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“Sounds about right.” Sidney laughed. “At least we know she loves us.”
“Happy birthday.” I grabbed Luca by the collar of his shirt to kiss him in the cover of darkness as he leaned into my passenger’s side seat to put his bag in the back. He kissed me back with eagerness, the taste of sugar and alcohol on his lips.
“It’s happy now,” he said with a grin when I pulled away.
“How was the party?” I asked as he settled in and put on his seatbelt.
“Quiet. Nicky stopped by but had to leave pretty fast with all the work to be done for this weekend. It was just my parents, Sidney, Allie, and me. I’m so full of Italian food and birthday cake. And maybe a tiny bit drunk off cocktails. Everyone bought me one and I don’t drink, so now everything feels warm.”
He dipped toward me, stymied when the seatbelt locked in place, trapping him. Luca’s eyes widened as he tried to overpower the strap. “Help?”
I pushed the release button to free him, and then I let him kiss me again, indulging both of us while he was sweet and tipsy. “Okay, back in your seat or we’re never gonna get where we’re going.”
Luca pouted adorably, but returned to his seat and put his seatbelt back on. My family wouldn’t wonder where I was until Sunday, and Luca’s probably wouldn’t check in on him either since they saw him today. I got us out of town and onto the interstate, zooming our way to at least one night of freedom.
Since we had to rearrange the weekend to accommodate helping out Nicky’s pack on Sunday morning, I’d decided to splurge on tonight. The hot spring offered midnight couples packages that included snacks, drinks, and an almost empty hot spring. We had originally planned on doing the hot spring in the morning before we went to the festival, and then do a stargazing program, but this way we could combine them on our first night.
Luca let me have control of the music for the drive, seemingly happy to sit back and watch me sing along as we zipped down the highways toward our destination.
Luca fed me bites of granola bar and licorice while I drove. He might have been full of Italian food, but I had lost track of time packing, planning, and sorting out things for my eventual new business. Car snacks would have to do until we arrived.
“I missed you today,” Luca said as silence descended between songs.
“You didn’t have to wait that long to see me,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but it would’ve been nice to have you there to celebrate with everyone.”
I glanced over at him, his brown eyes distinctly puppy-like in the darkness. “Get me discreetly invited to other family events first. My first one can’t be your birthday.”
Luca reached over to play with my hair, and I couldn’t quite tell whether it was him or the cocktails guiding the action. “I know you’re right, but I don’t have to like it. Do you think we could tell people we’re friends? I could get you invited to all sorts of stuff if we could be open about that part.”
“Allie would probably sniff it out, or she might get ideas about setting us up if we started hanging out where people knew about it.”
He opened his mouth, but closed it again, lapsing into silence.
“I know it’s not ideal,” I told him. “We could stop this if that would be easier.”
“No!” Luca turned toward me so quickly he locked the seatbelt again. “Fuck easy.”
I set a palm to his chest until he relaxed and the seatbelt lock disengaged again.
“I wish my family cared less.”
I glanced between him and the road ahead of us. “You don’t mean that.”
“If they cared less, you would care less about what they thought.”
“Okay, that’s not untrue, but I like that you have people who care a lot for you, even if the idea of it for myself wigs me out.”
Luca rotated to watch me. “Stella cares.”
“Yeah, she does, but not in the same way that Allie or Nicky would about this. I don’t want to make things difficult for you, Luca. That’s why I started this with rules.”
“I know.” His sigh was heavier than usual.
“You’re welcome to fistfight my anxiety,” I said in an attempt at humor.
“If it were that easy, I would.”
