AllFreeNovel
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That week, Mom went easy on my caseload for volunteering, which made it easier to go out without canceling on too many people. Wednesday, when I asked to go out, I had an excuse readily available. I’d rehearsed it several times in front of a mirror to pass the lawyer test: I wanted to go to the library to study with a few girls from school.
Dad barely batted an eye as he pulled my keys out of his desk drawer.Passed.
“Delivery number four is a success,” I declared as Harry slid back into the driver’s seat, the interior light beaming until he shut his car door. Flecks of snow clung to his hair, melting quickly in the heat of the cab. I looked at the Dial and Dine app, refreshing. “Order number five hasn’t come in.”
Harry turned over his shoulder to watch as he backed out of the driveway. “The night’s still young.”
It was. I didn’t need to be home until eight, which gave us a little less than two hours.
With my free hand, I reached up and smoothed my fingertips down the Stella wig, making sure it clung firmly in place.
Harry noticed the action when he turned around. “Can you walk me through your process on Stella?” he asked, pulling out onto the main road of Bayview slowly. “I want to know more.”
“It’s only a wig,” I said with a brief smile, setting his phone down in my lap. “I braid my hair back, put on a wig cap, and then secure the clasps in place.”
“But why wear her tonight?” He glanced over at me, flipping on his blinker to turn into a half-empty strip mall lot. “Since it’s only going to be you and me, I mean.”
I couldn’t explain the stab of amusement that struck me when he referenced the wig asher. Yeah, I did that, but it was funny hearing someone do the same thing. “I just like it, I guess.”
And I wasn’tallStella tonight. I wore light-wash denim jeans, which Stella never would wear. My gray sweater could’ve been part of her wardrobe, but it definitely fell more into the Destelle category. Like the two personas blended together, at least for tonight.
Harry parked the car in an empty space, leaning back into his seat. “Wednesdays can be slow sometimes. I usually park and wait for a delivery to come in.”
Mimicking his posture, I rested my head along the back of the seat. “I like this,” I told him, staring out at the pavement. “Delivering food. It’s peaceful.”
“You should sign up to be a driver.”
“I don’t think I’d like it without you.”
Harry slowly drew one finger down the curve of the steering wheel, giving me just enough time to wonder what that finger would feel like against my skin. He tilted his head back, exposing his neck a little more, giving me a glance at the tattoo. “So,” he began, drawing out the word, eyes glittering. “You would’ve kissed me, huh? At the ice cream parlor?”
I couldn’t help it—a startled laugh burst out of me. “I mean, I might’ve. Maybe. The odds were really fifty-fifty.”
“Mmm. And what are those odds now?”
“Forty-sixty.”
“Are those odds in my favor?”
“Eh.”
Harry chuckled at that, returning to running his hands down the wheel, gaze set on the sky beyond us.
His car smelled so much like him, almost to an unbearable, mind-boggling degree. It was relatively clean, but in the back, his guitar case lay along the seats and sheet music littered the ground. “So you went to school with Natasha. Where’d you two go?”
“Bayview High,” he answered at once. “It was okay. Easy to blend in.”
“Even with that?” I asked, tipping my head at him, gaze trailing to the ink at his throat.
Harry touched the skin there, a smile moving his lips, but the light didn’t flicker on behind his eyes. “You’d be surprised how many people left me alone once I got it.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure I would be surprised. If a girl from my school got a tattoo like that on her neck, I might’ve steered clear too. “Why didn’t you go to college?”
“I wanted to take time off school,” he replied, and that not-so-happy smile disappeared. “I figured I could always take online classes if I wanted. Maybe in the fall.”
“That’s what I want to do. Online classes, I mean. The idea of tying myself down to another place for four years feels so…suffocating.”
“I say you should do it. Even if you did a year online, most credits typically transfer.”
