Page 2 of I'll Be There
Thankfully, he had their living arrangements all figured out. Another reason for his epic lateness and heavy foot on the pedal.
He eased up again. But one side of his mouth tipped up, and he started to hum one of Ben King’s new singles sweeping into his brain, lighting a warm simmer through his entire body.
Turn down the lights
Turn up the songs
Come dance with me, baby
Right where you belong
“Stop thinking about the honeymoon,” Jed said. “And focus on the fact you’ll never get to the wedding if you don’t feed us.”
Conner glanced over at him. “What—”
“You’re like a glass house, dude. Sheesh, and I thought I was bad waiting to marry Kate.”
“You drove us crazy. We were ready to ship you off to Vegas.”
“I was ready to marry Kate the day I met her. Seven years is a long time to wait.” Jed fiddled with the ring on his finger, turning it in a circle.
Behind them, Reuben’s mouth tightened into a dark, uncommenting line. Conner glanced at him through the mirror. “Thinking about Gilly?”
“We’re not quite there yet,” Reuben growled.
Conner caught Jed shaking his head. “What’s going on?”
“Gilly has been talking about trying to get more bomber experience and heading to work for the Midnight Sun crew this summer. The terrain is a bit more...edgy. She wants to up her ranking with the NFS,” Jed said.
“Alaska? Are you going with her?” Conner looked at Reuben.
Reuben’s massive sawyer shoulders lifted in a quick shrug. “She thinks I’ll get in the way. Says I’m too overprotective. Whatever.”
No one said anything.
“Thanks, guys.”
Jed grinned. “By the way, have you figured out who your best man is going to be? Someone needs to be in charge of the party.”
An old Suburban with paneled sides and rusty wheel wells edged up next to them in the fast lane, boxed them in.
The semi had slowed, and Conner noticed the traffic packing in, the storm deafening as it razed the truck. He didn’t want to think about their luggage turning into a soggy mess in the back.
Just what Liza needed, the tuxedos bleeding out, ruined.
Around them, the traffic tightened, and Conner touched the brakes.
Next to him, the Suburban sped past, shooting up alongside the semi—
“Look out!” Jed slammed his hand on the dash.
The semi had started to pull out into the fast lane, clearly not seeing the Suburban. The SUV hit the brakes, swerved into Conner’s lane.
Conner did the math in a second—hit the brakes, hydroplane and crash into the SUV going sixty, or—
Jerking the wheel, he sent them over the rumble strips into the roughened pavement on the side of the highway, littered with glass, tire debris, and rutted gravel.
“Geez!” Pete said, bouncing awake as the truck’s passenger wheels hit dirt and slammed them all against their belts. Conner fought the wheel as it shimmied, the squeal of the antilock brakes hiccuping them to a hard stop.
