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel for half a second. “What’s that supposed t’ mean?”

“She looks at you like you hung the damn stars.”

The humor drained from my voice as exhaustion settled deeper into my bones, the kind that had nothing to do with how late it was.

He didn’t answer. Not because he lacked one, but because caring required effort, and effort didn’t seem to fit anywhere inside his script. Sitting beside him, I could already feel the distance widening between us despite the cramped space inside the car.

“Go on,” Carter said eventually, steering us toward my street. “You had fun, didn’t ya?”

“It was alright,” I answered, the lie slipping out smooth enough to sound believable even to myself.

“That doesn’t sound promising,” Carter said, glancing over. “Was it proper bad, then?”

“It wasn’t bad,” I replied, sitting up straighter and brushing at the hem of my skirt like it had personally offended me. “I came for one reason.” I met his eyes briefly. “If you know what I mean.”

He coughed, clearly thrown off. “Mmm… that do anything for ya?”

“It was what I needed,” I said, wrapping half-truths in confidence. He hadn’t even made me finish, but dismantling his ego sounded exhausting. “So don’t worry about it.”

His shoulders loosened, confidence settling back over him with easy familiarity.

“If ya like, we could always run it back.”

Carter didn’t strike me as the type who went back for seconds. He felt more like the kind of guy who collected quick moments and tossed them aside once the novelty faded, already moving toward the next thing before the first one fully settled. Still, there was something softer brushing against his voice now. Curious, maybe. Or maybe I was just hearing what I wanted to hear because the night had left me emotionally wrung out.

I chewed my lip before murmuring, “Make sure there’s food next time.”

His head snapped toward me, a grin spreading across his face. “I’d like that. Grabbin’ some grub wit’ ya.”

Something about that landed oddly in my chest. It wasn’t exactly butterflies or excitement. Just the faint sense that he was trying on the idea of liking me to see whether it fit him. Either way, Breeanna’s feelings clearly ran deeper than I’d first realized, and getting tangled inside something messy and one-sided wasn’t exactly high on my list of goals.

When we pulled up, I stepped out and leaned into his open window, offering a small wave.

“Thanks for tonight. We’ll do this again sometime. Bye.”

I let myself into the house quietly, but my ma was already waiting in the living room, arms crossed and brows lifted in an unmistakable mom-coded mix of concern and curiosity.