I hid my irritated and confused expression by checking my blindspot. “Don’t do that second-guessing shit. You couldn’t know there’d be a wreck.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw her twist her face my way. “I made a scene about Porter before we left. He and Brantley blamed me for us running late.”
Alexandra didn’t usually cause a drama… and I knew because my mom and my sister, Jasmine, had a definite flair for being dramatic. The fact that Lex had grown up around them, too, meant she knew how to throw a drama even if it was uncharacteristic of her. “Why would you make a scene?”
“It’s… a long story. But the whole trip, a little voice in my head said I should have stayed home.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Stop it, Alexandra. Seriously, you can’t go back.”
“You’re right.”
Her defeated tone and her words bothered me. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing, Raff.”
She was lying. I let that go and recalled Porter staring at us in the waiting room. It felt creepy at the time, and I’d meant to ask Lex about that then, but the nurse had called her away.
“How did he know you would call me?”
She swung her face toward me. “What?”
“How did Porter know you would call me? That’s what he said at the hospital.”
She rubbed at her temple and I almost asked if she had a headache, but that would have changed the subject.
After another moment, she said, “I guess you could say because we’re family.”
My brows drew down and I glanced at her. “We aren’t family.”
“Eyes on the road, Raff.”
I cocked a brow and stared at her for a second longer, then watched the interstate. “Elaborate, Lex. You told Porter we’re family?”
Her voice held a hint of attitude. “No.Youtold me that.”
“When?”
She let out a small sigh mingled with a scoff. “In the waiting room. I asked, ‘Wouldn’t you put family first?’ And you said that was exactly what you were doing.”
Nobody was in the right hand lane and an exit was coming up fast. I changed lanes and pulled off.
There was a single gas station, but it had shut down years ago, based on the incredibly low gas price listed and the boarded-up windows on the storefront.
I drove into the empty lot, put the truck in park, propped my left wrist on the steering wheel and stretched my right arm along the back of her seat. “I never said we were family.”
Exasperation and confusion warred in her expression. She repeated our conversation at the hospital and I stopped her with a finger to her lips. Touching her was torture, but touching her lips went beyond torture. We’d kissed once when we were teenagers. In the last five years, every fucking time I saw her, I wanted to kiss her again… and then some. So I should have known not to touch those full, bow-shaped lips.
I powered past my urge to kiss her. “Can see where you interpreted my words that way, Lex, but we’re not family. Coming to get you was me puttingyoufirst.”
She cupped the side of her face, but that was to hide her fingers rubbing her temple again. “You’re splitting hairs.”
I shook my head. “I’m not. You’ve got a headache. Do you need some painkillers?”
She did a long blink and sighed. “They prescribed some, but I’ll have to get them when I get back to Gainesville.”
My brows shot up. “What are you talking about? You aren’t going to Gainesville.”
Her eyes flared with irritation. “What areyoutalking about? I have to get back to Gainesville. I’ve got classes this week.”
