“No, that’s okay. I’ve got it.”
This time her smile seemed forced. She was probably trying to come up with a polite way to tell him that she’d changed her mind about this camping trip, but instead of doing the gentlemanly thing and letting her off the hook, Caleb returned her smile and went over to the driver’s side door to hold it open for her.
“Ready to hit the road?”
She nodded. “I’m ready.”
Thirty minutes into their drive up north, Caleb was ready to open the door and toss himself out the car. If he had to take one more minute of this strained, uncomfortable silence he would go insane.
Leah’s grip on the steering wheel was so tight Caleb wouldn’t be surprised if she left indention marks on it. It was more than obvious that she regretted asking him to join her, and was just too nice to take back her invitation.
As much as it pained him to do so, Caleb decided to let her off the hook. Regret sank into his chest over what he was about to say.
“Look, Leah, we can turn around if you’re having second thoughts about this. We’ve only been on the road for a half hour, so it wouldn’t put you too far behind.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I get that your asking me to join you was a spur of the moment thing. It’s okay if you’ve changed your mind.”
“No.” She glanced over at him before focusing back on the road. “Really, I’m okay with you coming along.”
“Is that why you’re gripping that steering wheel as if it’s going to fall off if you let go of it?” Caleb asked, amusement tinting his voice.
She instantly relaxed her fingers.
“Okay, I’m a little nervous,” she admitted. This time when she looked over their eyes connected and held for several beats. “I know I shouldn’t be. It’s not as if we’re strangers or anything. We’ve lived next door to each other for, what, at least a year?”
“Fourteen months.”
“Really? It’s been that long?”
He should know. He’d spent the majority of that time imagining her as the star of every one of his fantasies. God, it seemed downright pathetic now that he thought about it. But fantasizing about Leah made it easier to decline the few second dates he could have gone on this year. He just wasn’t up for it, especially these last four months.
“You have nothing to be nervous about,” Caleb said. “We’re going there to relax, right?”
She released a relieved breath and smiled. “Right,” she said. “So no talk about turning around. This is a chance for us to get to know each other better.”
If only she wanted to get to know him in the same way he wanted to get to know her. But that wasn’t the case, and he’d do well to remember that. Otherwise he was just setting himself up for a fall.
