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“You sure?”
Oh man, I wasn’t sure about anything today. “If you can stand riding in a car with me.”
Charlee seemed undecided, as if she might actually change her mind and say, “I guess we’ll find out.” Instead she put her phone back in her purse and waited for me.
I had no idea where Charlee lived these days—still at home, probably—but however close or far it was. . . we were in for a long fucking ride.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
charlee
“Head up Main toward Lincoln.”
For the first two blocks, I was too angry at him to talk.
By the third block, an awareness of the fact that I was in Lucas’s truck began to take hold of my body. I came to life for him in a way that had never happened with anyone before. I thought for certain the memory of him had grown to ridiculously epic proportions. After all, we’d never even had sex. I’d been a virgin, terrified of getting pregnant even when all of my friends were on the pill with no issues. It might have been irrational, but Lucas had honored my wishes. Waited for me. And maybe that was one of the things I appreciated most about him.
But the things he had done to me? My body always sang for him, and that was when we were teens. Now?
Let’s just say. . . there is a side to me that is very comfortable outside the limits of societal acceptance.
What. Did that. Mean?
“I’m not trying to get a rise out of your father,” Lucas said, breaking the silence. “I’d be pleasantly surprised if we didn’t.”
I looked over at him. Bad idea.
There was hot, and then there was. . . hot. Lucas fell into the latter category, and any woman worth her mettle knew the difference. No guy could fake that level of confidence, of comfortableness in his own skin. It was incredibly sexy. But also extremely dangerous.
I needed out of this truck before I did something stupid.
“Pleasantly surprised?” I said. “As in, we fake date. He doesn’t flip. And then what? We date for real?” Had to call a spade a spade here.
His clenched jaw said as much as any words that would come out of his mouth. Good. We might as well both be frustrated as hell.
“Lucas,” I said, remembering I was a grown-ass woman who’d vowed to stop playing games with the whole dating thing. It never led to anything but mixed signals and frustration. “What are we doing here? I reached out the olive branch and you—”
“Charlee. . .”
“No, I need to say this. Since the second I saw you last week you’ve been giving me mixed signals. Avoiding me. Pushing me away. But the way you look at me. . .”
“Charlee,” he warned again.
“If you’re going to say something enigmatic like you’ve been doing, please save it.”
“I don’t know where I’m going.”
Oh.
“201 Lakeside,” I said, feeling like an idiot.
“Lakeside?”
“I bought a small house last year.”
“Nice,” he said, turning left. I hadn’t even been watching where we were going. “As for that olive branch. . .” He shrugged. “Like I said, I’m not convinced much has changed since I left.”
I wanted to rail at him. To tell him he was being a complete asshole, that obviously things had changed. I’d changed, even if not as dramatically as him.
