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“I’m sure you will be.” He opened the driver’s side door and climbed inside. She caught the slight wince he made when he put his weight on his left foot. So the injury wasn’t as healed as she’d first thought. Which meant that his fast stride had been due to anger. And now she was going to have to spend an hour on the ride back with him.
Mattsoowed her for all of this.
She climbed into the truck. It was pristine inside and the leather seats were as soft as butter. The dashboard had buttons she didn’t even recognize. The thing probably could make lattes or something.
He started the ignition and drove toward the main road. She couldn’t fault the truck’s suspension. The ride was a whole lot smoother than when she’d driven it in her Corolla.
Carson looked straight ahead, his expression set in tightly contained frustration.
An hour. She was going to have to sit here trapped with him for the entire ride. Would it seem rude if she went on her phone and ignored him? Did he expect to have some sort of a conversation like they were normal acquaintances? She shouldn’t risk insulting him. “Your truck is really nice,” she said.
He didn’t say anything in return.
“Probably comes in handy for hauling things up here.”
Still no comment.
She tapped her fingers against the armrest. “So, do you want to make small talk for the next hour or would you rather spend the time perfecting your scowl?”
His glare flicked to her before returning to the road.
“Scowl it is,” she said. “I’m sure that look comes in handy in football when you tackle people.”
“I’m an offensive lineman.”
She smiled and nodded. “Being offensive was always one of your talents.”
“That means I block people, not tackle…” He grunted. “Never mind. I’m not going to explain football positions to you.”
“I was just trying to lighten the mood. You know, joke around and be a good conversationalist. I do know a little about football.”
“Surprising. You never came to any of the games.”
True, but she hadn’t expected him to realize that. “I came to one.” She’d gone to the homecoming game their senior year because a foreign exchange student had asked her to the dance and going to the game was part of the date. “And although I had a good time watching you and your friends get repeatedly knocked to the ground, I didn’t want to make a habit of it. Might be addicting. Besides, I had homework and stuff to do.”
Carson shot her another glance. “This is how you’re being a good conversationalist? Maybe we should forgo the small talk, and I can go back to scowling.”
“Sorry. You’re right. That wasn’t a nice thing for me to say.” Somehow she couldn’t help but add, “I’m sure it’s a shock to your system since most women you meet are a bunch of sycophants.”
His chin tilted in question. That’s what she got for using SAT vocabulary.
“A sycophant,” she clarified, “is someone who uses a lot of empty flattery.”
He rolled his eyes. “I know what a sycophant is. I just don’t know why you’d think I meet a lot of them.” He grinned, slow and sure of himself. “What people say isn’t empty flattery if it’s all true.”
His ego hadn’t changed since high school.
“Right,” she said because she wasn’t going to argue with him. “So if you want to talk about football, go ahead. I can take it. I’ll just nod and agree with everything you say like I did with my last boyfriend.”
“Gee, I wonder why he left?”
“You don’t have to wonder. Ask anyone in town. They all know the details.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted being so flippant. Carson probablywouldask someone and then he’d have one more reason to laugh at her expense.
“Really?” Carson’s eyebrows lifted, intrigued. “Must be a good story.”
It wasn’t. While Olivia had been gone for a weekend art seminar, her roommate, Riley, had seen Miles at a bar, lip-locked with a blond tourist. Riley had marched over and told him off. Then she’d reported the incident to Olivia.
All that weekend, Olivia hadn’t picked up any of Miles’s calls. She had nothing to say to him and didn’t want to hear his explanations or expend the emotional energy to yell at him. She was trying to salvage her attention for the art seminar.
