Chapter Thirty-Two
He rang the doorbellat eight, standing on the step looking stylish and stoic.Smiled, when I expressed surprise he was up so early; tight-lipped, when I asked how things with his parents had been that morning.
“I thought I’d help you pack,” he said, instead of an answer.
Perhaps I was a coward, but I allowed myself to believe it was easier, kinder, to let him tell me in his own time.
Seeing him interact with my parents - laughing and joking with them - made it difficult to think there could be something weighing on him, anyway.Most of his “helping” amounted to chatting with them while I stuffed a few things into boxes.
“I’ll be back in a couple of days, so it’s not like this is goodbye, or anything.”
My mom gave me an amused look.“You talk about it as though you’re joining the French Foreign Legion, honey.Even when you move out properly, you’ll still be down the road.”
“Three or four hours down the road,” I pointed out.
She laughed.“Who are you trying to reassure, here?Us, or yourself?”
I bit my lip, and hugged her, and then my dad who’d been listening and seemed similarly entertained.Then watched as they hugged Flynn, too.
“He’ll call you, when we get there,” he promised them.
Mom tapped him on the arm, playfully.“Don’t you start.A text message is fine.”
And then suddenly we were in Flynn’s SUV, on the highway, and I wasn’t sure why I had tears in the corners of my eyes but I did.
I could feel his flickering glances, as I watched the road ahead.
“I don’t know if I should be reassuring you, or distracting you, or jerking you off.”
I spluttered with surprise, then elbowed him in the arm.“Focus on the driving, asshole.”
“Wow, not even the offer of a little road-head?Chivalry truly is dead.”
He was ridiculous, but it had done the trick.I knuckled my eyes, then half-turned in the seat, so that I could look at him better.“So, what happened with your parents this morning?”
Flynn made a face.“Do we have to talk about this, now?”
“What happened to ‘they don’t have to like it, we just need to know either way’?”I was paraphrasing, but I felt like that was probably close enough.“Had she told your dad?”
A nod.
