It was strange sitting in the exact same seat I’d sat in when we had our first kiss. It still smelled like him, and there were still empty pop bottles rolling on the floor of the passenger seat, and he still only drove with one hand. The other rested uselessly on the console between us, fingers dangling like he was waiting for me to reach out and take them. Just how I used to.
I looked out the window, knotting my hands in my lap. “What place are we going to?”
“I was thinking Freezing Fred’s.”
That was over in Greenville, just past Bayview. A thirty-minute drive. “We can just go to the one in town?—”
“Nah. I’ve finally got you in my car—no way am I only driving five minutes.”
Well, that sounded vaguely kidnapper-y. Greenville was probably for the best, anyway. Jamie was supposed to be going to book club, and Nellie normally went with him, but with how biased the universe seemed to be lately, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we’d stumbled into themsomehow. But no way would the twins be in Greenville.
That’s not a test, I thought to the universe.Don’t jinx it.
I still felt sick, the guilt from what happened back at the house following me like a shadow. It gnawed at me, only intensified by the warm leather of Dalton’s car seats. If he noticed something was off about me, though, he didn’t comment on it.
Instead, he cleared his throat. “I feel like I need to apologize for Wednesday.”
“You mean when you got all grabby-handy after I toldyou no?” I folded my arms across my chest. “Wouldn’t hurt.”
“I’m sorry for touching you without your permission.” To his credit, he did sound genuinely apologetic. “I guess I just got… caught up in the atmosphere.”
I hated that I understood him, but for an entirely different reason. The pulsing lights flashed through my mind, as did the memory of dancing with Jamie.Caught up in the atmospherewas a great way to put it. “Jamie warned you that was your last chance. But it won’t be him beating you up. It’ll beme.”
Dalton scrubbed a hand across his mouth, hiding a smile. “Got it. From now on, I’ll only touch you if you ask.” And he spread his palms out level with his shoulders.
I bristled. “I’m not going to ask.”
Dalton ignored me. “And I’m sorry for not listening to you more on Monday when we couldn’t find Theo. I shouldn’t have tried to…” He hesitated, eyes darting to the side, like he was trying to draw on a memory. “Minimize your feelings.”
“Did you script this conversation with me?”
“What? No.” Then he shook his head. “C’mon, DD, I’m being sincere.”
I drew in a breath, the air pressing down on my lungs.Sincerityfelt risky with Dalton Giovanni. Rare. Suspicious. “I accept your apology.”
He smiled at that, like a little boy complimented. I turned back out the windshield, watching as we left the city limits of Addison, into the brief stretch of country road before we crossed into Bayview. The further we’d gottenfrom town, the less guilty I’d begun to feel, like distance between Jamie and me made the tryst with my ex all okay. But I kept thinking of Jamie, of my plans now gone up in smoke—or, well, drowned in water. My thoughts circled him, unable to let go.
We got to the ice cream parlor, and it was much busier than I’d been expecting for a Wednesday. Almost every picnic table was full, so after ordering two vanilla and chocolate swirls, we had to continue off down the sidewalk to a park bench underneath a shade tree. It put Dalton closer to me than he would’ve been across a table, but I placed a stack of napkins between us as a boundary.
I swiped my spoon through my perfect ice cream swirl, trying not to feel weird about the whole situation. I wasn’t doing a very good job.
“I should’ve ordered a cup,” Dalton murmured as he licked his ice cream cone, trying to catch it before it dripped down his hand. “This is melting too fast.”
“On the bright side, it means you can’t talk much.”
Dalton shook his head at my smirk. “Oh, she’s got jokes.” He twisted his cone to get the other side. “Why don’tyoudo the talking then, huh? How has life been lately?”
“I said no questions?—”
“What are you going to do?” Dalton arched a brow. “Refuse to let me drive you home?”
Right. I couldn’t really wield the threat of getting out of his car now. Instead, I took another bite of ice cream, filling my own mouth so I couldn’t speak.
Dalton, surprisingly, didn’t push. Maybe he knew itwouldn’t get him anywhere. After all, he’d had two years to learn me like an instruction manual—maybe he knew all he needed to do was wait my silence out.
And, truth be told, I hadn’t texted him for no reason. It was a conversation, though, that I wasn’t sure I wanted to wade my feet into. “Remember last summer, on the Fourth of July, when you got that bad nosebleed right before the fireworks started?”
“Oh, gosh, yeah.” Dalton laughed. “We missed the entire show. But I made it up to you, didn’t I? I bought those fireworks from a stand in Hallow and illegally set them off in my backyard.”
