Page 70 of Keep Your Guard Up
“I guess you can just drive me unknowingly to my doom then,” I replied, sighing dramatically.
“I told you. We’re doing something brave,” he said, one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearstick of JJ’s old, beat-up ute.
From where I was sitting, the dent he’d put on the front bumper the night we stole Gus seemed deeper than Iremembered. The green leather on the seats was peeling and cracked, and the once navy blue exterior was now closer to the colour of the clear sky above us.
“Brave like bungee jumping? Or brave like visiting a haunted house?”
“Brave like seeing your dad.”
My heart stopped.
“My dad?” I asked with a mouth as dry as the grass outside.
“You told me you were worried one day he’d die and you’d regret all of the time you missed with him. Well, no time like the present.” He shrugged and picked up speed at the 100 sign.
We stayed silent for the next few minutes, passing by all the farms and acreage properties on the outer-town line. The cows had gone to lay in the shade and horses had moved themselves under trees.
God I wish I could just lie there with them.
“And this has nothing to do with the fact that my dad is your idol?” I narrowed my eyes at him, and he laughed.
“I wish I could say it was.” He was full-on grinning at this point. “But, no, Sunny. This is all about you.”
The way he saidyoumelted me in ways I couldn’t even begin to explain.
“So what’s the brave thing you’re doing today then?” I asked.
He took a deep breath in through his nose and his eyes glassed over.
“The brave thing I’m doing today is in a bag in the back of the ute. I’ll show you when we get back to Soggla,” he said.
Though from the expression on his face and the way he was talking, I couldn’t help but feel as if he was trying to promise himself more than me.
Chapter 38
Chance
Sunny avoided the topic of her dad for the rest of the drive into Colling Creek. Though she did ramble on, rather nervously, with old stories of her and JJ when they were growing up. She bounced those glorious legs of hers up and down in anticipation of what was to come. It took every ounce of my concentration to focus on her words instead of reaching over and palming her thigh to settle her. I caved not fifteen minutes onto the highway, and my hand hadn’t left her since.
“Is this it?” I asked, side-eyeing the GPS as I turned into the carpark in front of a large white wooden building with a matching picket fence. The building was exactly how Marilyn had described it, though it was still startling to see.
It was of the same concept of perhaps a storage locker—breezy and casual on the outside but contained a goddamn diamond on the inside.
“Sure is.” She sighed.
I parked the car under a frangipani tree in the far corner of the lot — she would want to delay the entrance for as long as possible.
I jumped down from the car and strode over to her side, opening the door for her. She hadn’t even taken off her seatbelt.
“Hey,” I said softly.
Her brown eyes met mine, but she was slow and slid that mask over her face a second too late. I saw it. The fear and anxiety in those chocolate eyes.
“You don’t have to come in with me,” she mumbled, staring out the front windscreen. “It’s not exactly a fun way to spend your day.”
Taking a leap of faith, I reached over her and unbuckled her seatbelt.
“I’ve got you,” I murmured. I picked up the hand that was closest and gave it a gentle squeeze.
