Page 76 of Second Chance

“Big back seat, I guess.” I pause for a moment, watching the wheels spin a little before she understands my implication.

“Oh, we didn’t…I mean…” She’s blushing and flustered, and I realize I don’t want to know about her sex life with Chris, but there’s a hint. She didn’t have sex with him in her minivan. I eye the back of her truck a second.

“Let’s go for a ride,” I say, my voice dropping as I lean closer.

“I don’t think you should kiss me here,” she whispers as if people can hear her although the lot is mostly empty. Crusty, James and the guy named Justice are lingering on the edge of the lot, but not paying us any attention.

“Then where can I kiss you?”

31

Moon Chasing

[Mati]

I don’t know how I agreed to this. One minute he’s standing over me, flirting like the devil and the next he’s driving my truck to God knows where. I don’t even think he knows where he’s going as it’s been so long since he’s been in the area. The only thing he asked me is if I had a blanket in the truck, and I blushed when I admitted I had two old sleeping bags. I never wanted to be unprepared in case I got stranded in the truck during a snowstorm.

“How did that subdivision get there?” he asks, passing by my neighborhood on the outer edge of town. It stands on a corner of his grandmother’s former property.

“It’s something Kip did shortly before he died. Somehow he obtained a chunk of Magnolia’s property and rezoned the area for residential development.”

His brow pinches. “How the hell did he do that?”

“I have no idea. He was mixed up with all kinds of characters shortly before he died.”

Denton goes silent before he pulls off the main room for a faded two-tire trail on the edge of his grandmother’s property. Her farm was once a viable poultry farm with a little bit of everything extra. Apple orchard. Vegetables. Local lore is the women of the McIntyre-Duncan line knew how to survive in times of trouble, like war and marriage. Chickens make eggs, and that’s two meals right there: breakfast and dinner.

My truck bumbles and jolts over rough terrain which hasn’t been visited in years. Denton doesn’t seem to notice, his eyes straight ahead at the only thing we can see—unmowed meadows reflecting in the headlights.

“Do you know where you’re going?” I tease, knowing he hasn’t been on his grandmother’s land in decades.

“Do you trust me, Mati?”

“Of course,” I answer quickly, although I hesitate after I speak. Do I? Do I know this man, honestly? I think back to our conversation at the diner. He’s so different than I remember, dismissing the loss of his child and the desire for more. Glancing over at his profile, I realize his tone is cooler than his reaction, and I take in his features—the edge to his cheeks, the scruff on his jaw, the curve of his nose. He isn’t the boy I remember. He’s a man, and despite his cool demeanor, I very much do want to know him better.

His head turns, and he catches me checking him out. The corner of his lip curls and then I see it in his eyes. There’s the boy. The one I wanted without admitting I did. Suddenly, I’m wondering if he’ll take me up against the truck. If he’ll turn me into the girl I wanted him to make of me. The one with my skirt at my waist and him rhythmically pounding into me.

Quickly, I look away from him. I’ll never be that girl. First, because I didn’t wear skirts—didn’t then, hardly do now. I wonder if that’s the kind of girl he still wants. One in pretty skirts with a shrill voice. Then I think of how he kissed me in the hallway at the high school. I wasn’t that girl to him then, the one he wanted to take up against a truck and fuck. I wonder if I’m that kind of woman now?

“Why’d you kiss me?” I blurt, turning back in his direction.

“What do you mean?”

“In the high school hallway. You said you were mad, but you kissed me like you hadn’t seen me in years.”

“I haven’t seen you in years,” he teases.

“I'm serious.”

“So am I.” He laughs like it’s funny but my chest pinches. It’s been too long, and I’m reminded again of the separation.

“Why didn’t you ever contact us? Even if you wanted to leave Blue Ridge. Even if you didn’t want me with you on the road—”

The sudden glare in his eyes as he takes a second to look at me stops my questioning.

“Let’s clear up something right now. I had my reasons for leaving you behind, but make no mistake, I wanted to go on that trip just as much as you, with only you.”

My heart leaps in my chest and nearly chokes me. My face heats as does another area of my body. The truck slows, and Denton puts it in park but keeps the engine running. He shifts in his seat, dangling an arm over the steering wheel and the other lands on the back of the seat.