Page 70 of Toxic Wishes
“Oh, okay, let me bag some up for you.”
“Chocolate chip for me please!” Bodie says with enthusiasm.
“Since you said please, I’ll give you one now and one for the road.” My mom kisses his head as she gets up to grab some cookies.
Once we say our goodbyes, I’m eager to get on the road and continue asking Abigail more questions.
“Want to put in a tape,” I say as I buckle my car seat.
“A tape as in a cassette tape?” Her gaze suddenly flashes to my car stereo. Her eyes go wide. Surprise lighting up her face. I almost laughed. Did she not notice it on the ride over here?
“Is that an actual tape deck?” She reaches out and touches the car radio like an old vase, pushing eject. Out pops a clear cassette tape with white lettering. She removes it, cupping it in her hand, and reads the title.
“Guns N’ Roses,” her hand goes to her mouth. She looks like she’s about to fucking cry.
“Oh my God.” Darting for the Glove department, she opens it and stares at the line of tapes nearly set up. Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones, Queen, Tom Petty.
Then she seems to spot something that excites her because she reaches in and plucks out the black leopard case. “Hysteria?” she explains, reading the album title. “They don’t make that album anymore?”
I raise my eyebrows. Not sure why this is all so exciting. “I’ll take your word for it,” I say, amused by all this.
“I bought this truck off an old guy. I got a good deal on it, and the guy took good care of it. It was going to be my graduation gift to—” I stop myself, realizing I’m sharing a good memory of Blake. When was the last time I did that?
I feel her gape at me. But I don’t meet her gaze. “Blake,” I say, staring straight ahead.
Silence flows over us, and I look in the back seat and see Bodie passed out. I usually enjoy the silence when it comes to car rides and appreciate it when he takes a nap. But right now, I wish he was awake so he could distract Abigail from asking me questions about Blake since I’m sure I’m not the only one with many unanswered questions.
But instead of prying, I felt her avert her gaze back to the tapes, and it occurred to me that she was the first person ever to touch those tapes in the glove compartment.
“You don’t know what you have here. I’m surprised these haven’t wound up in the bottom of a trash can. Whoever the car owner was, he was a cool guy.” She lifts her head, and I glance at her briefly into those big hazel eyes .
“Blake would have loved this truck.”
She carefully places the tapes back in the glove compartment, but before she closes it, she asks.
“May I?” She gestures to the tape deck.
I laugh under my breath and shift into higher gear as I drive down the road.
“Knock yourself out.” We listen to two songs as we drive back to my lakehouse, taking a shortcut and passing a trail to our right.
“Wow, look at that.”
I look out the passenger window and see what she's looking at.
“Nature, it’s so beautiful.”
And so are you.
Fuck, I felt myself get hard in my pants. I’ve been with the hottest women who’ve walked this earth, and something as subtle as her appreciating nature is getting me turned on.
“Forgot how tall the trees get out here,” she says, not taking her eyes off the outdoors.
When I pull up to the driveway, I see Bodie is still knocked out. She follows my gaze.
“Guess all that riding wore him out.” She says with a smile, which I take a mental note of since it is subtle but genuine. Something I rarely saw her do. Smile.
“Ya, riding horses can do that.” Our eyes lock. “All the legwork and muscle action you must put into it can be tiresome.” I hold her gaze, and something weird happens to my body.