With her head laid back, swaying gently to the country song on the radio, Bri looks perfect, right where she’s meant to be. Everything feels just right. Friends or lovers, whatever it is in this moment. I know that it’s just right.
I drive her home on the roads I’ve known all my life. There’s a fork up ahead. One branch goes back toward her house. The other goes to a place I haven’t told her about yet.
“You want to see something?” I ask.
Brianna smiles in the passenger seat. “That’s an awful pickup line.”
Her retort is rewarded with a bark of a laugh. A real laugh. My hand twists on the leather steering wheel of my truck and I let that warmth flow through me. It’s an unfamiliar feeling to me now. I used to laugh like this all the time. Not in the last two years. Not while she was gone.
“I’m for real, though,” I tell her as we slow at the first stop sign. Main Street is lit with lampposts and the streets are quiet on this side of town.
“Is this one of your ulterior motives?” she asks, turning her head, but still remaining leaned back in the seat. She’s so fucking gorgeous, relaxed and happy. I fucking missed her. I missed her more than anything.
“I got a house by the lake,” I admit to her after clearing my throat.
“What?” That gets her attention and she sits a little straighter, her emerald eyes a little wider.
“By Crystal Lake. I bought the property a while back and had a house built. The structure’s all done.”
“Really?” Her voice is soft. Filled with awe and maybe nostalgia for the way we used to be. “We used to say we would.”
“I know.” A smile comes to my face, and I don’t force it away.
There’s a beat and then another in my chest. Just friends, I remind myself … but maybe friends with benefits.
The night’s cool and fresh. The darkness outside the car seems to make the world smaller. It’s just me and her. Nobody watching. Bri is gorgeous in the light from the console. She looks like I pictured she would, back in high school. “You want to see it?”
Without hesitation she answers, “Yes. I really do.” She bites down on her lower lip to keep from grinning any wider.
All I can do is nod for a moment, happy she wants to see it.
“It’s still being built and all,” I say in warning, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious about it. “The interior’s not done. I put in the electric last week.”
“Are you doing it yourself?”
“Yeah,” I say and now that nervousness is replaced by pride.
“Some of the guys are helping here and there. Small-town handyman, small-town mechanic.”
“As if you only fix cars,” Bri teases.
I almost say I fix broken hearts too, but I stop myself. It’s cheesy and it’s pushing it. I definitely haven’t fixed her broken heart. I’m the one who broke it in the first place and I may not be the smartest, but I know my limits.
So I don’t push it and an easy quiet falls between us as she turns up a song she says she loves. It’s a new one for me. I haven’t heard it but watching what it does to her, hell, I love it now too.
We get to the fork in the road and I take the one that leads down to Crystal Lake.
“Was this your plan all along?” she questions and I shake my head.
“No, I just wanted to take you home, I swear.”
She looks me up and down with her lips pursed.
“Scout’s honor,” I tell her, raising my hand and giving her a nod.
“It just hit me when we got in the truck. I promise.”
Having a house on the lake is one of the dreams we had together. One we talked about as early as high school, before we had any business talking about buying houses or owning property together. I didn’t have a dollar to my name but I said I’d buy her whatever house she wanted on the lake.