Page 64 of Home Town

After today, he was even more in awe of Josie’s mind than he had been. And that was saying something since he’d been pretty impressed with her already. Had been since they’d been in high school.

She’d been brilliant today. Amazingly, this whole thing—the gala, the compass, everything—might actually turn out okay.

He was about to compliment her for the third, or fourth time during their drive home when his foot hit the brake hard enough to send them both careening toward the dashboard.

“What’s wrong?” Josie asked, looking through the windshield and over the hood of the car, as if to see if he’d hit something.

She needn’t have worried. No small animals were in danger. But one big annoying human might be because just as Corey pulled into his mom’s driveway, Kirk’s big stupid oversized SUV had been pulling into Josie’s.

“What’s he doing here?” Corey grit out between his teeth.

Josie’s eyes widened. “Oh, crap. I promised Kirk I’d go to the drive-in with him. Remember? That was for tonight.”

He hadn’t remembered, thanks to his wonky brain and a whole lot of activity that had kept them both running at full speed, but he sure remembered now and he got angry all over again.

“You’re not going to go,” he said, more of a statement than a question.

“Well, I feel like I should. I promised. And he drove all the way over here.”

Jeezus. They were sleeping together. Practically dating. And she was going out with another guy?

“Are you kidding me?” he asked. After all they’d done?

He realized his mistake immediately when she pivoted to look at him and her eyes narrowed.

She released her seatbelt and turned her whole body to face him as she said, “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Or whom I can see.”

His breath coming faster, anger rose within him. “I shouldn’t have to. You should be smart enough to figure that out on your own. Josie, we had sex,” he hissed.

Her snort of derision was followed by, “That didn’t stop you from ghosting me for ten years after the last time we did that.”

Then she opened the car door and got out.

After one more glare at him, she slammed the door hard enough to rock the car.

Josie strode directly to Kirk’s car and damned if she didn’t get right in, leaving Corey feeling sick enough to vomit.

* * *

Hours passed. Hours which began with him stalking the drive-in theater’s social media. He found out which movies were playing this weekend and searched what their run times were. Then tried to calculate how long the intermission between them would be, all to determine what time Josie might be home.

He stayed up long after his mother had gone to bed—which wasn’t all that hard. He was used to the night shift, even if he had been on leave for long enough to start to get back into a normal routine.

He sat in the dark living room staring out the window at Josie’s driveway like a stalker. Like a lunatic. Like a man who feared he’d caught feelings and then watched the woman he felt them for drive away for a date with another man.

Corey sat there, miserable, sick, shaking, and waited.

And waited.

One o’clock came and went. As did one-fifteen. One-twenty. The theater was just eight miles away and the second movie, according to his best guess, should have ended by one in the morning. One-ten the latest. Yet Josie still wasn’t home.

He considered calling the Baldwin’s house in hopes Quinn would answer so he could express his concern to her big brother. What stopped him was the fact he was less concerned for her safety at the local drive-in in the next town and far more concerned that she was parked somewhere with Kirk. Doing…things together.

Things he’d done with her himself.

The thought of Josie having sex with Kirk had Corey swallowing against the dryness in his mouth. His throat felt tight. So did his chest. His stomach didn’t feel any better.

Finally headlights illuminated the street.

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