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Another moment of silence, until Nick was sure Adam was going to press for more information.
But then he didn’t. “So—what do your brothers think?”
Nick snorted. “Mixed bag.” He glanced over when they came to a traffic light, and it was a mistake. Because the windows were dark and the cab was warming up, and he wanted to keep on looking.
He quickly jerked his eyes back to the road ahead and focused on talking. “My older brother says he’s all for it—but I don’t know if that’s true or not. He runs my parents’ landscaping company . . . well, you saw the side of the truck. We all help him, but even still, he barely has time to eat. Losing one of us . . .” Nick just shrugged and didn’t complete the thought.
“What about your other brothers?”
“What’s with the twenty questions?”
Adam looked out the window. “I thought we were having a conversation.”
Yeah—if a conversation was like stumbling along a dark hallway, wondering what your hands would find if you reached out.
Then again, they weren’t talking about anything serious. He’d had more personal discussions with the cafeteria ladies.
Nick flexed his fingers on the steering wheel again and wished he’d brought Gabriel along instead.
No. He didn’t.
“I’m not going to jump you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Adam said, a shred of humor in his voice—but a shred of sadness hid there, too. “I promise, I have some self-control.”
“I’m not worried about it.”
“You look like a strong guy. You could probably fight me off.”
Nick cut him a withering glance, but his brain was all too willing to suggest images of what Adam was suggesting.
Stop it, stop it, stop it.
If the thought of college was enough to drive a wedge between him and his brothers, thoughts like these would hammer it home. He’d been fighting with this for years, and here one drive in the truck was about to undo him.
Nick drew a ragged breath. He wished for some traffic or something to steal his attention, but the highway was mostly deserted this late at night. He wished for different thoughts. Silence swelled in the cab of the truck again, taunting Nick to look at his passenger.
chuckled. The tequila burned like swallowing fire, and every breath cooled her lips. The stars danced. She forgot her name and laughed at nothing, snuggling into Matt when he tried to wrestle the bottle out of her hands.
And finally, the stars and darkness overtook her, and she passed out there on the sand.
CHAPTER 4
Nick lay in bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering when sleep would get around to stealing his thoughts. It was close to midnight, and the house had been still and quiet when he came in. Everyone else had to be asleep.
He had a headache, probably from when Quinn had decked him.
Or maybe it was just from wrestling with his thoughts all evening.
He’d tried to text Quinn, but she’d ignored it.
Nick sighed and picked up the paperback on his bedside table—but then he read the same sentence sixteen times.
All his brain wanted to think about was Adam. The lines of his body, the strength in his dancing, the way the music swept through the room and seemed to be part of the movement.
So can I get your number?
Nick hit himself in the head with the spine of his novel and blew out a long breath. These thoughts couldn’t go anywhere. Too complicated. Too dangerous. Quinn, he thought. Think about Quinn.
So he thought about Quinn.
