“So you want to tell me what you were really doing collapsed over your steering wheel in a parking lot?”
“Waiting for the Yum truck,” I replied, grinning. “And it came!”
He just looked at me.
“Fine.” I swallowed. “The truth is, I’m supposed to be driving to Bly Corners.”
“The mall?” I nodded. “So what’s the problem?”
“I don’t like to drive.”
“You drove here,” he pointed out.
“And I drove Trinity to birth class on Saturday,” I said, sighing. “What I’m saying is I didn’tlikeit.”
“You went to birth class?” he asked. “Did Kim show one of those videos?”
“She did.”
He shuddered. “See, nowthat’ssomething to be scared of. You can handle a full dilation shot, you can handle anything.”
“You went to birth class?”
“Filled in for Celeste once, when she had to work.” He reached down, rubbing a smudge on the cooler top. “Fair to say it traumatized me.”
I tried to picture Roo in that little room, Trinity elbowing his gut as she tried to practice her ocean breathing. It actually wasn’t that hard. At this rate, we’d all be trained to help push when the baby came.
“See, that’s me when it comes to driving,” I said. “Like, I literally panic when I have to get behind the wheel.”
“Since when?”
“Always. Although it got worse when I hit another car in a parking deck.” Even as I cringed, saying this, I felt a sense of relief. The truth felt good. “I freaked.”
“Understandable.”
“Not to my dad.” I took another bite of my Choco-wich. “He’s always been so pushy about me getting my license, even when I was adamant I didn’t want to. He won’t let up. I don’t get it.”
Roo considered this for a second as I chewed. “Well, thatprobably has more to do with your mom than you, though, don’t you think?”
“My mom?”
“Because she didn’t drive,” he said. “She wouldn’t. Right?”
It was like time just stopped, my breathing as well, as I stood there, the Choco-wich melting down onto my wrist. Could this be true? I’d been in a car with my mom behind the wheel. Hadn’t I?
“Wait,” I said. “She was afraid to drive? Are you sure?”
He opened his mouth, then quickly shut it before pulling a hand through his hair again, this time leaving a different tuft vertical. “That’s just what Celeste said.”
“Celeste,” I repeated.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “Obviously, you know your mom better than—”
“I don’t, though,” I said. I heard the catch in my voice, and hoped he didn’t. “That’s what I’m realizing. I didn’t really know her at all.”
We just stood there for a second, the truck dark and cool all around us as a car drove by, beeping.
“I’m sorry,” Roo said quietly. He looked back down at his hand, spread on the cooler. “And for what it’s worth, I can relate to having more questions than answers. My dad died before I was born.”
