Page 116 of Older
Smart, steady…safe.
I was both envious and averse to such a life.
Reed sighed, puncturing the bubble of heady quietude engulfing us as I twirled my thumbs and bobbed my knees, my skin and lips still tingling from his kisses. I braved a glance at him, unsurprised to find him with one hand cupping his jaw, his opposite wrist slung over the wheel. “You can drop me off around the corner.” My voice was damn-near shrieky as it carved through the silence. “Whitney will have questions if she sees your truck. I’ll tell her a friend dropped me off.”
He nodded tightly. “All right.”
I wanted to say more.
I wanted to purge and sing, but nothing good had ever come from our misfit dance. We were a song that howled with arrhythmic heartbeats and a never-ending bridge.
But I wanted us to be the chorus.
The good part.
The catchy part that stayed with you forever.
Slinking lower in the seat, I released my own sigh into the bleak void as we turned off onto a barren road and cut across town. Five more minutes, and I’d be home in bed, condemned to dream about everything left unsaid and undone. I hated finalities more than I hated loose ends. Loose ends could still be sewn into pretty things. Things my hands could hold. Things my heart could keep and love.
“Halley.”
My eyes watered at the sound of my name hitting the air like false hope. “Reed.”
He hesitated. “You okay?”
“I will be.” I popped my shoulders with a halfhearted shrug. The other half of my heart was too broken to participate. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“You know I do.”
We glanced at each other through the shadows as headlights barreled toward us, illuminating his tortured expression. My lips parted to speak, to wipe that wretched look off his face, but my attention whirled back to the windshield when my periphery caught sight of those headlights swerving right toward us.
It was staggering how a moment could change so fast. In the blink of an eye.
A kiss.
A moonlit dance.
A scream.
“Reed!” His name was now nothing but daggers and dread as his head whipped forward and the truck shot right.
“Shit.” He jerked the wheel with one hand while the other lashed out, his arm a shield across my chest, and we started spinning.
I screamed again as he slammed on the brakes and the other car skidded past us, still swerving precariously in the opposite direction, narrowly missing us by a millimeter. The world outside distorted with chaos as the truck careened out of control, tires screeching against the unforgiving pavement. Reed’s reflexes were a whirlwind of desperate maneuvers, his hand gripping the wheel as he tried to maintain control while still holding me back against the seat like I was the most valuable thing. With each spin, my heart hammered against my ribcage, and I latched on to his arm and the door handle. Terror gripped me. My eyes squeezed shut. All I could do was brace myself for the aftermath of flying over a ravine, or combusting into flames, or flipping over into a ditch.
Breathing my last breath.
But then, as abruptly as it had begun, the spinning ceased, leaving us suspended in a moment of eerie stillness. The acrid scent of burnt rubber hung heavy in the air, mingling with the metallic tang of fear. Adrenaline and shock coursed through me as I turned to Reed, his face etched with a mixture of relief and disbelief. We were shaken but alive. The truck idled in one piece, still upright on all four tires. No flames, no collision, no shattered glass.
We were facing the opposite way, and his arm was still extended across my heaving chest.
“Jesus Christ.” His arm fell, dropping to my lap. He squeezed my thigh like he was making sure I was still with him, still whole. “Are you all right?”
My heart was a grenade, nearing imminent explosion. I grabbed his hand and held tight, trying to calm myself, as if the pressure of my fingernails digging into his skin could alleviate the pressure around my ribs. “I-I think so.”
“Halley, I’m sorry. That asshole came into my lane and?—”
I unbuckled my seatbelt and threw myself into his arms over the console. He didn’t hesitate, wrapping me up in his embrace as I inhaled leather and soap, ridding myself of the scent of angry rubber and near-death. Gathering me close, Reed buried his face in the crook of my neck, breathing heavily as we both came down from the rush of panic.