I pressed my lips together this time. I really didn’t want to speak, and I didn’t want him to pull his ‘use your words’ on me. I wasn’t in the mood for it. I was too nervous. I was scared. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, and maybe I wasn’t good enough for Logan. He deserved someone who had their life together, not someone who couldn’t even put together the pieces.
“You aren’t going to tell me, are you?”
I shook my head and looked out the window, watching the trees pass in a green blur.
“You’re nervous about meeting my sister.”
I shrugged.
“It’s Maria that is bothering you, isn’t it?”
I didn’t say anything. I kept staring out the window, meeting my eyes in the reflection.
He rubbed his thumb along my inner palm and sighed. “I understand. She has been…complicated lately. I’ve told you the truth. She is confused right now. I’m going to continue to be her friend, but she never had, or will ever my heart the way you do.”
Usually, what he said made me feel better.
Not this time.
A part of me wondered if I was going to freak out or tackle the girl to the ground. The dread of meeting her had been growing since the first time I saw her name pop up on his phone. If she and I got into a fight, my money was on me.
I lived on the streets for a year. I knew how to get scrappy.
“I’d love to know what’s going on in that beautiful head of yours,” he said.
I blew out a stressful breath and turned my head to the left to look at him. He was so handsome. I loved his red hair and how defined his jaw was. No one was sexier. “I have this feeling that things aren’t going to go well.”
“A feeling? Are you sure it isn’t nerves?” He asked, not being condescending, but worried. He knew how I felt about my instincts, and he took them seriously. I loved how he never dismissed me. He always took how I felt as serious as someone speaking words.
Nerves. I guess it could be nerves, but now I couldn’t tell what was my gut talking to me or nerves and dread taking over. The one thing I counted on the last year was now mixed up in something else, and a small amount of panic spread in my chest.
If I didn’t have that, what good was I?
The music that played in the speakers changed to a ringing tone. The caller I.D. on the radio said Haden, and I was relieved. I didn’t want Maria calling.
“Hey man,” Logan greeted.
“Where are you? Your sister is getting antsy.”
“Am not!” Lucy yelled in the background. “Give me the phone.”
“No,” Haden said. “Get your own.” And then Haden groaned a painful sound. “Fine, here,” his voice high-pitched and barely recognizable.
I covered my mouth and chuckled.
“I can’t wait to meet her!” Lucy sounded truly excited and happy.
“You’re going to love her; she’s amazing, Lu.”
I blushed. Hearing him say it was one thing; hearing him talk about me to his sister was another.
“He is bringing her? Are you kidding? This is a family gathering,” Maria said in the background, and I narrowed my eyes at the radio, wishing I could jump through it and wrap my hands around her throat.
Lucy sighed at the same time as Logan. “Maria, if you can’t be nice, leave. I won’t have you ruining this for my brother.” A few moments passed before a door slammed, and I wondered if Maria actually left.
Good riddance.
“She’s been moody lately.”