Page 42 of If It's You

Whatever Christian had expected Maizie to do, it wasn’t to fall into him like she was madly in love with him. Or kiss his cheek. But she was doing all that and more while he just stared at the camera.

When Anne put the phone down, he expected Maizie to back away, but instead, she laced her fingers through his and pulled him down the steps. He didn’t like whatever was going on. But he also didn’t hate it.

“Where’s the car?”

“The what?” Christian shook his head free of her curse and pulled his hand from hers. Whatever angle she was playing was not going to work.

“The car. To get to the dance.” She folded her arms, and whatever girl she’d been five seconds ago was replaced with the real Maizie. He could handle this Maizie.

“Right over there.” He grinned and pointed to the left of the big shed where a small blue tractor always sat.

“Excuse me?”

Christian just walked to the tractor. “I told you we would need more time to get there. But someone took forever to get ready.”

“That tractor doesn’t have a cab! That’s going to ruin my hair!” Maizie ran to catch up with him, her heels clicking against the rough pavement.

“Not my problem,” Christian said with a shrug and fought to keep the smile off his face. From the second Jayce had mentioned the idea of taking her to the dance in a tractor, he’d latched on like a baby bird to its first meal.

“I’m not getting in that,” Maizie protested, but continued to follow him.

“Then I guess we’re not going. I asked Grandpa to teach me to drive it just for this purpose.” Christian scaled the little blue tractor and plopped down on the seat.

Maizie stomped her feet beside it. It was immature. But also kind of adorable.

“And where am I supposed to sit?”

Christian looked around the minuscule space. Apparently, he hadn’t thought everything through. It was either his lap or the hubcap.

“Right here.” He patted his lap with a smirk guaranteed to make her chew him out.

Her face pinched, and she climbed up the steps. For a moment, he thought she was going to take him up on his offer, and his palms began to sweat.

“I’d rather take my chances on the wheel well.” She sat beside him, leaning most of her body into the tractor and completely intoxicating him with whatever perfume she’d put on.

“You might want to hold on,” Christian said, starting up the tractor.

“I thought you knew how to drive it.”

“I said I asked Grandpa to teach me. I didn’t say I passed the lessons.” Christian smirked and threw the tractor into drive.

“I hate you,” Maizie screamed as she fell into him, clasping her arms around his neck.

If he hadn’t been laughing so hard, he would have enjoyed it more. But the second he evened the gears back out, Maizie released herself from him and sat up, albeit closer than she had before, keeping a hand on his armrest.

The tractor went roughly twenty miles per hour, which meant it would take a half-hour to complete the ten-mile journey.

“Would you like some music for the drive?”

Maizie just glared at him.

He smiled and flicked on his phone. With how loud the tractor was, they wouldn’t be able to hear a thing from just his phone, which was why he’d convinced Mitchell to hook his big bluetooth speaker under the seat.

Big Green Tractorstarted playing, and Maizie buried her face in her hands.

“You have to be kidding me right now.”

“Nope. It’s a three-minute song, which means we get to listen to it ten times on the way to the dance.”