“I’m impressed but also a little freaked out.” I think out loud.
“Nothing to be freaked out about,” he says, opening the passenger door to a Tahoe. I climb off his back into the seat. He turns to me. “I’ll be back in less than four minutes. You’re safe here.”
“The president would be safe here,” I note.
He closes the door on me, and I press the lock button immediately. He looks back and shakes his head with a grin. I’m glad he thinks I’m amusing, but I didn’t do it to be funny. Habit, I guess. But also because even though I know nothing’s going to happen here, an immediate panic washes over me being all alone.
“One, two, three…” I count out loud as a distraction, timing Ben. True to his word, he comes sauntering back just as I reach two hundred.
He throws a large bag in the back seat before pulling out of the space, then stops in front of two gates, opening his window to enter a code. “Good?”
“Yep.”
He drives out onto the empty street, rolls through the stop sign at the corner, then parks in front of an open diner. He tosses his phone at me, and I almost don’t catch it. “Put your address in, Blue. I’ll be right back.” I’m so tempted to snoop just because I want to know about his life, but I don’t. I enter my address, hit GO, and the GPS illuminates the screen on the dash.
The arrival time is five thirty in the morning, and I feel terrible. I think the adrenaline has worn off a little bit, and I’m realizing how irrational I’m being. Maybe I should just get a bus ticket back home so he can get some sleep. If I go straight to thepolice, I bet I can file an actual complaint since I have evidence now…I think.
Ben returns with his hands full. “Wasn’t sure what you’d be in the mood for,” he says, putting a paper bag in my lap. “I got you a burger and a sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast biscuit.” He pokes straws into both cups. “Chocolate shake and orange juice, but I know even if you pick the biscuit, you’ll want the shake, so the OJ’s mine. And here’s ice.” He reaches over and gently places a plastic bag on my ankle.
He buckles up, then we’re on the road.
I blink, look at all this stuff. Then blink again. “How did you get food so fast?”
“Ordered it while you were in the shower.”
Because of course he did. He thinks of everything. He’s too much. This is…it’s not right. I’m being selfish, and he’s too nice. “Ben, I—”
“Asked them to bag up ice ’cause I only had one tray in my freezer.”
“Ben!”
He shakes his head. “We’re not doing this, Annie.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”
“You’re going to say nothing because you’re going to eat, then you’re going to slurp down a shake, then if you don’t fall asleep, you can fill me in on what you’ve been up to.”
I cross my arms and glare at his handsome profile. “You can’t tell me when to speak.”
“I can when I know you’re gonna try to come up with all the reasons I should turn around, but you know me, babe. You know that’s not gonna happen.”
Again, he’s right, but…babe?
Don’t read into it. Don’t read into it.
“Toss me what you don’t want.”
I won’t win against him, so I open the bag, take out the biscuit for myself, then unfold the burger and hold it up for him. Our fingers brush. No shock, but a current of warmth radiates up my arm, and I yank my hand back.
Don’t read into it. Don’t read into it.
I take a huge bite so I don’t say something stupid because I am stupid. How can I even think about him like that right now? My baby is missing, and someone broke into my apartment. My stomach churns, and as delicious as the biscuit is, I can’t eat anymore.
My nose prickles, and I turn my head, resting my temple on the window. I close my eyes to gather my thoughts, to try to make sense of the last handful of hours. As usual, my mind spins with more thoughts than I can sort, and my sinuses begin to ache. My lids flutter, but I don’t think Ben can tell because from this angle, I can see him rubbing his knee.
The knee that was shattered by the bullet my father aimed at him.
Who’syourfriend?
