AllFreeNovel
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It was a fucking relief, but like the chickenshit I was, I avoided taking Nova out in public for a couple more days. Instead, I planned a make-up date. I wanted to show her that my life wasn’t all drama, and I had the perfect idea.
Both public and private.
So on Thursday night, between our home games, I took her out. The guys agreed to stay home and look after Huey, so it would just be me and Nova. Watching my best friends kiss her, running their hands all over like they knew what she liked—it made me so fucking jealous. I wanted to know what her skin felt like when I pressed my fingers into the soft roundness of her hips. I wanted to know what it would feel like to have her hair brushing over my shoulders as we kissed naked.
But first, I had to show her that I was in this shit for the long haul, despite the drama that seemed to follow me around like stink on shit.
First step, a proper date. I paced up and down the living room, the guys sitting around with a beer in their hands watching basketball, Huey propped on the couch between them. I lifted my phone and took a photo. Fuck, Rigby had been right. This would work out best for us all, but especially Huey.
Rigby looked behind me and let out a low whistle. I turned, and Nova was there. She looked beautiful. I didn’t know shit about makeup, but she was glowing. She had on a sweet little dress that floated around her thighs, a denim jacket and a pair of white sneakers. I’d told her it was casual and damn, my girl came through looking like a wet dream. The perfect girl next door.
I shook myself out of my stupor and strode over, pulling her into my arms. “You look beautiful.”
She grinned up at me, and I felt that smile all the way in my chest. “Thanks. You didn’t tell me much about where we were going, so I hope this is okay?”
I nodded. Honestly, the sight of her long, smooth legs had burned out a few of my higher thought processes, at least temporarily. “You’re perfect. Are you ready?”
“Uh-huh. Just one second.” She walked over to the guys, kissing Huey first, murmuring something softly to him, then leaning in to kiss Rigby and Devan. I could see the heat in the other men’s eyes, could see them holding themselves back from deepening the goodbye kiss.
I appreciated those fuckers so much.
When she strolled back over to me, her hips swaying enticingly, I told myself we had to go on a date. I couldn’t just take her back up to my room. Then I repeated it until we were in my car, and she was buckled in.
“Where are we going?”
I gave her a cocky smirk. “It’s a surprise.”
She huffed. “I’m obviously a fan of those.”
Man, I just bet. Her whole life for the last few months had been one surprise after another, and not always in the best way. “It's a good surprise, I promise. Not like ‘here, this is your baby brother. You have to care for him now’ kind of a surprise.”
She let out a mirthless laugh. “I’d hope not. I’m not sure I could deal with another accidental half-brother.”
I slid my eyes to her quickly, then back to the road. She never said anything, but she gripped the door handle, or the steering wheel, a little too tightly whenever she drove. She hadn’t been in her parents’ accident, but there was still some kind of PTSD there. It was understandable. Hopefully, she was working through it with her therapist. I didn’t think we were at quite the stage of a relationship where we pointed out each other's trauma.
But I did have a question. “Did you ever consider not taking him?”
She didn’t shut me straight down, so that was a good sign for us, right? “It was a shock. And maybe for thirty seconds, I thought maybe he’d be better off with a loving family and not a twenty-four year old who has no idea. But then they said he had a heart condition, and all I could think was, what if he ended up with a family who couldn’t afford to give him proper care? What if they didn’t love him how I could? How my parents had loved me? I didn’t know you guys existed then. The rest of my reasons were selfish,” she said, flushing even in the darkness. “I just didn’t want to be alone anymore. I wanted one last connection to my dad.”
She turned her face away, but I reached over and squeezed her thigh reassuringly. “It’s okay. Our reasons were selfish too. But things worked out for the best.”
I got the baby and the girl, and if that wasn’t fucking perfect, what was?
We made small talk on the drive, the place we were going well away from the city lights. I found out her favorite foods, color, her first kiss, all that shit you talk about on a first date. We might be doing shit backward, but I still wanted to know Nova inside out.
Thirty minutes later, we made it to where we were going. Our headlights were the only things in the darkness of the country roads west of Ann Arbor. I drove through the gate and into a darkened field.
“Are you going to murder me and bury my body? Because you probably should have done that before the press took pictures of us together. Totally incriminating.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “No more true crime podcasts for you. Fucking hell.” Shaking my head, chuckling despite myself, I flashed my headlights. “Normally, there are more people out here, but I bought all the tickets. This is a landing strip for crop dusters by day, and by night…”
As if on cue, the screen at the end of the landing strip lit up. Nova gasped, and I couldn’t help but feel insanely pleased with myself.
“It's a drive-in movie theater?” she squeaked out.
“Exactly.”
There was one old dude in a pick-up who waved as we drove past. Pulling up where I thought was a good spot right in front, I backed up so the tailgate was facing the screen. Nova’s eyes hadn’t left it. Out here in the empty darkness, it did seem kind of magical.
