Minutes later they exited town and the quiet swelled until she feared the whole truck would combust from the vacuum. She turned on the radio and the sounds of Christmas music filled the air. She wasn’t a big fan of the holiday—it had largely disappointed. As a child she’d believedin Santa for about two seconds. Her first Christmas with a foster family quickly dispelled any belief in a benevolent stranger who bestowed gifts on every child.
She found another station—Taylor Swift crooned “Midnight Rain.” Anything was better than Christmas music. Lauren’s feelings about that particular holiday were eclipsed only by her disillusionment about birthdays.
Case in point.
Because, yes, today was her birthday and she was trapped in a rattly, old truck with the man who threatened her peace of mind. Typical.
“Are we gonna talk about this?”
He speaks.She supposed a nice, quiet drive was too much to hope for. “About what?”
“Lauren. You can’t stay mad at me forever.”
“Are you sure?”
His sigh rose over the chorus’s crescendo. “Well, you can’t be mad at me on your birthday.”
He remembered.A small bubble of joy swelled inside. She took a mental pin and popped it, then aimed a scowl his way. “This isn’t exactly the way I wanted to spend it.”
“Why not? You don’t even celebrate your birthday, so what does it matter?”
She kept forgetting he knew so much about her. She squirmed in her seat, then jabbed a button, turning off the heat. “Then I guess it doesn’t matter that I’m mad at you today after all.”
“You’re not really angry anyway, are you? You’re just scared.”
She snorted, though his words hit a little too close to the mark.
“You like having a nice little wedge between us, don’t you? It’s a lot less scary than a friendship that might morph into more.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You gave up that job for me. Forus.”
“Which you lied to me about.”
“Only by omission. And I’ve already apologized for that—numerous times.”
“Whatever. The only way I would’ve given up that job is if you’d manipulated me into it.”
He turned wide eyes on her. “Is that what you think happened?”
His surprise made her waver. But no. She must’ve been backed into a corner to have given up that job. “It’s what I know,” she said with far more certainty than she felt.
He gave a wry laugh. “You go on kidding yourself. Maybe one of these days you’ll get up the courage to ask me how it all went down.”
“You’re really ticking me off.”
“Thought you were already mad. And just so you know, we had the kind of love people die for, Lauren. We were happy. You lit up like the sun when I kissed you and squirmed with want when I touched you. It was pure magic.”
Her knuckles blanched on the steering wheel as her internal temperature rose ten degrees. “Shut up, Jonah.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You don’t want to hear the truth because you’re scared to death of giving us another chance. Scared it’ll lead you right back to the same place.”
“Not happening. I don’t know how you tricked me into it before, but it won’t happen again. You hear me?”
“There was no trick, sweetheart. It was just love, pure and simple.”
“I’m done with this conversation.” She turned up the radio and let the intro of “Cry Me a River” fill the cab.
