“And no one is sober enough to drive?”
He nodded. “We’re just trying to be responsible. Help us out?”
“Right. Okay.” I glanced at Emersyn. “Feel like taking a ride with me?”
She scooted off the seat and stood. “Sure.”
I turned back to my brother and practically growled under my breath. “You owe me.”
“Got it. Here. Just get whatever you can with this.” He placed a wad of crumpled up bills in my hand. Looked like somewhere around two hundred bucks. Construction workers partied hard, but they always had cash on hand it seemed. “Thanks, Brother.”
Once he was gone, I pocketed the money. “Sorry about that. I would’ve introduced you, but he’s not going to remember anyways.”
“It’s okay. You go on a lot of beer and pizza runs for him?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes. I figure that’s better than him or one of his buddies getting out on the roads intoxicated.”
She followed me out as I locked the camper. I helped her inside the Jeep, pausing when she gave me a strange look.
“What? You okay?”
With a small shake of her head, she grinned. “Nothing, it’s just…earlier I was talking to Camille about certain types of guys. I think you might be one of them.”
“And what type is that?”
She pursed her lips like she wasn’t going to answer, so I jogged around to the driver’s side and got in.
I cranked the engine but didn’t shift out of park. “It’s going to drive me crazy if you don’t tell me. What kind of guy am I?”
After a beat and a deep breath, she answered.
“A good one.”
5
Emersyn
A small, family-owned pizza place was the only one still open. Aiden pulled into Parker’s Pizza and told me to hang tight while he ran inside and picked up the order.
In a few short minutes, he returned shaking his head.
“It’s still going to be an hour or more for them to cook half a dozen pizzas. If Axel wasn’t already wasted, he would’ve thought to actually order ahead for me to come pick them up.”
I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “So, what do you want to do?”
He pinned me with a dark look full of dirty p
romises while putting the key into the ignition. Something electrically charged passed between us. My pulse thrummed like hummingbird wings beneath my skin.
I inhaled deeply, determined not to be the first one to look away. I wasn’t.
Aiden started the Jeep and glanced at the clock in his dash. It was a few minutes after ten. “I don’t want to keep you out too late. You want me to run you home or you want to come to the convenient store with me?”
“I left my phone on the charger in your Airstream so…looks likes the convenient store it is.” Secretly I was relieved to have an excuse not to have to cut my time with him short.
A few minutes later we pulled up at a Quik Stop & Shop. The fluorescent lights were bright around the brick building, contrasting against the stark darkness. I followed him inside, realizing how strange it was to be out so late. I wondered if this was how regular teenagers felt. Wandering through town, in a convenient store, wearing someone else’s clothes in the middle of the night. It was odd to be so…free.
“I’ve got to grab a couple cases of beer for the guys,” he told me as the door chimed overhead. “You want anything?”