Page 34 of Final Drive

She laughs, bright and surprised. “No. You really don’t.”

I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “Ice cream?”

“What?”

“I promised you ice cream. There’s a place on the way home.” I put the car in gear. “Thirty-two flavors.”

She’s still laughing. “You’re serious.”

“I’m always serious.” I’m also smiling. “I’ve been waiting on the salted caramel for months.”

Her hand finds mine on the gear shift and stays there.

We sit on the hood in a mostly empty parking lot and eat. She gets chocolate chip cookie dough. I get the salted caramel, which is worth the wait and not the best thing about the evening.

The lights are still on when I pull up to the team house, and there are shadows moving behind the curtains. All of them, waiting up.

“Thank you,” Reese says. “For tonight.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“I want to.” She leans over and kisses me again, softer. “See you inside?”

“A few minutes. I need to sit with it.”

She nods like that makes sense to her, which it might.

I watch her go in and stay where I am for another ten minutes, running the evening back. The way her parents looked at her and how casually they did it. The way she shook and didn’t break. The way she kissed me like I was worth wanting.

I’ve never been good at feelings, but I am extremely good at learning.

CHAPTER TEN

Zane

Reese looks like she’s been through a war when she comes through the front door.

Not physically. Her hair’s still up and the dress is still perfect. It’s her eyes, the set of her shoulders, and the fact that she doesn’t say anything for three full seconds. Tyler comes in a few steps behind her, and whatever passes between them happens too fast for me to read before he heads for the kitchen.

“Hey.” I push off the couch where I’ve been pretending to watch TV for the last hour. “How’d it go?”

“About as well as expected.” She drops her clutch on the side table and kicks off her heels. “My mother called me a whore. Tyler told them off. We left before dessert.”

“Jesus.” I start toward her, then stop before I get close enough to crowd her. “You okay?”

“I don’t know. I think I’m too tired to know.”

The house is quieter than usual because everybody’s been waiting for her to come back, even if none of us is admitting it. Bo and Beckett are in the kitchen, Jackson’s upstairs, and Gray’s door has been shut since before she left.

“Come on.” I tip my head toward the stairs. “I’ve got a projector and a Netflix password I stole off my sister. You look like you could use ninety minutes of nothing.”

She glances toward the kitchen, where Tyler’s voice has joined the others.

“Just a movie,” I add. “No pressure. No feelings discussed unless you bring them up.”

That gets the first real change in her expression. “What are we watching?”

“Anything. I’ve got zero standards and even less taste.”