“That’s great.”
“It is.” She smiled at him and his chest expanded.
He quickly returned his attention to the road stretching in front of him. “So what happened today, why the change in location for pick-up?”
“Oh, right. When I was dropping off the kids at the Whitleys’, Mr. Hoffman heard me pull into their driveway and said my van was making a weird noise. He told me to park it at his place and offered to take a look at it while I’m gone,” she explained.
“I could’ve checked it out for you, if you would’ve let me know.” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“Davis, you don’t have to be there every time I need something. You don’t have to catch me when I fall,” she said.
But what if he wanted to?
What if he wanted to be the one to catch her each time she fell? Each time she couldn’t do something on her own? Or each time she needed a hand to hold?
With his throat thickening, he said, “I know.”
“Besides, you’re already helping, by driving me to Denver.”
When he dared a look at her, and found that enchanting smile on those tempting lips, he nearly lost control of the vehicle.
As the song came to an end, Kelsey turned the volume down a bit as she said, “If you can sing the next song that comes on word for word, I’ll let you choose where we have dinner tonight.”
“What?” he asked, distractedly, taking his eyes off the road for a second to look at her once again.
“But if you can’t, I choose.”
He shook his head. “Oh hell, no there’s no way I’m letting you pick.”
“What? Why not?”
“If you pick, we’ll be stopping at some hole in the wall diner, and I’ll be the one up all night with my head hanging over the toilet from food poisoning,” he explained.
“I can’t help it if you have a weak stomach.”
“It’s not weak, it’s just not used to eating the crap yours is.”
“That just means you haven’t conditioned it.”
“Well, I’m not going to start now. Sorry,” he muttered.
Kelsey leaned forward, turning up the volume on the stereo. “Guess you better try hard then.”
He caught her smirk from the corner of his eye and relented, unable to help the grin that tugged on his lips. This back and forth between them, this banter, was exactly what Davis needed. It was a reminder of their friendship and why they got along so well even when they didn’t have much in common. He’d been so desperate to get things back to normal when he shouldn’t have worried at all.
He eased into his seat and tapped his thumb against the steering wheel to the beat while he began singing the song.
Per usual, Kelsey couldn’t hold back, she joined in with him at the chorus, belting out the familiar lyrics.
When his voice cracked on a high note, they both busted up laughing. And then at that moment, the world righted itself once again. Giving him his best friend back. Even if they’d be stuck eating at the worst dive in town and he’d most likely end up with a belly ache, those few moments, laughing with her would make it all worth it.
* * *
Easinginto a parking space in front of a low-rise building downtown Denver, it was close to dark even though it was only almost five o’clock. This attorney friend of Mr. O’Henry’s had squeezed Kelsey into the end of his schedule for that day, meaning she had the very last appointment.
Kelsey unbuckled her seatbelt, her hands shaking as she flipped the visor down to check herself out in the mirror. She looked great, though she probably wouldn’t take his word for it. He could tell she was nervous.
“You got everything?”
