I glance back over my shoulder. “Coming?”
His jaw shifts. Something moves behind his eyes. “I’m sorry Cruz is here.”
I tilt my head, my smile teasing but tinged with something deeper. “Don’t be. We can all adventure together.”
He steps in closer, and his fingers find a loose strand of hair at my temple, tucking it back with a deliberate slowness that sends a rush of warmth through me. “I wanted you to myself today.”
The weight of his words hangs in the air, and I feel a flutter of something—anticipation, maybe. “Sharing is okay sometimes though, right?” I try to keep it light, but there’s a tentative truth buried in the innocent question, one that reveals how much I crave more than just his attention.
His gaze roams over my face, and it feels like basking in the sun on the beach. It’s intense in its own way, and like some desperate plant after a long winter, I lean toward him.
He eliminates the distance between us, his lips meeting mine in an unhurried sweep. He deepens the kiss instantly, and my fingers curl into his shirt involuntarily.
He pulls back before I’m ready for him to. His thumb traces once along my jaw, and I swear I can feel the featherlight touch somewhere much, much lower.
“C’mon,” he murmurs, lacing our fingers together as we stroll across the parking lot.
Cruz is leaning against the passenger side, arms folded across his chest and baseball hat flipped backward. His gaze drops to our intertwined hands, then travels up to my face. He smirks and pushes off the car. “Cute.”
“Thank you,” I chirp, ignoring his sarcasm.
“So, Bells, I’ve been thinking,” he drawls.
“Uh-oh.” I arch my brows and pull a face toward Gage. He humors me with a small grin.
“And we should do doubles,” Cruz continues, ignoring me.
I stop in front of him, and Gage drops a kiss to the top of my head before he rounds the hood of the car to the driver’s seat.
Cruz scoffs with a slow shake of his head. “Don’t tell me you forgot doubles.” When I don’t answer right away, he rakes his teeth over his bottom lip. “You wound me, Bells.”
“I remember doubles,” I murmur, trying to ignore the memories attempting to flood my brain.
Teenage Bellamy did a lot of random, wildly chaotic, and sometimes illegal things with teenage Cruz and teenage Gage.
And riding doubles was low on the list, but it was one of the most fun—for one very specific reason: I had crushes on both of them, and I wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to sit on their laps for a car ride.
It started when Gage had this old pickup truck that only had two seats, so when the three of us hung out, it always ended with me sitting on one of their laps.
“But this car has a backseat.” I tilt my head to the side, toward the backseat I was comfortably riding in all afternoon.
“I know, but my way is more fun.” Cruz grins, waggling his brows.
I glance at Gage. He’s already watching me, one hand resting on the roof of the car, a bemused sort of grin on his face.
I tip my chin toward him. “It’s your ticket if we get pulled over.”
He only chuckles and opens his door. “Get in the front, Bell.”
“No one’s getting pulled over today.” Cruz pushes off the door with exuberance. “I’ll slide in first.”
I roll my eyes at his back. “Obviously.”
“Ooh, something good must’ve happened inside that gas station, because our girl here came out with some sass, man,” Cruz drawls.
I lean into the car, placing one foot on the floor and catching Gage hiding his grin behind his hand. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Yes, I very much would.” Cruz’s hands find my hips before I’ve fully decided to get in, and he lifts me like the decision was already made. I end up diagonal across his lap, one shoulder pressed into the warm solid wall of his chest, the other against the door’s cool window glass. His palm settles at my hip andstays there—not adjusting, not moving. Just resting, like he’s done it before.
