Page 63 of Touch the Sky

“You’re not going to be sick, are you?”

I huff. “Voyons, là. I had three beers. Just because I can’t drive, doesn’t mean I’m gonna spew like a drunk teenager.”

She chuckles again and shakes her head. “Fair enough. Just checking. I can always pull over if you need me to.”

“I do not need you to,” I insist. “I am fine. Maybe I’m holding onto my seat because you’re taking all the corners way too fast.”

I nod my head at the window, where we’ve just careened around a bend in the road.

Tess raises her eyebrows. “Oh, am I? You’re telling me you drive slower?”

I give up my grip on the seatbelt and cross my arms over my chest.

“I’m telling you that you do not know the roads like I do.”

She tips her head back and laughs before swapping hands on the wheel. “What roads do you think I’ve been driving every day since I moved here?”

“Hmm.” I think for a moment. “I guess you have a point.”

Tess turns up the radio, and we both bob our heads along to the latest country pop sensation. I let my jaw unclench, and I sink a little deeper into my seat.

I can do this. I can get a ride home from the hot woman who lives in my house and not make it weird.

When we pull into the driveway, all the windows are dark.Mamangot a ride home from Natalie’s parents a couple hours ago. She left the porch light on for us. The single bulb beside the front door casts a narrow circle of light on the flaking wooden floorboards.

The porch is several summers overdue for a new coat of paint, but that’s just another task on my long list of things I have no idea when the hell I’ll get done.

Tess shuts the engine off, killing the music. The silence of the night drifts into the car like smoke.

Neither of us moves.

“Anyway, thank you,” I tell her.

She twists in her seat to face me. “Huh?”

“For driving me home. Thank you.”

She stares at me for a long moment. My breath catches, lodging somewhere in my throat just like the egg salad I almost choked on the day we met.

I had no idea what I was racing towards that day she showed up at La Grange Rouge. I wonder if I would have sped even faster up the highway if I knew Tess would be standing here in my yard.

I wonder if I would have just turned around and left, skipped the farrier visit altogether and hoped she’d wind up with somewhere else to live, somewhere I wouldn’t catch myself staring at her lips every goddamn day.

“Anytime,” she murmurs.

Maybe that’s the truth. Maybe anytime and any place, I would have ended up wanting to kiss Tess Tully.

Not that it matters.

I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time for her, and she’s made it clear she doesn’t have time for me. We’re just two busy people with other priorities who sometimes stare into each other’s eyes for a little too long.

That’s all we can be.

I snap my gaze away from her, staring through the windshield even though there’s no road to follow anymore. I click my seatbelt off and straighten out my blazer. Despite playing musical stools all night to escape the wind, I’ve still ended up smelling like a bonfire.

“How’s it, uh, going?” I say, forcing myself to sound as casual as I can. “Living in the back? Everything working okay?”

“Oh, um, it’s great,” she says, her voice stiff and her face turned away from me as she slips her own seatbelt off. “Perfect, actually. Shel loves it.”