Page 119 of Steadfast
“No! Just waiting for the engine to warm up. You always said it took sixty seconds.”
He grinned.
“What? For three years I thought about you every time I started my car. Even when I didn’t want to.”
He tipped his head back and roared.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, you are so fucking cute.”
“Why?”
“The long warm-up is for a car with a carburetor—like the old Porsche. You need that warm-up time to get the right balance of air and fuel. But your baby has fuel injection.”
“Oh,” I said, my face coloring. “You should have been more clear.”
He smiled. And, damn it! I loved that smile.
“Talk later?” He leaned in for one more kiss. Then he backed away waving.
I blew a last kiss and then pulled away from the curb. I drove away, shaking my head. So many things I thought I knew about my life were wrong.
But that happened sometimes. All we can do is listen harder, hug harder and hope for the best.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Sophie
Three MonthsLater
Internal DJ turned to: “Memories” from Cats. Unfortunately. Because, ugh, Cats.
“Are you still up for heading to this party later?” I asked Jude as he piloted my car through the streets of Colebury.
“Sure. I’m all dressed up, aren’t I?” He was wearing khakis and a button down shirt, which for Jude was all dressed up. “And I want to dance with you in that dress.”
“Why? Do I want to know?”
He gave me a quick glance before turning his gaze back to the road. “It hugs you ass, in the best possible way.”
“That wasn’t my ass you were just checking out.”
He grinned at the windshield. “That dress is like Vermont, baby. Great views everywhere.”
I gave a very unladylike snort as he pulled into a driveway and shut off the engine.
When I saw where we were, the smile slid off my face. We both looked up at the place where the Nickel Auto Body Shop sign used to be. Now it was just a blank spot on a building that would soon be demolished.
“You might miss the place a little,” I said into the silence.
“I don’t think I will,” he said with a low chuckle. “Our new place is pretty great.”
This was true. We’d been slowly furnishing the old house in Montpelier. A few pieces of furniture came to us from my childhood home, which my mother had recently sold. The Virginia condo she’d purchased near her sister’s house wasn’t as large, so she gave us the dining set and my bedroom furniture.
Before she moved away, Father Peters and I had emptied Gavin’s room together, because my mother still wasn’t ready to do it. Though she was doing better in so many other ways. Learning the full extent of my father’s treachery had woken her up. There were many tears when she learned how Gavin had really lost his life, but the shock of it seemed to drain the well of self-pity she’d been drowning in. And with my father out of her life now, she’d risen to the challenge of taking better care of herself.
I didn’t understand it entirely, but I was pretty excited to see her become more active. When she announced she wanted a change and that her sister had proposed she move down south, I was astonished but supportive.
