Wind rushed in, up and over the windshield, nothing like it had been in the backseat. In the passenger seat, the windshield cut the breeze cleanly, offering a steady stream of air that lifted my hair instead of assaulting it. It was coolagainst my temples and the back of my neck. I rested my elbow against the door, fingers curling around the edge, and let myself exist in the moment without trying to tame my hair down.
Up here, I could hear the music clearer even as Beck revved the engine louder. I didn’t smile, but something inside me eased anyway, loosening its grip. I tilted my face upward, letting the setting sun melt away some of the weight that’d been pressing into my shoulders.
C-A-L-M.
Fine. I could kind of see why Daisy loved it so much.
Beck spent a little while aimlessly driving, blowing past Alderton-Du Ponte, then circling back to go down Main Street in Addison. After we cycled through songs and probably burnt through a quarter tank of gas, Beck pulled into a Biscayne Community Park and Trail’s parking lot, turning down the loud music as he did so. He parked beside the entrance to a hiking trail, where the sun was falling lower in the sky.
“Can you text Jamie?” I asked, leaning my head back against the seat rest. “And just… let him know I’m with you.”
“Princess ran away from the castle, did she?”
It was strange how his condescension felt different than Destelle’s. With Beck, it was easy to brush off the little digs or backhanded comments. I could hear they were more curious than haughty, anyway. “Yeah.”
Beck slid his phone out from his back pocket and shot off a quicktext. “Done.”
I looked at him closer. “You still have Jamie’s number?”
Beck hesitated before throwing his phone into the cupholder.
“Did you still havemynumber?”
“We’ve established I have your number. I texted you pretending to be Pebble Brain.”
“But did you have it then?” I clarified, still not looking away. “Or… did you get it from Lydia?”
That would have been more likely, and now I was embarrassed for even considering that he’d kept my number. But then he said, “I never got around to deleting it.”
I stared at him, strangely breathless.Did you keep it for the same reason I kept yours?I wanted to ask him.So if I ever texted you, you’d know it was me?
“Whereisyour phone, anyway?” Beck glanced over at me. “And your bag, and a jacket, and shoes that actually fit you? You’re the least-prepared runaway I’ve ever seen.”
“I wasn’t planning on leaving,” I muttered. “My dad and I just… had an argument.”
“Ah.” Beck’s fingers traced the steering wheel. “At least you didn’t destroy a garden this time.”
I looked over at him, finding the corner of his lips tipped up.A joke.
Beck’s phone vibrated in the cupholder, and even though the urge to snatch it was strong, I held still until Beck slowly plucked it up. His eyes scanned his screen. “Jamie says ‘okay.’”
“That’s it?”
“And ‘tell her she’s dead meat when she gets home.’”
That didn’t sound like Jamie—that sounded like Daisy. I wondered if he’d called her when I didn’t come home. Knowing Jamie, most likely.
Beck sent another message to Jamie, and this time, he slid his phone into his back pocket. We were both quiet in the parked car, with only the music playing between us. Quietly enough that we could’ve talked, but we didn’t. We just sat there, waiting for the other to speak first.
Exactly how it’d used to be.
Even if we hadn’t talked much at the Alderton-Du Ponte events, I’d be content to stay in the silence with him. I’d always wondered if Beck had been content with it, too, or if he’d silently wished the annoying little kid would stay away.
Beck cleared his throat now, startling me. “Want to walk the trail?”
I didn’t, not in Jamie’s giant shoes, but I felt too weird saying no with the way he’d asked it. It sounded strangely… soft. I couldn’t imagine his thoughts had traveled the same path mine had, but it was a nice sort of fantasy. “Sure.”
So Beck put the top up, and we unbuckled our seatbelts, climbing out of the convertible that was no longer a convertible. The car beeped when he locked it, and we started off down the pressed path, side by side.
