To my surprise, she backs me up several feet until I hit the side of the car. Her hands slide under my T-shirt, over my stomach, up to my chest as I shove my tongue into her mouth.
She moans as I kiss her like I’m starving.
And maybe I am.
But as our bodies tangle and our lips mold together, Cash honks the horn on the car.
Ingrid slumps against me.
“Cash ruins everything,” she says quietly.
My fingers run through her hair and I kiss her softly.
When we part, I jokingly say, “We should trademark that. Make it our slogan and print it on T-shirts.”
She smiles up at me, wide and unfiltered. “We should.”
Cash rolls down the window, and yells, “That doesn’t look like peeing to me!”
Ingrid lets out an exaggerated groan. “Can I sit in the back seat with you?”
“Yes,” I reply instantly.
We slip into the backseat as Cash adjusts the mirror to look at us. “Really? I look like a stupid chauffeur now.”
Ingrid rolls up the window and lays her head on my shoulder.
“Shut up and drive, Chauffeur,” she says.
Cash starts a long monologue about our treatment of him today, but we both ignore him as Ingrid’s lips find mine in the fading light.
Ingrid makes me feel seen in a way no one else ever has. Not in some lame, fairy tale way. In the way we all want to be seen. For who we are, even at our worst.
She breaks the kiss and yawns as I adjust in the backseat to let her lay in my arms, her head on my chest.
Cash has now switched topics and is debating whether he should go to Baltimore and try medicine.
As much as I want to listen to him, I’m distracted by the way Ingrid leans harder into me.
It dawns on me that as much as I need her, she needs me, too.
She needs to hear things from mefirst.
Not Cash.
She needs me to be the kind of guy who sets aside years of being pissed at my dad to help my sister.
She needs me to be someone who says the right things, even when I don’t want to.
I know I don’t deserve her.
And maybe I don’t need to earn her love, but she loves me.
Why wouldn’t I try to be the guy she needs me to be?
“I love you,” she whispers as she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
“I love you more,” I whisper back as I hold her tighter.
