She came back down the steps and put her hand on the car door handle but didn’t open it right away.Instead, she looked at me.“You don’t really need to do this,” she said.“I’m sure you have at least ten other things you’d rather be doing tonight.”
I shook my head before she’d even finished the sentence.“I’m right where I want to be.”
She blinked once, slowly, and just nodded like she didn’t trust herself to say anything back, then she got in the car.
I watched her toss her purse onto the passenger seat, start the engine, and sit for a second with both hands on the wheel before backing out carefully.Her brake lights flashed red across the lot, then she turned toward the road and pulled out.
I kicked the bike to life and followed.
The air was colder now than it had been earlier, and no traffic worth mentioning.Just a dark ribbon of road cutting through town and then out past it where things spread out and the houses got fewer and farther between.
I kept a steady distance behind her, close enough that she’d know I was there if she looked, far enough not to crowd.
The ride out to her parents’ place was better than it had any right to be.
I knew these roads.Knew how Weston changed once you got past the last streetlights and convenience stores and into the quieter stretches where there was more land than neighbors.Trees closed in deeper out there, fields opened up, and houses sat farther back, separated by long driveways and enough space to keep other people’s noise away.
It fit Ever better than the town did.
I hadn’t really thought that before, but riding behind her now, watching her taillights lead me farther into the dark, it hit me.
She turned down a long driveway bordered by trees, and I followed, the gravel crunching under her tires and then under mine.The wide shape of the house finally came into view when her headlights washed over the front.
Big.
Quiet.
Too damn isolated for my liking.
She parked and shut the car off fast, like maybe if she moved quickly enough she could end this before it became a thing.
I cut my engine just as she climbed out.
“Uh, thank you for making sure I got home,” she said quickly.
I looked at the house, then back at her.“You the only one here?”
Her eyes followed mine toward the house before she looked back at me.“Uh, yeah.My parents are in the U.P.They pretty much live up there now.”
I nodded, then got off the bike and started toward her before I’d really thought it through.
I hadn’t planned on doing anything but making sure she got there and heading out, but knowing she was alone changed the shape of everything.
This wasn’t a house tucked between neighbors with porch lights on both sides.This place sat by itself, out in the dark, too quiet and too far from anybody else.I didn’t like it.
She stepped back.“Uh, what are you doing?”
“Making sure the house is clear.”
Her brows pulled together.“Clear?What does that mean?”
I closed the distance before she could work herself up into a bigger argument and put a hand gently around her arm, turning her toward the house.
Her breath caught, and I heard it.Felt it, too, because the slight pull she gave told me she was about to resist on principle, if nothing else.
I didn’t let go and wasn’t going to until I made sure she was safe inside.
“Come on,” I said.
