The dark little reminder twisted his gut.
Lily shivered beside him, pulling her thin coat tighter around her and stamping her feet in her flimsy leather boots.He frowned. She was a native upstate New Yorker. She should know better. That coat and those boots wouldn’t hold off a stiff breeze, much less a Northfield winter.
“Come on,” he said abruptly, jerking his head toward his Chevy parked under the streetlight on Main. “Let’s get you warm. I’ll take you home.”
Lily nodded, falling into step beside him. The snow crunching under their boots was unnaturally loud in the silence. When they reached the truck, Rush opened the passenger door for her, and she climbed in with a murmured “Nice truck” while running her hand along the worn brown leather seat.
“Thanks. Pop handed it down.” He closed the door and rounded the hood. He exhaled hard, watching his breath curl in the cold air. Gut check time.
What the hell are you doing, Callahan?
He was leaving in a month. No strings. No complications. He’d told her that, made sure she knew it before he let her take it a step further at the cabin, and now he’d just done exactly that. He knew better.
But as he slid into the driver’s seat and shot a glance over at her—huddled in her puffy jacket, pink cheeks glowing, snowflakes caught in her hair—he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. She was still breathing a little too fast, and an edge of worry slid under his ribs.
“You’re wheezing,” he said quietly.
“I’m fine,” Lily said.
He leaned over and turned the heat to full blast. Her scent—warm and sweet—filled the small cabin of the truck, curling under his skin. He shifted back, resting one wrist on the leather steering wheel, the other draped across the back of the bench seat.
“I can’t go home yet,” Lily said, almost apologetically. “Evie’s got a dinner date, and I don’t want to crash.”
“Then come to my place.”
Her eyes flicked to his, and just like that, the electric current between them roared back to life. He forced himself to take a steadying breath and tried to ignore the way his body went haywire when she was this close.
“I did just stick my nose in your business,” he added with a shrug. “Least I can do is let you yell at me in private.”
His phone lit up with an incoming FaceTime call just as hers buzzed from somewhere in the folds of her coat.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
He checked the screen. Sarah. Decline. Almost immediately, a message lit the screen. Rachel this time.
You have a GIRLFRIEND and you didn’t tell us?? Kaylin saw you at the pub!!! You were SMILING with your FACE. Explain or we’re coming over!
Lily pulled her phone from her pocket. “Three texts from Amber, one from Allie, and Evie just sent me a teacup emoji.” She groaned. “I can’t believe how fast this is spreading.”
She checked her phone again and winced. “And now my mom wants to know when you’re coming to Sunday dinner.”
“It’s Northfield,” Rush said dryly. “By now, my sisters have probably already stalked your socials and planned our wedding.”
“Oh my God,” Lily said, leaning against the headrest. “We need damage control. How are we going to get out of this?”
Rush glanced over at her again, his eyes catching on the way she pulled her lip into her mouth and bit it. The surge of heat in his spine doubled. She really needed to stop doing that.
“I’ll think of something,” he said evenly. The wheels were already turning. If there was one thing he was good at, it was getting out of tight situations.
“Okay.”
He put the Chevy in gear and glanced at her again. She waswatching him with those wide green eyes, calm and trusting. More trusting than she should be.
A snapshot of the last time she was in his truck flickered through his mind. Lily in her wedding dress, snow melting in her curls, looking at him with those calm, trusting green eyes.
He hadn’t hesitated then.
And he didn’t want to now.
