“Really?” her voice is soft. She wipes her eyes.
“Friendsdon’tdo what we do. They don’t feel the way I do about you, and I’ve pushed it down for so long. It has been so hard.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Because you were withhim. The last thing I’d do is try and take someone else’s girl. I may not have thought too highly of him, but I have respect.”
She wipes her eyes again. “I had no clue. Anytime anyone ever gave us a hard time about it, you shut it down faster than I could. I never thought—”
“Yeah, because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship or make it weird.”
“I get that.” She looks down at her hands. “I guess…I’ve felt it too, but I’ve been in a relationship the last two years, so it wasn’t really on my radar.”
“Yeah, no crap,” I mutter.
“I’m sorry.” She lets out a small laugh.
The pressure in my chest releases slowly, allowing me to breathe a little better. “I don’t know what happens now or where we take it from here. We certainly don’t have to figure it out right now or anything. I mean, you did just get out of a relationship a few hours ago, so…”
“Right,” she utters and the cab falls silent.
“I’m pretty tired.” I point to windshield. “This isn’t letting up anytime soon, so I guess we’ll just…sleep on it?” I hold my breath again.
Addie chuckles. “Yeah…definitely.”
She pulls a blanket out from her bag and scrunches it up to use as a pillow against the window. I smile but she doesn’t see it. Joke’s on me for giving her crap about overpacking.
I turn the truck off to save on gas for now. I guess I’ll just wake up every so often and crank it to keep it from getting too cold.
About forty-five minutes go by before I’m woken by Addison adjusting her position. She opens the blanket over her and lays down on the seat, the top of her head almost touching my leg. She pulls her knees up to her chest.
“You cold?” I ask. The air that surrounds us is certainly crisp.
“I’m freezing,” she says, shivering, her teeth almost chattering.
“Well, gee, Addison, why don’t you say something?” I stifle a laugh, turning my truck on. I adjust the vents to point towards her.
She sits up and grumbles. “I can’t sleep like this, Wes. My legs hurt and my neck is already stiff,” she complains.
“Well, you can move down,” I say. “Here, come here.” I pat my leg and put my arm out, inviting her to use me as a pillow. She scoots over with very little hesitance.
“I’m not gonna bite,” I tease, just before her head presses on my thigh. My heart starts beating a little faster. This is very new territory.
* * *
When I wake up, I’m met with dark brown hair sticking to my scruffy beard. Addison is in front of me, her back against my chest, both of us lying on the bench seat of my truck. My body is curled around hers, my leg over her and the blankets over both of us.
Somehow, we fit perfectly together in the small amount of space. Even though it’s freezing, I slept like a baby.
The windshield and windows are covered in snow. It’s starting to get brighter as the sun rises. When I sit up a little to find my phone, Addison stirs, and I’m suddenly very aware that my one arm is under her head and the other is resting casually over her waist. My eyes draw to her lips immediately, and the memory of them on mine ignites a spark in my stomach.
I slowly move, but her eyes flick open and she sits up, her brown hair falling back into place.
“What time is it?” She rubs her eyes and yawns as she scoots into the passenger seat.
“Six,” I read off my phone.
“What are you smiling at?” she asks.
