That made her eyes go soft again, and I loved that look on her. I wondered if that was how her face looked before I met her, before life played a cruel joke on all of us.
My car purred to life, and it was hot as I watched Ava handle the shifting. Who the hell was I kidding? I would be in a perpetual state of arousal until I could get Ava and Micah underme or over me. I wasn’t picky, and we could engage in more fuckery.
“You want to know why my dad taught me stick?” she asked, even though I knew she would tell me anyway. “He said boys with nice cars drove stick, and he said that he never wanted me to feel stuck because a guy was being an asshole and refused to bring me home. I think he implied I should steal his car if that ever happened, or if I were ever at a party with a guy who got too drunk and he was the only option to take me back home. My dad wanted me to have a way out.”
The last part was said fondly, and the more I heard about her dad, the more I liked the guy.
“You’re lucky to have someone who loves you like he does.”
At this, she smiled sadly, and I knew it was part of the guilt that still ate at her.
“I know.”
I remained in the car while Ava ran into the shop and talked to her dad.
As I waited, my phone and Ava’s, which was still in her purse that she had left in the car, both beeped. My heart sped up.
It might be the group chat.
But as I reached for my own phone, I knew it probably wouldn’t be.
Right there at the top, glaring at me, was an unknown number.
Unknown:
1…2…3…4…
I might have missed once,
But I won’t anymore.
10
MICAH
Grayson was going out of his mind just as much as I was, I could tell. He hid it well, but I could read him by now. I could see behind his mask. When had that happened? How was it that I could understand him so easily, when I never had before?
Neither of us made a move to open the messages we’d received at the same time, but my heart was beating out of my chest at the thought of what it might say. It had been wishful thinking to expect that death would put an end to this.
A muscle ticked in Grayson’s jaw as he slid off the bed, holding out his hand. I didn’t miss the slight tremor in his fingers, mirrored by my own. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. Forget about it for a bit.” He laughed without humor. “If we fucking can. I can’t…I can’t face it yet.”
I nodded, relieved at the short respite he was offering. “Yeah. Me neither.” Gripping his hand, my sweaty palm sliding against his, I rose to my feet and thrust my phone into my pocket. It sat there, a heavy weight that would remain until I gave in to the inevitable and saw what the message said.
Not yet, though.
“Everything reminds me of it,” he muttered as we made our way through the house and out onto the driveway where his SUV was parked.
“Me too,” I admitted. Gray didn’t need to specify what ‘it’ was. We both knew.
When we were in his car, he drove aimlessly, with no destination in mind, randomly picking a direction every time we came to an intersection. We ended up in Blackstone, the next town over, and Gray pulled into the parking lot of a small diner with the namePeacheson the sign. It looked like it had been neon once, but everything was faded, giving the place a vintage feel.
He nodded his head in the direction of the diner. “Want a milkshake?” I stared at him with my brows raised, and he shrugged. “Neither of us has any memories associated with this place, right?”
I took a deep breath. “No. No memories. And if they have milkshake… Yeah. You can’t be stressed when you have milkshake.”
A tiny smile tugged at his lips. “Is that a fact?”
“It is if I say so.”
