AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I turned his phone over, trailing my fingers over a long scratch along the back of the black case. “My parents would never let me.”
Harry reached over and laid his hand on my thigh, close enough to my knee to be respectable but high enough to make my heart skip a beat. “If you decide to do it anyway, I’ll still pack the road trip snacks.”
I looked over at him. The sun had started its descent, disappearing behind the tall buildings that loomed in Addison’s city center. Still, a few rays peeked out, casting their glow across Harry’s face, highlighting his freckles. In this light, even his eyelashes looked more reddish than brown.
“Seventy-thirty,” I said suddenly, holding still underneath his hand and gaze.
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Really,” he murmured, shifting in his seat ever so slightly. “What made it jump so high?”
“Snacks. Obviously.”
The other corner raised now, and he leaned across the space between us. “I’ll remember that.”
My heartbeat fluttered like a frantic butterfly as he came closer, and I tipped toward him as well, desperate for this moment.
A second before our lips met, one single freaking second, Harry’s phone chirped. I jolted in surprise, his hand falling off my leg, and I focused on his LED screen, blinking several times to see clearly. “Uh—it’s from Hallow. A fast-food restaurant.”
“Ah, skip it. That’s pretty far, and all of our orders have been on this side of the county tonight.”
I tappeddeclineon the app, refreshing to a blank screen. There were no other orders.
And then we lapsed into quiet. I still couldn’t calm my pulse down, the sheer closeness of his mouth to mine still fogging my senses. The moment disappeared, of course, completely obliterated.
“So, Stella,” Harry began, trying to break the silence. “When did she come into being?”
“Around November.” I coasted my fingers through the strands, not a single knot or snarl. I prided myself on how well I maintained the hairpiece. The lifetime of a wig could be cut in half without proper handling. There’d always be an option to get another, of course, but since this was the wig that started the entire persona of Stella, it felt sentimental. “Margot and I were shopping, and I saw a wig store. We went in, planning to try some on for fun, but I really liked this one.”
Harry shifted the wig hair back from my profile, hooking it around my ear. “I like it too.”
“The clothing and the fake earrings were another staple of Stella,” I went on. “Something that was so different from Destelle. And that’s really why I chose dark colors for Stella—it was something Destelle wasn’t allowed to wear. But I like it.”
“It suits you,” he told me, the warm look in his eyes not fading. “Both sides do.”
Okay, the moment was coming back.
Except another chirp broke us apart, though this time not nearly as startling. “An order from a restaurant on the other side of Bayview.”
“Let’s do it,” Harry said, and I pressed theacceptbutton. All the delivery details lit up the screen then, and I turned on the directions. Harry pulled out of the parking space. “You know, you’ve spoiled me. I like it when you can deliver with me. My little shotgun rider.”
He moved to rest his hand between us, palm turned up. An easy invitation. He didn’t even have to ask.
I slid my palm along his, curling our fingers together. “Good.” And I settled back into the seat, fully basking in the beauty of this moment, never wanting it to end. “Hey, can we swing into this gas station?” I asked, pointing out the windshield. The station sat a bit back from the road, one of the lights in the canopy flickering. “I can get us some snacks for the rest of the night. You know how I feel about road trip snacks.”
I expected him to laugh at that, bringing up the conversation from a few moments ago, but he didn’t. Harry’s hand in mine tensed ever so slightly before he extracted his fingers. “Uh, sure, yeah.”
“Will it affect the delivery time?” I didn’t want to put us behind schedule.
“No, the food probably wouldn’t have been ready when we got to the restaurant yet anyway.” But the flat tone of his voice hadn’t changed.
As he pulled up to the door, I unbuckled my seat belt, turning toward him. “Want me to grab you a soda?”
His grip on the steering wheel seemed tight for the car being in park, wide gaze on the gas station door. It almost didn’t look like he was breathing. “No, I’m fine.”
The change in his demeanor was enough to make me pause in opening the door. I couldn’t figure out what triggered it, but it had me settling back in my seat. Maybe it was the gas station itself. Itwaspoorly lit, grungy looking. I realized then that I didn’t know much about the Bayview area. Was this a bad part of town?
“You know what? We can keep going. I’ll just get a drink to go from the restaurant.”
“You sure?” Relief dripped from the two words, the tension in his expression cracking.
