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Once they were on the road, Adelia reached over and laid her hand on his knee, which made him jump.
She laughed. “Sorry. I feel like it’s been so long since I saw you. I wanted to make sure you were real.”
He chuckled and placed his hand atop hers. “Are you real?”
She turned her hand over and wound her fingers through his. “This feels real to me.”
As good as it felt to hold her hand, he still had strong doubts about taking things to the next level with Adelia, but he hated to disappoint her, so he kept his hand where it was.
“So, how are you?” Adelia asked.
“Fine.”
“Anything new on my blackmailer?”
He shook his head. “Things have been quiet there. No new leads, and the ones we had went cold.”
“I figured.”
“I’m really sorry. We’re still working on it.”
She let out a breath. “I was hoping to come back and not have to look over my shoulder this time.”
“I know.”
Her phone went off, and she let go of his hand to answer it. “Hey, Skylar,” she answered then listened. “Yeah, that’s fine. Text me what everyone wants.” She tossed her phone into her purse and looked at Oliver. “The girls want snacks. It’s okay to stop somewhere, right?”
“Of course. But isn’t the Schultz house stocked with Schultz Chocolate?”
Adelia laughed. “Probably. But Merritt wants salty, Skylar wants crunchy, and Genevieve wants celery and peanut butter.”
Oliver screwed up his nose.
“Pregnancy cravings.” Adelia shrugged her shoulders.
The last thing Oliver wanted was to talk about babies, so he changed the subject. “How’s your dad doing?”
“He put on a happy face for me while I was there, but he couldn’t really hide his sadness. I know him too well.”
“I can relate. It’s hard to feel so helpless to fix things when the other person doesn’t want to anymore.”
A look of concern crossed her face. “I’ve been so wrapped up in my family drama, I didn’t think about the fact that you’ve been through this. I hope this isn’t bringing back painful memories for you.”
“I let it go a long time ago. And it was hard. But it will get better for your dad. It did for me.”
She was quiet for a few beats. “Do you still miss her?”
“I do. We were high school sweethearts. She was my best friend. But for us, it came to the point where we wanted different things, and we fought about those differences over and over until it broke us. We weren’t in love anymore. We weren’t even friends, really. All I wanted was to go back to the way things used to be, but we couldn’t. We were too far gone from that time in our lives. I didn’t see it, but she did. I was stubborn, but so was she. And she made a choice for her own life. It just didn’t include me.”
Adelia didn’t reply, and the space grew quiet.
“I don’t know what your parents’ issues are. Maybe they can figure out a way back to each other. But that wasn’t possible for us. We went into marriage with a different future in mind, and we should’ve been more honest about that from the start.”
“What were the differences?” she asked softly. “The things you couldn’t get past?”
“I’d rather not talk about it right now,” he said, feeling a twinge of guilt for not being upfront with her.
There was a mental battle raging within him. He knew he should say it—I don’t want children—but he couldn’t force the words out. Saying them would surely push her away, and he didn’t want that, even knowing there was no future for them.