“Got the snacks?” Emmett asked, sliding into the driver’s seat of his car. We decided to take his car instead of mine, just to be inconspicuous. We left early that morning, after only getting a few hours of sleep after making love again.
I was in a blissful state, totally snubbing reality in the face. I didn’t text Derek back, and I knew that was probably a mistake, because he tried to reach me again, but that wasn’t going to work because I’d turned my phone off. Hopefully he didn’t contact my parents, especially my father. I hadn’t spoken one single word to him since he’d stormed into the guesthouse and acted as if I were the worst daughter in the world. My mother hadn’t said a word about the incident either, which was odd. I was sure things would explode sooner or later, but I’d worry about that when the time came.
“Hot Fries?” Emmett pulled the bag off my lap. I made a “duh” face, and he shook his head. “You really are the girl of my dreams, Fallon.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You like them, too?”
“I fucking love them. They’re my favorite.”
He handed the bag back to me, and I quickly opened it, sticking my fingers inside to pull a handful out. Emmett leaned his head over and opened his mouth wide. I giggled as I shoved some into his mouth. He chewed them quickly and then put the car into drive and started off down the road.
A few minutes later, we were on the highway, the yellow line blurring on the side of the road, blooming trees swaying with the spring wind. I reached over and pushed the button on the side of the window. The barely cool air floated throughout, causing my hair to fly in every direction, but I didn’t care. I inhaled the sweet scent of freedom and closed my eyes. I lost myself in the music on the radio and the tapping of Emmett’s fingers on the steering wheel.
Before I knew it, I felt a soft nudge on my arm. My eyes clenched and my face scrunched. I moaned, but then I heard a chuckle.
My eyes quickly sprang open, and Emmett was looking at me like he wanted to devour me. “Moan like that again, and I’ll take you right into that dirty gas station bathroom.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and I groggily laughed.
“Ew. I will NOT do it in a gas station bathroom, Emmett. Even with you.”
He took that as a challenge, running his fingers down my arm and landing on my jean-covered thigh. I felt tingles rapidly shooting down my legs. “Are you sure?”
I sighed and tried to glare at him. My look didn’t come out as a glare at all. I was absolutely certain that my look was portrayed more as a you-win-fuck-me-anywhere kind of look.
“You’re…” I whispered, basking in the feel of his soft fingertips on my leg, even through my sleepy state.
“I’m what?” he asked deliberately.
“You’re just… you,” I answered, letting out a held breath. Emmett smiled at me and then winked. He removed his hand, and my mouth dropped. No! What are you doing? Put it back!
“I’m going to take a leak and grab some more essentials. You zonked out for so long that I ate all the snacks.”
My mouth gaped even further. “You ate all the snacks?!”
Emmett cheesed at me and threw his hands up in innocence. “What? I got bored!”
I held back a laugh and shook my head as he exited the car. I watched him walk through the gas station door wearing those jeans that looked just right on his behind. He was tall and lanky, but I knew how toned he was underneath his attire. He was perfectly defined.
I sighed, deciding that I needed to go splash some cold water on my face or something to wake myself up. An excited thrill traveled through my body as I spotted the “Virginia is for Lovers” sticker on the gas station door. That meant we were super close to our first destination. I wanted to jump up and down with eagerness.
I snagged my bag out from under my seat and climbed out of the passenger door. My phone fell out of my bag, along with a few tampons and a lipstick. Nice. I bent down and started to throw it all back in my bag, but for some reason, I held on to my phone.
The black screen stared up at me, taunting me, causing a million negative thoughts to flow through my head.
Anxiety was slowly crawling up my body, ready to make itself known in my head.
My fingers became jittery; my heart started to beat quicker.
I decided that I just needed to turn it on to make sure I didn’t have any missed calls.
I had never just up and left before.
And one of two things was possible. Number one was that no one even tried to reach me. My mom would be at her daily tennis match, acting as if her life was amazing. And Derek would be busy in Guam doing whatever it was that he was doing, too busy to call my father to ask where I was. Option number two would be that someone was trying to get a hold of me because they somehow knew I’d left with Emmett.
I rolled my eyes at the thought. How would anyone know? It wasn’t like I had a secret agent following me around or something. I laughed but then briefly paused. That was when the thoughts started to roll.
But… that doesn’t sound too far off from something my father would do. He probably hired some snobby PI to follow you to make sure you didn’t run off before the wedding. Ha!
My neck broke out in a sweat as I thought back to the other night when someone had known that Emmett and I were in Oak Hill. What was it the policeman said? Someone was with a young, pretty girl and up to no good?