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“Honestly, it sucks.”
She smiled a bit. “I didn’t realize you could punch like that.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. If he was sober he would have easily knocked me out.”
She laughed, and Nathan took his eyes off the road for a moment to take a good look at her. She still blinked slowly and she was smiling the same way she did in his bedroom the night of his party a month ago. That felt like a million miles away from where they were now, but right now he savored the feeling of being next to her just as much, if not even more than he did that night.
“You guys are so weird!” Tommy yelled loud, and Kimmy flinched because it was right in her ear.
“What are you on about?” Nathan asked him, and Tommy leaned forward so his head was right between them.
“I swear I’ve never seen you guys ever touch. What kind of couple never touches each other? Do you even like each other? Like, when Kimmy and I started dating, I swear any chance we had we were—”
“Okay!” Nathan put his hand up and cut Tommy off before they got more information than they could ever want. “And not every couple is the same, dingus. We don’t have to touch to be—”
He froze. There was a brush against his cheek, pressing gently into his skin but it was warm and soft and made his foot falter on the gas pedal. It stayed there for a few seconds, and there was a small exhale that sent a brush of air against his cheek, and then it was gone. In its place, a lip-shaped emptiness was left.
He almost didn’t turn, scared to see if what he thought had happened was true. But he couldn’t resist. Tully’s face was right there, inches away. Her lips were parted and she blinked once while staring into his eyes before she sat back and turned to Tommy.
“Were you looking for something like that?” Tully asked, and Tommy laughed and whooped before grabbing Kimmy and pulling her in for a kiss of their own. Tully shook her head and chuckled. Nathan had to stare at the road or else he would drive right into the ditch on their right.
She was tipsy. He could smell it on her breath. Still, he’d felt this same way the night of his party—a deep, deep longing for it to go further.
But it couldn’t. He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Stephanie as shocked as he was. He looked away.
This was an act.
Tully was drunk and this time, just like last time, just like every time they had ever touched, was a strategy.
And that is all it would ever be for them. The night was fogging their minds, they were getting carried away. He shook his head and laughed at the absurdity. Not even the kiss in the bowling alley made him stumble like that.
It’s funny what the right moment can do to you.
Soon they would return to normal. She’d wake up in the morning and remember what she did and come back oh-so embarrassed and he would laugh and tease her.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Tully reached forward. He watched her hand come forward and grab his injured fingers before pulling them away from the steering wheel, leaving him with just one hand driving them. She looked at his knuckles and brushed the skin around them.
She moved his hand to her will until their fingers intertwined and their palms pressed against one another. She looked up at him and smiled, one of the ones he loved so much. With her dimples and her eyes and her whole face. “Keep your eyes on the road, Rondeau.”
He hadn’t realized he was staring.
thirty-five
tully
Tully + Alcohol + Nathan = Disaster.
She apologized to Nathan over and over again, and he shook his head in mock disappointment, tsked his tongue, and told her to never drink around anyone but him because she would just embarrass herself when she got too cozy.
Other than that, they never spoke about what happened and moved on so quickly that she wondered if she was remembering it all correctly. Whatever. If it didn’t matter to Nathan, then it shouldn’t matter to her. She was pretty sure she never had to worry about Erik ever again, for that she was forever in Nathan’s debt.
“You have some extra help from now on.” Mrs. Pritchard announced to her as soon as she entered the library after school on Tuesday. Tully paused in front of the grouchy librarian.
“Who?”
“Some boy who wanted the volunteer hours.” She stamped something into a book and offered no further explanation.
Tully frowned and walked away after putting her bag behind the counter to find this new help. She had systems in place for how she liked to do things. Someone coming in this suddenly might throw her off.
