“And Faith isn’t up for quality time with her mom right now,” Mick added, hurrying on when Maddie tried to argue. “Faith and I are both responsible adults. Remember, we had this discussion. So trust me. We’ll pull over and rest if we need to. It’s going to be fine.”
Maddie sighed. “I’m calling Naomi.”
“Don’t call Naomi,” Mick said, rolling his eyes. “She’s still asleep and—”
“I’ll call you right back,” Maddie said, ignoring him.
The line went dead.
“Great,” Mick muttered, tossing the phone into the cup holder.
“So she’s calling Naomi.” Faith hummed beneath her breath. “That means Jake will find out, too, and he’s a huge hairy stickler for safe driving. I mean, for obvious reasons, but still…he’s going to give me shit if we don’t stop to rest.”
Mick nodded. “Back when they were in high school, Maddie and Naomi had a friend fall asleep at the wheel after a study date. She flipped her car and almost died. It made them both take the driving-while-tired thing pretty seriously.”
Faith sighed. “What do you think? Should we get a room?”
“We could get two rooms,” Mick suggested. “Your mom could have one, and you and I could share the other. Platonically, of course,” he hurried to add. “Just so you can rest, you know…if you don’t think you’d be able to sleep with your mom around.”
Mick knew he wouldn’t be able to rest with Faith lying in a bed next to him, but at least she and her mom might be able to get refreshed for the ride home. He could get three rooms, he supposed, but it seemed a little ridiculous to spend that much money on beds they wouldn’t even be using overnight.
Faith ran a hand through her hair. “Oh man, I don’t know. That’s going to be so expensive, and I’m already feeling broke after Christmas.”
“Then let me cover it,” Mick said. “Like I said, I just finished a big kitchen remodel job and they—”
“No.” Faith shook her head. “A fancy steak dinner was too much for a casual date, let alone two hotel rooms. It’s nice of you to offer, but I can’t accept that. If we get bullied into getting a room, I’m paying for it.”
Mick cursed himself for opening his dumb mouth. All his talk about not wanting a serious relationship had accomplished was to make things awkward, while doing nothing to weaken the pull he felt whenever he and Faith were together. “Listen, I seriously don’t mind. I’ve got the money to spare and I—”
“What did you mean on the phone just now?” Faith asked, scowling at the darkened highway stretching out before them. “About you and Maddie having had a talk about you and me both being adults?”
Mick sighed. “You don’t miss a thing, do you?”
“Nope.” Faith glanced at him, a vulnerable look in her eyes that made him want to rewind their relationship and start over. “So, what did that mean?”
“Maddie and Naomi were…worried,” Mick said, wishing he were a better liar. But he wasn’t, and Faith deserved the truth. “They didn’t want me to hurt you.”
Faith nodded, but the frown returned to her face. “That’s nice of them, but I don’t need anyone to protect me. Not from you, or anyone else.”
“I know that,” Mick said, hating the hurt in her tone. “That’s what I told them.”
Faith sniffed. “But at the same time, I think they had a point. Because this is dumb. I never should have gone out with you tonight. I knew better.”
“What do you mean?” Mick asked, surprised at how much her words stung. “I thought we were having a good time.”
“We are having a good time,” Faith said. “A great time. But one minute you’re putting your arm around me, and the next you’re saying we’re friends, and I don’t know what the hell is going on. But I do know that this isn’t anywhere on my list of things I want in a guy, or a relationship. I’m not into hot and cold, or head games, and I… Well, I think it’s best if we end this before it gets started.”
“Wait a second,” Mick said. “I’m not into head games, either, I just—”
His phone honked again, making Mick curse beneath his breath.
“Hold on,” he said, answering the phone with a terse, “Hi, Maddie.”
“Okay, we’ve got things all sorted out,” Maddie chirped in an upbeat voice, oblivious to the fact that Mick was in the process of getting dumped. “Jake had Faith’s mom’s information, so he jumped online and booked her a flight back to Atlanta. It leaves at nine a.m. So you two can drop her at the airport, and then head to your hotel. The rooms are already booked and paid for. I’ll text you the address and confirmation number as soon as we hang up. And Jake is going to pick Faith’s mom up in Atlanta this afternoon and bring her home, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“You shouldn’t have done all that.”
“Just say thank you and promise you’ll drive safe,” Maddie said.
“Thank you,” Mick said, figuring what was done was done. “Tell Naomi and Jake thank you, too.”
“I will,” Maddie said. “Say hi to Faith for me.”
“Will do.” Mick hung up and turned to Faith, not sure how to pick up where they’d left off. Finally he said, “Maddie says hi.”
“Yeah, I heard that.” Faith shook her head, blowing out a long stream of air between her pursed lips. “I heard the rest of it, too. I don’t know how in the world I’m going to pay Jake and Naomi back for all that. A last-minute flight must have cost an arm and a leg.”
“You don’t have to worry about paying Naomi back,” Mick said, cutting in when Faith started to argue. “She has more than enough money, and she likes to use it to help people. If you fight her about it, you’ll only make her mad.”
“I don’t care,” Faith said. “It doesn’t feel right. Nothing about this feels right.”
“Apparently.” Mick sighed, glancing down at the phone as Maddie’s text with the hotel name and address came through.
He stared at the screen for a long minute, hating the awkward silence in the truck, but knowing it was his fault. He’d been a fucking idiot. This wasn’t what he wanted. He didn’t want to hold a woman he cared about at a distance, and he wasn’t the type to think about getting girls out of his system like they were some kind of virus that needed to be wiped out with a mega-dose of Vitamin C.
He couldn’t blame Faith for not liking the way things were going. He didn’t like the way things were going, and he wasn’t real thrilled with the person he’d become in the aftermath of his last, disastrous relationship. He didn’t know if he’d ever be the optimistic person he was before Bridget, but he didn’t want to stay like this, and he didn’t want to lose his shot at something real with Faith.
They had a connection, and it was way more than physical. Sure, he wanted to make love to her, to get her out of her clothes and into his arms, calling his name in that smoky voice of hers, but he also loved to make her laugh. He admired her work ethic, her commitment to helping the people she loved, and her fiercely independent spirit. She was a force of nature, but easy to talk to, and so fun to be with that not even an all-night drive was all that painful.
It had been fun, actually. She was fun, and sweet, and surprisingly vulnerable beneath all her tough talk. He knew she was afraid of letting her guard down with a guy, but she’d still taken a chance on him, a chance he had to make sure she didn’t regret.
“I got out of a really bad relationship last year,” he said, sensing his only chance to salvage things was to be completely honest. “It messed me up pretty bad.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that the other day.” Faith’s eyes remained firmly on the road. “And I’m sorry about that, but it’s not really my problem.”
“You’re right,” he said. “It’s not. It’s my problem because I’m letting all that bullshit ruin my chances with you. I meant what I said that night at the ball—I haven’t felt the way I feel when I kiss you in longer than I can remember. Maybe never. And the time we’ve spent together since then
has proven that the attraction isn’t just physical. At least not for me.”
“For me, either,” Faith said softly, still not taking her eyes from the road.
“I really like you,” Mick said, not enjoying the fact that they were driving while having this conversation, but knowing they probably couldn’t afford to pull over, not if they were going to get Faith’s mom to the airport in time for her flight.
“I have so much fun with you,” he continued when Faith didn’t respond. “And I don’t want to lose out on the chance to see where this could go. I’m sorry I got us off to such a bad start, but if you’ll give me another chance, I promise things will be different. I won’t screw up again.”
Faith was quiet for a long moment before she said. “I used to hear that all the time.”
“Hear what?”
“Promises that this time things would be different.” A sad smile twisted her lips. “My mom was always telling me—‘this time it’s going to be different, punkin,’” she mimicked in a sugary voice. “This time, the guy was going to be perfect. He was going to be like a dad to me, and her prince charming, and we were all going to live happily ever after together. Like a real family…but that never happened.”
“I’m not your mom, Faith,” Mick said, gently, wishing he could banish the pain from her past. “And when I say I’m going to fix something, I do it.”
“I know you’re not my mom,” she said, glancing over at him. “That wasn’t what I meant. I guess I just…”
“You guess what?”
She took a deep breath as she turned her attention back to the road. “I guess what I’m saying is that I know what it’s like to be messed up by bad things in your past. I’m not exactly peachy-keen with mine, if you know what I’m saying.”
“I do,” Mick said.
She shrugged. “So maybe, between the two of us, there’s too much baggage.”
Mick thought about it for a moment. “Maybe, but to me that feels like letting the dark stuff win.”
Faith’s brow furrowed. “How so?”
Mick hesitated. It wasn’t easy to talk so openly about things like this—about how fucked up and scared he had been last year—but at least Faith was willing to talk, unlike Bridget, who had shied away at the first sign that things were about to get heavy.
“Well,” he said, dampening his lips, screwing his courage to the sticking point, “if I back away from what I feel for you because my last girlfriend made me feel trapped and helpless, then the darkness wins. And I stay the person I am now…a person I don’t really like very much, to tell you the truth.”
“Why not?” Faith asked in a voice not much louder than whisper.
“Because I’ve let myself stay broken,” Mick said, his throat tightening as he realized how true the words were, and how much he regretted it. “I’ve held onto the hurt and copped out on doing the work it would take to get over last year and move on. And because of that, I wasn’t ready when the kind of girl I’ve been hoping to meet for years finally came along.”
Faith turned to him, eyes wide. “Are you for real?”
“I’m for real,” Mick said, heart beating faster. “I’ve never felt anything like the pull I feel every time I look at you. I shouldn’t have ignored that. I should have been fighting to win you over from day one, not hedging my bets or trying not to get in too deep.”
“But we barely know each other,” Faith said, though it didn’t seem like she was buying her own protest. “I mean, it’s crazy to say something like that when we’ve only hung out a few times, and we don’t even—”
“I knew it the first night we kissed.” Mick reached over, threading his fingers gently through the hair at the nape of her neck. “We could have something special, Faith. You know it. I mean, the world doesn’t sparkle every time you kiss someone, and I was stupid to think—”
“Did you say sparkle?” she asked, her breath coming faster as she divided her attention between him and the road ahead.
“Yeah, I did. And if that’s silly, I don’t care.” Mick curled his fingers into a fist, trapping her silky hair inside his hand, praying that he could get through to her and convince her he deserved another shot. “Because it’s true. I see sparkles when I kiss you. The world lights up like—”
“A hundred cameras flashing,” Faith finished, sounding a little dazed as she eased off the gas pedal. “All at once.”
“Yeah,” Mick said, awe in his tone as his hand slid from her hair. “Exactly like that.”
Faith pulled to the side of the road, shoving the truck into park before turning to him with a serious expression.
“Mick?”
“Yeah?” He swallowed hard, not sure if she was going to hit him or kiss him.
“I am getting ready to say something to you,” she said. “And I am so dead serious about it, I cannot overemphasize the seriousness. Do you get me?”
“You’re serious.” Mick nodded. “Me too. I am completely serious.”
“I am scared to death of you,” she said, shocking him so completely that by the time he opened his mouth to respond, she was already pushing on. “I am scared of sparkles. I am scared of getting so into you and those sparkles that I lose the part of myself I need to be me.”
“I don’t want you to lose anything,” Mick hurried to assure her. “I like you the way you are and I wouldn’t—”
“Let me finish.” Faith held up a hand between them, the trembling of her fingers a testament to how much this conversation was affecting her. “But I am more scared of what you said before, of…staying in the darkness.”
Mick nodded, impressed that she was being so open with him.
“Because no matter how much I try to deny it,” she said, eyes dropping to the seat between them as she pulled in a shaky breath, “things have been feeling a little…dark the past year. I keep telling myself I’m not lonely and that I don’t date because none of the guys I meet live up to my standards, but…that’s not really true. I’ve been letting all the old, dark stuff keep me from giving anyone a real shot.”
She lifted her eyes, meeting his with a look so naked it made Mick want to wrap her in his arms and never let go. “But there’s something about you. I’ve never felt anything like what I feel when we’re together. I don’t know if you’re going to be good for me, or bad, but I don’t want to turn my back on those sparkles. I’ve got a feeling they don’t come around too often.”
“I have a feeling you’re right.” Mick cupped her face in his hand, brushing his thumb gently over her cheek. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she said. “But don’t fuck this up again.”
“I won’t,” Mick promised.
Then he kissed her, and the sparkles were so bright they lit up the desolate stretch of Louisiana highway, like fireworks on the fourth of July.
Chapter Seven
“It was no problem at all.” Mick hefted her mama’s suitcase from the back of the truck with an ease that belied the massive size of the thing, while Pressie beamed from the airline’s curbside check-in, and Faith did her best not to make eye contact with her mother.
But even without making eye contact, she could see the delight vibrating through Pressie’s body.
Pressie was still in ecstasy that her little girl had arrived with a handsome man who had swept into Pressie’s dingy hotel room like a knight in shining armor.
She’d practically talked Faith’s ear off while Mick was gone fetching coffee and breakfast for the three of them, going on and on about how “gorgeous” and “gentlemanly” and “wonderful” Mick was and how proud she was of Faith for landing such a great guy.
Like Mick was a fish Faith had hooked and pulled onto land to gasp for water until he drowned, not a person with free will and a mind of his own.
The way her mama had talked about Mick would have been enough to turn Faith’s stomach, even if it wasn’t for the other part…the proud part.
Faith had never been a star student—more due
to a lack of enthusiasm, than intelligence—but she had led her junior high volleyball team to a state championship, lettered in soccer, volleyball, and cross country in high school, and graduated top of her class at the fireman’s training academy. She’d also gotten straight A’s in her EMT certification courses, saved over a dozen lives, and was well on her way to her first big promotion.
But not once, out of all those accomplishments, had Pressie ever said she was proud. She’d congratulated Faith at the young athlete’s banquet in high school and eaten cake at the party Jake and Jamison threw her when she graduated from the academy, but that was it. She’d never once said she was filled with pride for her daughter.
The fact that the first time her mother uttered those words wasn’t because of Faith, but because of the man she’d managed to “land,” stung. A lot. Enough that when Pressie pulled her in for a good-bye hug, Faith could barely force her arms around her mama’s narrow body.
“Good-bye, baby,” Pressie said, a giddy note in her voice that made Faith’s nose wrinkle. “Thank you so much for coming to get your mama.”
“You’re welcome,” Faith grumbled.
Pressie pulled away, fluffing her short blond bob as she glanced over Faith’s shoulder to where Mick stood by the truck. “And thank you, Mick. You two have a nice nap today, and take good care of my baby girl on the way home.”
“I will, ma’am,” Mick said with a warm smile that Faith wanted to run over and wipe off his face.
Or kiss off his face.
Their kiss in the truck had been even more mind-blowing than their previous kisses. She’d never felt so close to someone. It was as if Mick’s soul had seeped into her skin, until she swore she could sense his every thought, and knew his every feeling. She could feel how much he wanted her, how much he cared about her, and how he valued the second chance he’d been given. The last of her doubts had vanished in the warm, wicked, wonderfulness of that kiss, and she’d driven into New Orleans feeling high on life and beautiful possibilities.
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