Page 85 of Until Then

Pulse fluttering in her throat, she backs away slowly, her gaze dropping like she’s scared of what she might see reflected in my eyes. If she did look, I have no doubt she’d see fear and excitement. Because I’m falling for her, too. Surely, she knows that. I wouldn’t have slept with her, told my kids about us, if Iwasn’t. I haven’t had a real relationship since my wife passed. I wouldn’t have jumped into this without being absolutely sure of how I felt about her.

I show her around the rest of the restaurant, all the while replaying her words. My feelings for Izzy are strong and it terrifies me, because sheisyoung, and I worry that she’ll decide I’m not who or what she wants. I’m not sure I can handle losing another person I care about, but here I am, risking it anyway.

“You want a slushie?” I ask when we get in my truck.

She adjusts the air vent, letting the AC hit her at full blast. “I feel like I should say no, but I can never turn them down.”

There’s a gas station at the end of the street, so thirty seconds later, we’re pulling in.

“I’ll grab them. Want to stay here so I can leave the truck running and the AC on?”

“Sure.” She nods and gives me a small smile.

Before we stopped in, I didn’t think about the lack of AC in the restaurant. I’m used to working in hot temperatures, but Izzy isn’t, and the last thing I want is for her to get overheated.

The gas station is even smaller than the one we normally go to, but that makes it easier to find the slushie machine. Though as I step up to it, my shoulders deflate.

There’s no blue raspberry.

Strawberry. Grape. Mountain Dew.

I’m not sure she’ll like any of these, but I get one of each anyway. If she doesn’t, we’ll stop at our usual place on our way home.

Izzy has her feet kicked up on the dashboard when I push my way outside, carefully cradling the three cups. Despite the glare on the windshield, I can see her arched brow through the glass.

As I approach her window, she drops her feet and pushes the button to lower it. “Couldn’t decide?” A tiny smile plays on her lips.

“They didn’t have blue raspberry.”

She scowls, though it’s pure tease. “Those bitches.” As she giggles at herself, she takes two of the cups from me.

I hop in on my side with the third cup in hand and pass her two of the straws. “Taste test?”

“I guess.” She frowns down at the cups. “But I don’t think anything can beat blue raspberry.”

I hold the first cup out to her, and when she closes her lips around the straw, keeping her eyes on me, I’m instantly hard, thinking about her mouth wrapped around other things.

She jerks back at the first taste and practically gags. “Oh my God, that’sawful. It tastes like medicine.”

“It’s grape,” I mutter, frowning at the cup. “It can’t be that bad.” With a smirk, I take a sip, expecting to prove her wrong. But no. It’s absolutely disgusting. “Fuck.” I choke back a cough. “What kind of monster would drink this?”

“The kind without taste buds,” she jokes, eyeing the cups in her hands. “Please, one of you be good.”

She sticks the Mountain Dew slushie in the drink holder and tests the strawberry one first. “Not bad.” She hands it to me for a taste.

I take a quick sip, watching her. “It’s okay.”

She tries the Mountain Dew one and instantly shakes her head. “You can have this one. Give me the strawberry back.”

With a chuckle, I exchange cups. It doesn’t matter whether I like it or not, as long as my girl is happy. Quickly, I hop out, hit with a blast of summer heat, and throw away the offending grape one. Then I head toward home.

When I turn off early, Izzy shifts in her seat. “Where are we going?”

I keep my focus trained on the road and say, “There’s something I want to show you.” It wasn’t until the street sign came into view that I decided I wanted to share this with her. It’s a place not even my kids know about.

“Let me guess, you’re not going to give me a hint.”

I bark out a laugh. “Nope. Not a chance.” With a grin at her, I turn down the bumpy driveway that’s more mud than gravel. As we roll slowly, nature closes in on us, the trees forming a canopy above. It takes a good five minutes before the land clears. When we pull out into an open area, I ease the truck to a stop and undo my seat belt.

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