Page 48 of That Last Secret
“You’re not, Emiline,” I repeat. My teeth clench together just a little more as the words come out of me like realization hitting me all over again.
“Thank you,” she breathes out.
I feel myself relax a little in my seat as if that just relieved some of the tension.
“Listen,” I start to say, but something flashes across my eyes, and I slam the brakes.
Emiline lets out a pained scream like I’ve never heard before and brings her knees to her chest and braces for contact.
“Fuck,” I scream out, slamming harder on the brakes and swerving to the side of the road. My right hand leaves the wheel and moves across her chest to block any impact.
I look over to see what we just avoided and notice it’s a fucking deer.
I park the car and rest my head back on the headrest to take a calming breath. My hands feel shaky from that near accident, and my head is spinning.
I hear Emiline’s erratic breathing, and turn to face her, leaning across the center console to scan her from head to toe. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she says. But then, to my surprise, she laughs. Nervously at first, before it breaks into a complete fit of hysterics as if she just can’t control it. This was not the reaction I was expecting. “I can’t believe we almost died.”
“We didn’t almost die. Not even close. Even if we hit the damn thing, we’d still be alive.”
“Could you imagine if we did?” She laughs harder.
Now I can’t help but laugh with her.
But it doesn’t last long.
Her laughter turns to tears in almost the blink of an eye.
As if she feels embarrassed, she climbs out of the passenger door and stands in the grass in front of the truck. I jump out and round the truck to take my place next to her.
“Are you okay?” I ask again.
“I…” Emiline pauses, allowing her laughter to die down. “I’m not sure why I’m laughing so hard. And I’m not even sure why I’m crying right now.” She points to me before she paces the grass on the side of the road, keeping her gaze locked on where she’s walking. “Today was the most fun I’ve had in months. Everyone together again and the break from school reminded me of how stressful and messy my life is. And then you had to flirt with me in front of all three of my brothers,” she says, her tone growing in volume with her last sentence.
I can’t help but grin at her. “Maybe I was.”
She stops dead in her tracks and snaps her head toward me. “I…” Her voice trails off as she looks back down at the ground, and I hear her mutter, “well,” under her breath.
A laugh bubbles out of me. It’s cute how outspoken she is with a few drinks in her. But I also am not about to have this conversation when she’s slightly under the influence. I want her to remember every word I tell her.
“Now you’re laughing at me,” she says with her hands propped on her hips.
“Never.” I shake my head, my lips drawing a flat line. “But this isn’t a conversation we should have right now.”
“I’m not drunk, if that’s what you think.”
“I know.” I nod. “But when I tell you I was, in fact, flirting with you, I want you to be one hundred percent able to remember every single detail.”
Emiline’s mouth hangs open, and her eyes widen, almost as wide as the deer in my headlights we nearly ran over.
I take a few steps through the grass until I stand in front of her. The look on her face stays there like a picture frozen intime. My eyes scan her briefly, and I can see everything, with the headlights of my truck being our spotlight.
The goosebumps that pebble across her tanned skin, and how her breath hitches when I get close tells me she feels everything I feel when I’m this close to her.
“I’d remember, Logan,” she says with confidence, but her voice remains soft. “It’s kind of hard to…” Emiline pauses as if she’s trying to figure out what to say or because she doesn’t want to say too much. “Forget.”
The last word is so low that I would have missed it if I hadn’t been paying attention to every detail about her.