Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,42
Annalisa hits me with the back of her hand.
“What the hell?!” she exclaims, narrowing her eyes at me.
“Ow!” I flinch away from her, even though the hit wasn’t hard.
“You and Aiden have been swapping spit this whole time and no one felt the need to tell me?!”
My face heats up. “It wasn’t this whole time, Anna.”
“If it makes you feel better, they didn’t tell anyone,” Noah offers, and I shoot him a look. Not helping, Noah.
After I promise that I’ll tell her everything once we get to the beach house, we say good-bye to Judy and head out the door, ready to embark on a five-hour drive to a place that will be our escape from all the drama.
Last night, Annalisa, Julian, Mason, and Charlotte went shopping for the trip, so most of the supplies are already loaded in the back of Julian’s pickup truck. We decided we’d all get the food together once we got there. Julian, Noah, and Aiden are the volunteer drivers, so everyone divides up into the three cars, and I end up riding shotgun in Aiden’s car, with the twins in the back.
About an hour and a half into our drive, Aiden shuts off the radio when another one of those annoying political ads runs. We play some road-trip games for a bit, but after a while the twins drift off. Aiden assures me it’s better they sleep for the five-hour drive than ask us if we’re there yet every five minutes.
We’re almost at the two hour mark when I realize I’ve screwed up.
“What’s wrong?” Aiden asks when he sees me frantically turning my purse inside out.
I look at him, prepared to lie, but then I remember I don’t have to. “I forgot my sleeping pills.” I sigh and throw my stuff back into my purse.
His gray eyes shift from the road to me. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I took one last night then put the bottle on my nightstand so that I’d remember to pack it when I woke up this morning.” I sigh again, annoyed at my own dumbness. “Guess I’m not sleeping for two weeks.”
Aiden’s head tilts slightly, and I can tell that beautiful brain of his is trying to work out a solution. “Can you get them there? Or somewhere along the way?”
I lay my head back against the headrest in defeat. “Not the ones I like. I need a prescription, and I don’t have one.”
“Okay.”
Very calmly, he signals to the right and pulls onto the gravel shoulder of the deserted country road, the two cars behind us following suit.
“What are you doing?” I ask as he takes off his seat belt and turns around to wake his brothers up.
“Fixing it.”
“What do you—”
“Are we finally there?!” I’m interrupted by Jason, who’s just woken up.
“Not yet, buddy,” Aiden tells him, getting out of the car and moving his seat up so Jason and Jackson can get out of the back. “Get your stuff and your brother, you guys are going to ride in Noah’s car the rest of the way.”
“Why?” Jackson asks, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“I forgot to do something at home. Either you guys spend an extra four hours in the car with us, on top of the remaining three, or you go ride with Uncle Noah.”
Jackson and Jason look at each other for a moment before practically jumping over each other trying to get out of the car.
“That’s what I thought.” Aiden chuckles and closes the car door behind them.
I undo my seat belt and get out of the car, turning to see Aiden walk to the back of the car.
“Aiden, we don’t need to turn back, really. It’s okay.” I don’t want him to think of me as some burden, making him waste all that extra gas and time because my dumb ass couldn’t even remember to grab the most essential part of my nightly routine.
Aiden shoots me a look that says, Don’t be ridiculous, which is one part disbelief, and one part annoyance. He opens the trunk and hands his brothers their bags, then closes it again.
“What’s going on?” Julian asks as he and Noah walk toward us, everyone else waiting patiently in their respective cars but looking at us curiously.
Noah notices that the twins are holding their bags. “What did you monkeys do? You annoyed Aiden so bad that he’s decided to leave you here, didn’t you?”
“We only annoyed him for the first hour!” Jason defends himself.
Noah shakes his head, almost disapprovingly. “Only an