make it past the taillight before I was swept off my feet and planted on the trunk.
His hands stayed put.
“Before I take you home, we need to get some understanding.”
“Wasn’t that what we were doing inside?”
He simply squeezed my hips in response.
“I can’t always be around, Lou.” The clench of his jaw made me wonder if it bothered him more than he let on. “I have to trust the Hendersons to keep you safe. I have to trust you to stay safe.”
It was my turn to feel frustrated as my leg bounced. “I’m never going to be the girl who waits like fine china to be dusted off and played with, Wren. I know what I’m doing out here. I won’t break.”
One of his hands left my hip and pressed into my thigh. “It’s not just about staying alive,” he argued through gritted teeth. “When you run from them, you run from me.” The fingers still curved around my hip were now digging into my bone, but I hid my wince and welcomed the pain. It gave me an inexplicable sense of comfort to know I affected him. Perhaps more than a best friend should.
“What can I say? Some girls want to be chased.”
“You are not some girl. You’re—”
His mouth pressed into a tight line, and I knew his hesitation wasn’t because he struggled with finding words. Wren was a man of few words because he always chose them with care and purpose. He knew exactly what he’d been about to say, and so did I.
My girl.
He almost said I was his girl.
Feeling triumphant, I decided to throw him a bone. “You can’t be too upset with me. I let you find me, didn’t I?”
“You let me?”
“You can’t catch me by surprise if I know you’re coming.”
“Then why run?” His frustration rang loud and clear.
“I told you…sometimes a girl needs to be chased.”
He went completely still. “So this is about you feeling ignored?”
“Neglected,” I corrected. “It sounds less unreasonable.”
He stared at me for a long, long while. “If we weren’t in a public place, you’d be over my knee right now.”
“You’re the one who wanted understanding.”
“Lou, I was working.”
“I know. You were doing bad things for a bad man.”
“I was Exiled before I met you, and I’ll be Exiled long after you’re gone.”
I frowned feeling like he’d struck me. “Where would I go?”
His head lowered but not before I saw the light blink from his eyes. “To greener pastures.”
Cupping his cheek with my palm, I forced his gaze to meet mine. “Not without you.”
I let Wren take me home where he made me shower after claiming he found me so quickly because he could smell me a mile away. I squealed—mouse, indeed—and fled before he could see my red cheeks.
Upstairs, I let the shower water warm until it was nearly scalding. For thirty minutes, I scrubbed, and when I thought I was clean, I scrubbed some more.
Downstairs, I emerged wearing my comfiest pajamas with water still clinging to every strand of hair. The Hendersons were probably at the church or out to dinner, which left me maybe a couple of hours to ease the tension lining Wren’s broad shoulders.
I considered offering him a massage but realized feeling those muscles for too long would only make me tense.
Drinking it is.
I’d ply him with the stash Mr. Henderson kept hidden from his wife and hope that he’d be too plastered to drive home. I knew he’d stay if I simply asked him, but where was the fun in that?
“Eat,” he ordered after setting a steaming bowl of mac and cheese with bits of bacon mixed in just the way I liked it.
He didn’t wait to see if I obeyed and started cleaning up. “Aren’t you going to have some?”
“I don’t eat pork.”
My fork paused at the entrance of my mouth. “You Jewish or something?”
He grinned but shook his head as he tested the water for warmth. I was glad one of us found this funny. He never told me.
I said as much.
“You never asked,” he shot back, and it was unfair. So fucking unfair. If this was payback for running away, then consider me punished and then some.
Flogging would have been more merciful.
He was too focused on his task, frowning as he scrubbed cheese from the small stockpot, to notice what his accusation had done to me. My fork clattering to the table drew his attention, and he stared at it before turning his scowl on me.
“Are you saying I’m self-centered?”
“I’m saying