“Look, this is ridiculous. We shouldn’t be fighting over some guy . . . just because he’s not into Carhartt and partying down by the river,” I added, to lighten the mood. Though there was much more to Hunter than that. Something about the quiet way he studied me with those blue eyes when I talked, like he really cared about what I was saying, made the rest of the world just melt away.
And I needed that right now, the world melting away. But not at someone else’s expense.
I thought I saw Kaylee’s death grip on the wheel relax, just a teensy bit. Springs creaked as she adjusted her position. But no smile.
“I’m not sure, Mila,” Kaylee said, finally glancing my way. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“Look, I swear—I did not tell him to switch to my English class. You can ask him, if you don’t believe me.”
While I would have loved to believe that he’d transferred because of me, he’d told me the move was solely based on his desire for a more ambitious reading list.
She released the wheel with one hand to smooth the neck of her aqua cowl-necked sweater, one of her amazing do-it-yourself creations. “Please. He’d think I was an idiot.” But her voice didn’t hold quite the edge it had just moments ago.
She peeked at me, nibbling her lower lip. Then her shoulders deflated. “Though I’m doing a pretty good job of acting like one on my own, aren’t I?”
“Hey, me too,” I said. Not thinking so much of Hunter as I was that time when I’d grabbed her arm.
Her smile was timid, not the carefree Kaylee smile I was used to. Nevertheless, I’d take what I could get.
“So, let’s just—wait! Oh my god, there he is!” Kaylee yelled.
For an instant, my logic deserted me. No . . . she couldn’t mean . . .
My eyes flew open as the brakes squealed. I turned my head, searched for the object of Kaylee’s pointing finger. Confusion hit first, followed by a flood of disappointment. Hunter. She’d meant Hunter.
Of course she had.
I grabbed hold of my fleeing composure while we bump-bump-bumped our way to the side of the road.
“Roll down your window, hurry!” Kaylee said, finger combing a few flyaway pieces of hair into order. Hunter was just turning to see who approached, his hands rammed into the pockets of black cargo pants.
I couldn’t prevent the rush of excitement at the sight of him. Even though I gave myself stern orders to play it cool. I cranked the old rotor window down, the one that stuck for Kaylee’s little brother and her mom but never gave me any problems at all.
Without the glass as a barrier, the smell of manure grew even headier.
“Hi, Mila,” Hunter said. As usual, I noticed the way his lopsided smile upturned his lips, the left side just a little higher than the right. When he tilted his head, the hood of his black long-sleeved shirt pulled loose, unleashing that now-familiar tumble of brown waves. Waves that looked incredibly soft and practically begged for my fingers to run through them.
Okay, I really needed to stop. Kaylee and I had a deal.
I commanded my voice to sound nonchalant. “Hi, Hunt—”
“Hunter!” Kaylee squealed. “Hey, why don’t you come with us? We’re on our way to Dairy Queen, and you seriously don’t want to pass up one of the best things this town has to offer!” Kaylee leaned across me for a better view, forcing me to smash my head against the crunchy old headrest if I didn’t want to inhale a mouthful of her grapefruit-scented hair.
And wait . . . since when were we on our way to Dairy Queen?
I managed to wrestle my head out from behind hers. Hunter’s blue gaze immediately captured mine, searching. I got that the-world-is-fading sensation all over again. Despite my best intentions, I felt a goofy smile crawl onto my mouth. “Sounds good,” he finally said, still focused on me.
Meanwhile, Kaylee’s smile faded. She watched him watching me, and her eyes narrowed. This time, her excitement seemed forced as she bounced up and down on the seat, sending the springs into a squeaky chorus. “Yay! Mila, you jump in the back so that Hunter can sit up front, okay? We don’t want to scare the new guy off by making him ride in the back of a pickup!”
Ha ha, very funny. “Good one, Kaylee, but how about I just squeeze closer to you?”
The edges of Kaylee’s mouth fell. She lowered her voice. “What, so that you can be all pressed up against him like a saddle on a horse?” she hissed.
Seriously? “You told me less than two minutes ago that you were acting like an idiot. Well, guess what? You’re doing it again,” I whispered back.
Kaylee glared at me before gesturing to Hunter. “Wait a second—Mila was just getting out. She wanted some fresh air, anyway.”
I gawked, trying to convince myself she was only acting crazy because Hunter had caught her by surprise. Later we’d laugh at her insanity.
Until she lowered her voice and said, “My truck, my rules. Get in the back or walk.”
Okay, so laughing wasn’t an option.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Out.”
More than anything, it was the sudden tension in my hands that made me open the door and hop out. I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t use them to grab Kaylee again.
Possibly around her neck this time.
When I leaped onto the grass before he could get in, Hunter’s smile fell. “Are you leaving?”
“No, just getting in the back,” I said. Feeling like an utter moron at the surprised rise of his brows. “It’s, uh, nice to see the landscape from a different perspective sometimes.”
After letting loose with that little bit of ridiculousness, I clamped my big mouth shut and stomped around to the back of the pickup, climbed onto the dented rear bumper, and vaulted into the bed with a little more force than necessary. The stupid Chevy groaned.
“That’s crazy,” Hunter said. “Why don’t I—”
“Nope, I’m good. I like it back here. It’s nice.” It was much easier pretending when I didn’t have to look at him.
“Are you sure?” He sounded doubtful.
“Yep. Totally.”
After another few moments, the front passenger door whined its way shut. The truck started lumbering down the road.
I scrambled across the bed so I could slump against the cab. Never in a million years would anyone have forced me into the back of a pickup truck in Philly. It was almost barbaric. Not to mention illegal.
I stamped my foot on the bed, hard. So hard that I managed to chip the paint.
Served her right. Kaylee had a lot to answer for later. No wonder she and Parker were such good friends.
The truck gathered speed. I had to throw my hands up to keep from eating my hair. The road noise was pretty loud, but I could still catch the conversation going on inside the cab. The back window must have been cracked.
“Are you sure she’s okay back there?” Hunter asked. I pictured him craning his head to look at me in the truck bed and kept my eyes on the trees fading behind us. He didn’t need to see me with my face all red from the wind or my hair flapping around like it was alive.
One of the first things I’d learned in Clearwater: no one ever looks good with truck hair.
“Oh, she’s fine. Like I said, she loves