Page 5 of Love You To Pieces

“Not the rain,” he interjects with a shake of his head. “Wolf Lake isn’t a great place to be for long, unless you aren’t looking to leave.”

His words make something Hilll up my back that feels like a cross between a spider and a tremor. I straighten up, trying to meet his eyes, but he continues stubbornly staring at the clouds. “That almost sounds like it’s not a joke,” I say finally, my voice quiet.

Even with his head upturned, I can see the rueful smirk that Hillls over his lips, and the way his eyes crinkle with some kind of unfriendly amusement. “It doesn’t, does it?” he agrees. Then he drops his chin, his long-lashed brown eyes, so warm and deep, fixed on mine from a few feet away in the old, dirt parking lot.

“It’s just better for everyone, I think.” He nods to the gas station, back toward my friends and the car we came in. “If you guys head on your way without making any more stops in my little town. Who knows?” That small grin grows, amusement building in his eyes.

“The excitement might kill someone.”

CHAPTER THREE

“No.”

The word peels back layers of sleep as effectively as if cold water was splashed onto my face.

“Oh, absolutely not. Tyler!” The voice climbs an octave mid-word, becoming almost supersonic. “You’re fucking kidding me. No! You said you fixed this!”

Whoever is talking—and I’m guessing it’s Ariana unless Scotty has more talents than he’s let on—is more upset than I’ve ever heard. Not that I’ve known her for that long. The idea of being adopted by the first extrovert to latch onto me had seemed great a few months ago. Now I just feel like I’m back in college, trying to be friends with the drinkers, the party-ers, and the guys who won’t make it through their sophomore year.

Given that I’ve been out of college for five years, it’s a sad-as-fuck realization, and one that just helps drive away that last bit of sleep like a spike to my eyeball.

Fuck.

It also finally occurs to me that we aren’t moving. The motion of the car, which always makes me both a little nauseous while lulling me to sleep—once I’ve taken the appropriate amount of Dramamine—is no longer happening. My eyes open, and I find the starlit sky above us, remarkably stationary.

Yeah, okay, so we definitely aren’t moving like we should be.

“Are we there?” I sigh, my voice a mumbled, groggy croak. “At the motel, or⁠—”

“No,” Ariana scoffs, cutting me off and all-but spitting like a pissed-off cat. “No, we aren’t fucking anywhere, are we, Tyler?”

Without another word, she yanks her door open and plunges out into the Texas night faster than I could have expected was possible. Scotty and I share a confused look in the rearview mirror, and in seconds I’m out as well, closing the door markedly softer than she did so I don’t cause the old, taped-up car any further damage. Though judging by how hard Ariana’s motions were, she doesn’t share my consideration.

Sure enough, she’s right. We aren’t anywhere.

I shiver in the cool night air, belatedly wishing I had my hoodie to slip on over my tee. The temperatures here really do range pretty dramatically from when the sun is up to when it isn’t, and I wrap my arms around myself as I walk behind the car to join Ariana on the shoulder a few yards back.

“I fucking asked him to fix the goddamn battery,” she snaps, running a hand through her long, thick black hair. She’s any guy’s dream, especially when she delivers her cheeky, mischievous smile that shows off both dimples. But right now she looks more like she might be willing to kill a man. Specifically, the man in the driver’s seat, if I’m lucky.

“Maybe it’s not the battery?” I ask, having no notion about anything car-related. But the look she gives me has me lifting my hands in surrender, and I step back to avoid being hissed at or set on fire by her gaze. “I was just being optimistic. Though I don’t know what it means if it is the battery. Is that, uh, a good thing? Or…?”

She shakes her head. “No. It’s a ‘we-need-a-mechanic’ thing. And I doubt there are any around here, in bum-fuck Texas, at—”she glances down at her phone—“nine thirty at night.”

“Well, how far’s the nearest town?” I ask, trying to remember what the last sign I saw was. After leaving their friend’s house late, Ariana had been in a bad enough mood that I figured we’d stop early. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep, really.

And now it just means I have no idea where we are, made worse by the fact my phone is telling me I have no fucking service whatsoever.

Wonderful.

“Wolf Lake, I think,” Ariana answers absently with a dismissing wave. “Wherever that is.”

“Wolf Lake?” I repeat. My eyes narrow slightly as I think back. “That’s where we were this morning. You know, where Tyler embarrassed us with the sheriff?”

Ariana just looks at me, then shrugs. Judging by her slightly dazed look, I wonder if she went against her earlier statement that she wouldn’t be ‘sampling the goods’ before we got to Dallas.

I’m not judging.

Not when Tyler is a shit-show stoned, sober, or really in any capacity whatsoever. But it makes it a bit harder to have someone on my side, since I know Scotty is out of it and barely able to stand, if the movement from the corner of my eye is anything to go by.