“And me?” he asks, being just as needy as me.
“You too.” I laugh at our ridiculousness.
It’s easy to be around Wylder. Too easy. Alarm bells should be going off in my head, but they’re not. And that’s concerning and comforting. It’s a strange mix of emotions I’m not sure I can reconcile.
Rowdy and I never really did anything together unless I begged him to go somewhere with me. Rowdy was about a good time. That good time almost left me six feet underground, though. Totally not worth it. No amount of good dick is.
“What now?” I ask, suddenly feeling a little weird because we usually have to look over our shoulders for two sets of young eyes.
“Now, we have an entire summer to ourselves.”
My belly does a little flip at the thought of having days, weeks, even more than one month with Wylder to myself.
“And I plan to take full advantage of it too.”
“Advantage of time or me?”
Wylder leans over, bringing his mouth close to my ear. “Both,” he growls.
3
WYLDER
“I’m not a fan,”Tate says at my side as we pass by another line of trees.
“Of what?”
“This state.”
I smile, watching two assholes weave in and out of traffic on this two-lane highway. “Not my favorite either.”
“There’s nothing interesting to look at.”
“Maybe there’s the world’s largest ball of yarn or some shit around here.”
Tate groans. “The landscape is so boring that that almost sounds good.”
The truck yanks to the right, and I grip the steering wheel tighter, doing everything in my power to keep the beast under control.
“What the hell?” Tate asks, gripping the dashboard like it’s somehow going to save her life if shit goes even more south.
I let off the gas, easing the truck onto the berm without running over all the bullshit left by other vehicles that have been in the same predicament as us.
“Fuck,” I hiss as the car comes to a screeching halt.
Tate’s shoulders sag forward as she sucks in a breath and finally releases her grip on the dashboard. “That was almost more than my heart can handle.”
“I did the best I could.”
This isn’t good. Whatever’s wrong, I can guarantee it isn’t something that’s a quick fix, especially since we’re in the middle of nowhere. We’d have a better chance of finding parts to fix a horse-drawn buggy than my classic Scout I just finished refurbishing.
“I’m sure you can fix it.”
I turn my eyes toward her, hating that I have to kill her optimism so quickly. “Babe, brace yourself for a long wait.”
“Like how long?”
“If it happens today, it’ll be a goddamn miracle.”
