AllFreeNovel
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I click off the van, mortified. I can’t look at Mitch. I can’t see his face after hearing the narrator’s deep, rumbling voiceloudlythrough my speakers.
I want to die. I want the earth to literally open up and just swallow my van right now.
Covering my face with my hands, I will Mitch to disappear. To just go home and forget he ever saw me. Heck, that he ever met me.
“Rachel.”
His voice lets me know that didn’t happen.
“Rachel, please look at me.”
I shake my head, hoping that this is all just a dream.
His hands touch my wrist, gently pulling my hands away from me. When I don’t look up at him, he releases one of my hands and cups my cheek, making me face him.
When I open my eyes, I’m surprised to find he’s not laughing or even smirking. He’s very serious as he looks down at me, drenched from head to toe. The white shirt under his jacket sticks to him like a second skin, showing off his defined chest. I rake my gaze over him, along his shoulders and up the long column of his neck, and on to his short, neatly trimmed beard. His eyes locked on me. Watching. Assessing.
“I need to get you home, Rachel.”
His words spark my body to life. Images of him in my house—in my bed—fill my mind. My core tightens and heat rushes through my body at his words.
“You—what?” I’m breathless as I ask, needing him to repeat himself.
“Home, Rachel. It’s almost one-thirty in the morning. You can’t stay out here. Grab your stuff and I’ll drive you home.”
Right. He needs to get me home because it’s the middle of the night and my car has broken down. No other reason. Of course.
Cursing myself for even thinking it was anything other than him being chivalrous, I grab my sweater and purse and get out of the van as he closes the hood. We don’t say anything as I follow him to his truck, which is parked around the corner. We hurry through the rain until he opens the passenger door and waits for me to climb in. Once he’s in the driver’s seat, the truck roars to life, and Mitch fiddles with the nobs and vents on the dash until warm air is blowing in my direction.
“What about you?” I ask as I buckle my seatbelt.
“I’m fine,” he grits through his teeth.
Panic fills my body at the sound of his voice. It’s not the easy, flirty Mitch that was in the bar. This is something else. Fuck, it was the audiobook. Why did it have to click on right at that moment? Also, why did it have to be at a level that the dead could hear? I wasn’t listening to it that loudly before, was I?
He pulls out onto the main road and, for the first time, I’m noticing just how alone we are. There aren’t any other cars on the road. We don’t pass any as he turns onto Main Street. Even The Nest, the town’s only other bar, is closed and locked up for the night. It’s as if we’re the only two awake in town.
“Do you need directions?” I ask meekly.
“Nope,” he bites out, not taking his eyes off the road.
“You know where I live?”
He glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “It’s a small town, Rachel. I know where you live.”
I watch him as his jaw ticks. He’s focused intently on the road and his hands clutch the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles are white.
I don’t say anything, not wanting to make the situation worse. I’ve clearly upset him. I’m sure the last thing he wanted to do after working a long shift was to have to worry about me and my car problems. And then there’s my audiobook. Damn Kylie for recommending the smuttiest book she could find.
I think of my friend who owns the bookstore in town, and how I unintentionally brought her and her husband, Craig, together. If it wasn’t for me being so overworked that day and delivering flowers to the wrong Kylie in town, they never would have gotten together.
I want to smile at the thought, but my current situation doesn’t leave me in a smiling mood.
Kylie’s going to laugh so hard when I tell her about all of this.
Mitch turns into my driveway but doesn’t shut off the truck. I take it as a sign that I need to make a quick exit, which I’m more than okay with.
“Thank you for the ride. I’ll…uh…get someone to move my car in the morning.” I bend to reach for my purse and sweater when his voice stops me dead in my tracks.
