Feels Like Falling - Kristy Woodson Harvey Page 0,40
And, again, I’m not coming to your house.”
Gray leaned over between the seats real close to me. “You’re right. Better to hang out in this deserted parking lot protected by a door that I’m assuming doesn’t lock because I just opened it right up, and wait for God only knows who to get you, than to come spend the night in my guesthouse.” She stopped, and when I didn’t say nothing, she added, “With the running water and the pillows.”
I sighed. The door didn’t lock right, and someone could get me out here.
“But what about Trey?” I asked, my last feeble attempt to get out of this.
“Trey sleeps in the main house because he has to be near me at all times.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m like his therapy dog or something.”
“Who’s Trey?” her friend asked as I felt myself coming around.
“He’s a member of the brand,” I said snarkily.
That cracked Gray up. “See how much fun we have?” she asked. Then she got serious. “If you aren’t coming to my house, then we’re all sleeping in your car tonight.”
“Fun,” the boy said.
I rolled my eyes. “You win, Gray. Is that what you want to hear?”
“It is always what I want to hear.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Well, I think it’s pretty clear that you’re the only one who’s fit to drive.” As I started to get out, she slid out of the seat and pranced around to the other side of the car, moving the front seat forward without me telling her how and sliding into the back, that boy stuck on her like mud on a cow’s hind parts the whole time. All sparkling and happy like she was, she didn’t look a day over twenty-five. That was good, because that boy she was with, he had a baby face if I’d ever seen one.
I glanced in my rearview mirror at them all cuddled in my backseat. “Can I stay too?” I heard him whisper, sticking out his bottom lip.
“No!” she retorted. “Are you crazy, Andrew?”
“Please? Just to sleep?”
I rolled my eyes, because I knew that boy wasn’t staying to sleep like I wasn’t staying to play Pictionary.
“Hey,” I said when they kissed. “This isn’t Uber.”
Gray laughed. “Oh, sorry, Diana.”
I eyed her in the rearview. “Honey, that boy is way too young for you, and he’s going to be gone before sunrise tomorrow.”
She laughed. “Oh, don’t I know it. But isn’t he so adorable for tonight?”
He was.
“Hey,” he said, “I’m sitting right here.”
“Oh, lighten up, Di,” she said. “We’re just having a little fun.”
Maybe it was because she was drunk, and maybe it was because I was mad and cigaretteless, but I realized that, me and Gray, we were talking to each other like we were family already. And when I pulled up in her driveway, I started feeling like, for the first time in a long time, maybe I had a place to go after all.
* * *
The next morning, it took me a minute to figure out where I was when I woke up. Not in the back of my car. Not in Harry’s house. I stretched, feeling my limbs sink into the comfortable mattress, the sheets and covers feeling crisp and clean. I sighed and sank my head back into the pillows. This was heaven. Real, true heaven.
The sun was pouring through the crack in the white curtains that blocked out almost all the light. I glanced over at the clock and popped up. I couldn’t believe I’d slept until damn near ten thirty. I hadn’t slept that long since I was probably twenty. Hadn’t ever had the chance, really, always working like I was.
And now I didn’t know what to do. It was Saturday, so technically I wasn’t supposed to work. So did I slink out of here and back to the car? Did I stay and work as a thank-you? I was scared and kind of embarrassed to see Gray after last night, but I decided to bite the bullet, face her head-on, and make myself useful.
I threw on a pair of shorts and a Quality Automotive T-shirt (Bobby: six kids, six moms, always getting pulled over and shaken down for unpaid child support on our dates, real winner), brushed my teeth and hair, and then walked down the steps, out the door, and over to Gray’s back door. I started to put my key in, then realized the door was unlocked. Lord. I hoped she hadn’t slept like