She was more nervous about this car ride than she wanted to be. While confined to the small space in his car for four hours, maybe they’d be forced into addressing some of the things that had gone unspoken between them. Even while on their kayak trip, Dylan hadn’t really talked to her about Friday night. Or her date with Sheridan. Or their past.
After their outing the other day, they’d fallen back into their old friendship easily. Kelsi sighed, knowing that their rekindled friendship was getting to the point where his questions were inevitable. She knew she owed him answers. Kelsi only wished that this time he’d give her some of his own, too.
“Hey, Red.”
She took the coffee cup from him, averting her eyes from him to the cup as their fingers brushed. It had a logo from the town’s coffee shop, Creekside, on its side. Bringing the steaming contents to her lips to hide her face, she moaned at the first taste. She swallowed a mouthful of delicious dirty chai, the perfect amount of sweetness to balance the espresso.
He smiled smugly when he noticed how much she enjoyed the drink he’d brought her. “You ready?” His head tilted back toward his car, where it idled in her driveway.
Instead of answering, she locked her house behind her and walked past him to the passenger side door, his chuckles trailing behind her. When she opened the door, she stopped short of climbing in because of what was taking up her seat. A bag from Creekside sat there, the smell of chocolate-baked goodness hitting her.
Dylan smiled and asked, “Did you think I would have gone to Creekside for caffeine and not gotten the double chocolate chip cruffins?”
Another small crack formed in the armor she had built around her heart.
“Want to hang your blazer up in the back so it doesn’t wrinkle? I’ve got an extra hanger, if you want.”
Shocked, she turned to see him still standing behind her, but at the back passenger door, hand poised to open it.
“Yeah,” she said. “That would be amazing, actually. Thank you.” She shrugged out of her powder-blue jacket, handed it over to Dylan, and grabbed the bag of food so she could sit.
Dylan slammed the door shut and jogged around to the driver’s side, sliding into his seat smoothly. Her mouth went dry, and she hastily swallowed a sip of her chai, scalding the roof of her mouth. That move was too sexy for her to process at eight o’clock on a Tuesday morning. He sent a knowing smile her way and turned the key. Dylan fiddled with his phone until the navigation kicked on, a robotic voice directing them to pull a U-turn. He hit another few buttons on his phone before placing it on the dash. Soft music filtered in through the speakers of the car. By the third song, she knew what playlist he had put on.
A wave of nostalgia hit her. It was her favorite—a mix of their favorite throwback tunes. They used to listen to this playlist together whenever they hung out, and each week they picked one song each to add. It had gotten so long that the listening hours had, the last time she checked, totaled over eighty hours of music. Her chest ached as she thought about the years of favorites they had missed out on. Eventually, though, she realized there were newer songs playing too. Had he kept adding to their playlist?
Dylan was oblivious to her complicated thoughts as he drove, left hand on the wheel, pointer finger tapping along to the beat. His right arm rested on the console between their seats, close enough that it taunted her. All she wanted was to reach over and weave her fingers through his.
To give her hands something else to hold, she opened the bag on her lap. Inside, two perfect pastries looked up at her. Her mouth watered. “Want one?” she asked Dylan, grabbing the top one and waving it under his nose. Faster than she could register, he darted his head forward. His teeth sunk into the cruffin, taking a large bite of it from where she held it in her hand.
Her mouth fell open in shock at his playful behavior. When he caught her expression, he laughed so hard that he struggled to eat the bite he had taken, choking slightly. As he sprayed crumbs all over the steering wheel with his hacking, she couldn’t hold back her own laughter. Soon the two of them were in hysterics, tears running down their faces. Kelsi clutched her stomach as her abs began to cramp from laughing so loud and long. As her chuckles subsided, she smiled warmly at him.
Content, she relaxed in her chair, eating the breakfast he’d gotten her. This moment felt so much like their friendship from before, but there was somethingmoreunderneath it. An undercurrent she got further caught up in the more time that passed.
For a while, they drove in silence, listening to their favorite music, watching the trees pass resolutely by in the rearview mirror, and enjoying the company.
Eventually, after Dylan’s hands had flexed on the steering wheel for the fourth time and she grew tired of the glances he kept cutting at her from the corner of his eye, she huffed, “Spit it out. What’s bothering you?”
He cleared his throat a couple of times, and she was glad he seemed to be working up to an answer instead of brushing her off. She gave him the time to figure out what he wanted to say, leaning back in her seat and finishing her pastry.
Finally, he said, in a forced casual tone, “How did your date the other night go?”
In her head, she screamed. This conversation had been inevitable, but she still wished she could run from it. They were friends again, she supposed, so talking about relationships was normal. But there was something about talking to Dylan of all people about her love life that made her want to crawl under a rock.
“It was fine.”
“Fine?” He looked at her with a raised brow. “Fine is not how a man hopes his dates are described.”
“I don’t know what else to say about it, Dylan. It was fine.” She sighed, growing annoyed at the conversation. What did he want to hear from her?
“Did he kiss you?” The steering wheel groaned as his hands tightened around it.
She shrugged one shoulder. “He tried to.”
Dylan’s knuckles turned white. “What do you mean, he tried?”
“Exactly that. He tried to kiss me, I didn’t let him. I told him it’s only been a couple months since I got out of the relationship with Tom and I wanted to take things slow.”
“So you plan on seeing him again?”
