AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re planning to walk home in this?” I ask.
Her silence answers for her.
“Let me drive you.” I shout the offer, basically, over the pounding deluge of rain.
“No.”
“Then I’m going to walk with you, possibly get hypothermia, and we’ll definitely lose the championship. You want that on your conscience, just because you’re stubborn?”
Rylan’s expression doesn’t change, not even the slightest glimmer of amusement.
Yeah, she’s definitely still pissed at me.
I exhale. “I’m sorry about earlier, okay? I was out of line.”
“You think?”
At least she’s talking to me, even if it’s drowning in sarcasm.
“I won’t say a word in the car, I swear. Even if you start ragging on my stats again. It’s just a ride home.”
“There’s less to rag on now,” she tells me.
Practically a gushing compliment, coming from her.
“Please?” I plead.
Rylan hesitates, the indecision visible on her face even through the falling rain.
Then there’s a loud clap of thunder in the distance, and she caves.
“Fine.”
I nod, then start walking toward where my truck is parked before she can change her mind.
“Thisis your car?” She literally stops, despite the rain, to stare.
If Hart were here, he’d be bent over laughing.
“Yep.”
Technically, we’re not in the car yet. And she asked me a question, so it seems better to answer than to keep my vow of silence going.
I unlock the truck, then climb into the driver’s seat.
A few seconds later, Rylan climbs into the passenger side and slumps back against the seat. Her wet clothes squeak against the leather.
I start the truck, then turn the heat up to the maximum so warm air blasts out of the vents. Carefully, I back out of the spot and then pull out of the lot onto the main street that runs through downtown Somerville.
Between the screech of the wipers as they work to clear the windshield and the blare of air, it’s not silent in the car, even though neither of us is saying anything. I also reach out and flip on the stereo, so the radio starts to play. My phone normally connects automatically, but it hasn’t, and I’m not going to play around with it while Rylan is in the car.
At the end of the block, she asks, “Did something happen during the game earlier?”
I guess we’re talking.
“Yeah. I kicked ass.”
She snorts. “You’ve spent tonight acting like you lost.”
