“Come on, Whit. Live a little.”
“This truck has no doors. The seatbelts look flimsy. That hill looks too steep.”
“It’s not that steep.”
“What if we tip over?”
“Rolling isn’t a big deal.”
My foot comes off the pedal suddenly, and the engine sputters and dies right at the base of the thing.
“Caleb, you’re not to roll large machines. Ever. Again. I forbid it.”
He smiles softly at me, his gaze adoring. “You worried about me?”
“Of course I am. You’re…reckless.”
“Nah, babe. I’m living,” he says and then hops out of the truck, moving to the driver’s side and unbuckling me. Then he’s pushing me toward the passenger seat without a word.
“You will not…” I mutter as he revs the engine, my fingers scrambling to buckle the seatbelt. It’s frayed at the edges, and I worry that this may be my last day on Earth. It won’t hold me if we go careening off a cliff.
The truck lurches forward, and Caleb chuckles as I grab onto the bar in front of me. He told me it’s called an oh-shit bar.
Very fitting, I think.
Wheels spin as we make our way up the rocky hill, and I feel the blood drain from my face as we tip slightly to the right. Rocks kick up against the metal paneling, and Caleb whoops loudly as we lean even further toward impending doom.
“You’ve got this, Betsy,” he shouts, and it’s then that I notice he doesn’t have his seatbelt on.
“Caleb van Beek, put your seatbelt on right now!”
He smirks at me, doing no such thing. The way I’m going to make him pay for that. For putting himself in danger.
Thankfully, Betsy does me a major favor in not rolling us to our deaths. We simply slide and sputter our way to the top of the hill and come to an abrupt stop.
“You do that again, and you will be very, very sorry.”
“Promise?” he asks with a smug grin, and I feel my pants tighten slightly.
I hope it’s done now that we’ve made it to the top, but sadly, it’s not. He just peers over at me, clicks his seatbelt on, and pulls me in for a kiss before continuing on. We slide down the hill we just climbed, and I bite back a scream when the wheels come off the ground.
“Let me out!”
“Not a chance, babe. You’re in this with me. For. Ev. Er.”
I glower at him as my head almost knocks into the roll cage.
And the torture doesn’t end there.
Caleb attempts to drive up something that is not meant for humanity, and we get stuck in a long rut along the way. Sem has to pull us out using long yellow straps. They spend far too much time congratulating themselves on being reckless.
I watch all of this from my perch on an uncomfortable rock. If Caleb were wearing a helmet and actually wore his seatbelt like he should, this might be a little fun. I can see why people enjoy it, but I spend more time worrying about his brain rattling around and him breaking another bone than biting back smiles when he flies us over small ruts in the dirt path.
If I smile, it will only make him do it more.
And I think my promising to do filthy things to him for being so reckless only eggs him on.
Well, he won’t be so happy when I edge him for hours.
