Merritt leaned back against the cool window, evaluating him. A playful smile pushed his cheeks up toward his eyes, making them into joyful little half-moons.
“Fine,” Merritt said. “On three, the best Nora Ephron movie is, one... two... three—”
“When Harry Met Sally,” he said, and she shook her head.
“No. That was a test. It’s stillYou’ve Got Mail.”
Whit gave an exaggerated eye roll, but then stopped halfway through.
“Crap.”
“What?” Merritt said, following his eyeline. “Oh.”
They were not back in town, but instead in a line of cars leading to what looked to be a school.
“Muscle memory—I just drove straight here. I’m sorry. I’ll turn around.”
Merritt watched as he glanced at the clock.
“Will you be able to drop me off and make it back in time to pick up Annie?”
“I’ll just be a little late,” he said, beginning to fiddle with the gear shift.
Merritt imagined Annie waiting for her dad as the line of cars slowly came to an end, and the image almost broke her heart. She placed her hand on Whit’s but drew it back when she felt his eyes on her once again.
“Don’t do that,” she said, as if it hadn’t happened. “We can just get her and then drop me off on the way back home.”
Whit thought this over, but only briefly. “Okay,” he said, relieved but not exactly settled.
“What?”
He shrugged.
“I don’t know, it’s... it’s just a small school and people are weird.”
She laughed to cover up the blush spreading across her face.
“You think people will talk about... us?”
He shrugged.
“Do you want me to hide in the back?”
He paused for just an instant too long.
“Oh my God, you considered it.”
“No,” he said quickly, half-laughing. “No. I just, I don’t know, I’ll—”
“I will behave myself,” she said, performing confidence to cover her awkwardness. “Everyone will know that this is purely professional.”
This, she thought to herself.Us. Purely professional.As if it would be anything else.
God, she could die. And Whit looked as if he was considering swerving into oncoming traffic. She pushed her cheek into the glass of the window to cool her burning face.
“Oh!” Whit said abruptly, pulling her head back up.
“What?”
