“Mae! What the fuck are you doing?” I call over the pounding rain, and she cocks her head.
She can barely hear me.
I immediately fling open my passenger door and hike my thumb towards it. “Get in.”
“I’ll get your seat all wet. It’s fine, I can walk,” is her response, and I curse under my breath.
If she thinks I’m going to let her walk home in this, then she’s dead wrong.
I unbuckle my seatbelt and step out of my car, the icy rain hitting my skin, the sensation feeling like pinpricks. It’s a sudden shock compared to the warmth of my car.
“Mae Bexley, get in the fucking car now, or I’ll make you get in.”
She gives me a look that could freeze the precipitation into ice.
Her ankle is still tender, and walking home will take her forever. I’ll drive alongside her the entire way just to make sure she gets home safely if she’s that adamant about not getting in the car with me.
I raise my eyebrows, my jaw set, and eventually, Mae releases her stubbornness and mutters, “Okay, fine,” before rushing around the front of my vehicle to clamber in.
“Why the hell are you walking in a storm? People can get hit by lightning, you know? It’s rare, but it happens,” I say as I buckle myself up, eyes trained on her.
Mae looks at me like I’m crazy. “My rental car is like a million years old. It won’t start.”
The precipitation drums against the car's roof, and it only worsens. I give Mae one last concerned look before I begin to drive.
She’s shivering, and I turn on her heated seat.
The car sways with each gust of wind. Thunder rumbles above us as a warning, and after a few seconds, a flash of lightning lights up the darkening sky. My windshield wipers are working on overdrive, and it surprises me they don’t snap off.
The road’s a blur in front of us and visibility is nearly zero as we creep along it—the street having turned into a treacherous river.
“It’s too dangerous with all this rain. I’m going to have to pull over.” I turn down a barely-used side road, putting the car into park.
“We’ll have to wait for the worst of it to pass.” I scrub a hand over my stubble.
This isn’t where I should be right now. Sitting just inches away from Coach Renee’s daughter, feeling like all I want to do is make her mine for the evening. Nobody would see. Nobody would know.
How is this woman torturing me without even knowing it?
The lightning outside illuminates her face, accentuating her white scar, and I can’t help but focus on it for a few seconds too long before I realise what I’m doing and stop.
Mae notices it clearly, swallowing before her finger subconsciously glides over the scar's surface. She appears ready to speak, evident by her softly parted lips and shallow breath.
But she doesn't.
“What’s on your mind?” I ask as rain beats down on the hood of my car, creating a rhythm that feels almost like a heartbeat, syncing with the pounding in my chest.
She shifts in her damp seat. “I just need to know… why did you pay for the wine for me that day in the store?”
My teeth snap together. I don’t want to explain this to her, mostly because I don’t fully understand why I did it myself—other than the fact that seeing her pretty face so troubled when the bottle broke made my insides strain.
Iwantedto help her. And I don’t feel that way often.
Which is what fucking irks me.
“I don’t know.”
Mae scowls. “That’s not an answer, Nathan.”
