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Her sewing machine was in its box, strapped to the extended handle of the suitcase. With a backpack on each shoulder, she hooked her carpet bag on one forearm and held her mom’s urn to her body with the other.
Striding up the block, it was difficult to believe the sight. His damn trailer and a huge black truck in front of it. His truck, obviously.
Danny leaped out the driver’s side and opened his arms. “We said early.”
“We?” Tess asked, pausing, standing up her suitcase.
He didn’t get that she’d stopped ten feet away to show her displeasure because he jumped to action and narrowed the space between them to nothing. After first taking her carpet bag, he squeezed his fingers under hers to curl them around the handle of the suitcase. She tightened her grip.
“Gotta get on the road, baby,” Danny said.
“I said a vehicle,” she said. “I don’t want your trailer and I do not want a travel buddy.”
Despite always having one in the past. That path of thoughts had the potential to be dangerous. Just like her future. Avenging her mom, taking down the threat that plagued their lives, whatever was ahead of her, no way should it or her actions endanger the innocent Danny.
His gaze settled on the urn tucked under her breast. “What’s that?”
“My mom,” she said. The look in his eye raised her defenses. Tess let go of the case and wrapped her other forearm around the urn. “Quit looking at her like that.”
“Her?”
“Danny!”
He shrugged. “Okay, cool. If she wants to tag along, that’s fine by me.”
He spun to stride away, taking her bag, suitcase, and sewing machine with him. Snapping to attention, she hurried after him, but he’d already loaded her suitcase into the back of the truck.
“That’s my stuff!”
“I know, baby,” he said, unthreading the other backpack from her shoulder to toss it in too. He looked at her mom again. “Don’t think I should put her back here.”
“No, I don’t think you should,” she said. He closed the tailgate and snagged her pinkie with his own. “What are you doing?”
His plan became apparent when he guided her around the hood and opened the front passenger door.
“You don’t wanna drive,” he said when she made no move to get in.
“Who says I don’t want to drive?” she asked, though that hadn’t been her objection.
“You ever hauled an Airstream?”
Growling in frustration, Tess didn’t want to argue with him. He picked her up to toss her into the vehicle.
Once the door was closed, he hurried around to the driver’s side and got in. After sticking the key in the ignition with less finesse than he usually showed, Danny put on his seatbelt, then waited.
When nothing happened, he nodded beyond her shoulder. “Seatbelt, babe.”
It would’ve been insensitive to forget given her mother had died in a car wreck. Except Tess hadn’t forgotten. Putting on her seatbelt would be a signal that she intended to go with him.
Now that they were alone in the quiet, it was a good time to make him see sense.
“Danny,” she said, looking at him. “I really appreciate what you’re trying to do. I do. But… I don’t want a boyfriend.”
His tongue moved to the corner of his mouth. Waiting for his response, she hoped being blunt hadn’t offended him.
“Fuck buddy,” he said, startling her. “That’s what I’ll be… or friends with benefits. I don’t know the difference… I think it’s something to do with ice-cream.”
What the hell was he talking about? It didn’t matter. His motivation was more relevant.
