Page 8 of Take Me Home

But it left him with the mover, Buddy. Ash called to give him directions to the café and nail down a departure time. He could practically smell the smoke in the man’s gravelly voice, which was periodically cut off by a hacking, wet cough. Ash pulled the phone away from his ear.

“I don’t stop,” Buddy ground out, “so if you’re gonna need to eat or piss, you’d better bring your own supplies.”

Ash’s gaze darted unintentionally to Hazel. She was watching over the top of her paperback, shamelessly eavesdropping, her nose scrunched up in distaste. He turned away.

“And just so we’re clear, the ride ain’t free. You gotta help unload in Big Spring. That’s part of the deal.”

Ash rubbed his forehead. At this rate, he wouldn’t reach Lockett Prairie before his family went to bed. Still, it was a way home, and he wouldn’t have to touch his savings. He started to ask if Buddy would at least drive him the rest of the way, or evenjust to Midland, after they unloaded the truck, but a hand snatched his phone away.

“Sorry,” Hazel said. “His plans have changed. Have a nice day, Buddy.”

“What are you doing?”

She was shaking her head at him with a look of—what? irritation? disgust?—while tucking his phone protectively against her chest. Which drew his eyes to the snug fit of her fuzzy gray sweater. Christ, this recent sweater weather was going to be his undoing. He forced his eyes back up quickly, but her knowing squint said she’d caught him. Well, fine. If she didn’t want him to check her out, she shouldn’t hold his personal property hostage.

Her chin tipped up defiantly. “I can’t watch you do this.”

“Make a phone call?”

“Take a water bottle into some stranger’s truck so you have something to drinkand then pee into.”

She had a point. But, damn it, that had been his last option. “Thanks for the concern”—frustration made his jaw and hands clench, screaming the opposite of gratitude—“but unlessyou’regonna drive me home, which we both know you’re not, I need to call this guy back.”

“You’re pretty certain, considering you haven’t even asked me.”

Hope lifted in his chest, but he tamped it down, already too frayed to risk the letdown if he was wrong. Hazel never went home. He didn’t think she wasthatpetty, but he couldn’t discount that she was simply fucking with him. All those times he’d refused her the chair…

“Are you going home?” he asked carefully.

“It just so happens—” She crossed her arms and heaved a sigh, and he wondered what on earth she had to be so annoyed about whenhewas the one who would have to beg Buddy for a ride if she wasn’t offering. Hazel started again, raising an eyebrow athis impatience. “It just so happens, I have been summoned to Lockett Prairie.”

Still not an offer. She was impossible. But he didn’t have it in him to play their game, act like he didn’t care. “What are you saying? You’ll drive me?”

She groaned, apparently agonized to have to say it. “I could be persuaded.”

That balloon of relief floated up in him, untethered. Despite her absolute refusal to just say an explicityes, he wanted to wrap her up in his arms and twirl her. Instead, he said mildly, “So, all of this”—he circled his finger to indicate the extraordinary measures she’d witnessed him taking since yesterday evening—“was just too entertaining for you to put me out of my misery?”

“Oh, there’s going to be misery.” She trudged back to the green chair and flounced into it. “I wasn’t planning to leave for a few more days, and I thought you’d figure something out before then. If you’d asked, I would have told you that.”

He dropped into the wobbly, wooden chair across from her. “I’ll cover gas.”

“I don’t want your money…” She trailed off. “But I do have conditions.”

“Fine. What are your conditions?”

She ran a chipped, mint-colored nail down the length of the chair arm. “For starters, I want this chair. For a month. Anytime I walk in, you have to give it up, no questions asked.”

“Yeah, fine.”

She frowned. “A whole month.”

“I heard you.”

“You’re not even going to negotiate?”

“You know I’m desperate. What leverage do I have?”

“Whyareyou so desperate?”