Page 100 of The One I Left Behind

“Could you look at my car?” I ask. “It won’t start.”

“Sure.” He parks and hops out. Emmett is the tallest Noughton, but he still has that boyish grin. He looks under my hood. “I’m gonna be honest, Gilly Be, I don’t know much about cars.”

I chuckle. “Don’t you work on the tractors?”

“Tractors aren’t cars,” he says as if I’m five.

“I’m aware, but I thought engines and stuff were pretty much the same.”

“Sorry, but I’ll take you wherever you want to go.” He heads down the driveway toward his truck.

“Um… I was going to shop.”

“Perfect. I love shopping. Come on. We should bond because we both know you’re going to be my sister-in-law.”

“I am?”

“One day.”

I shrug. He has a point, although I already feel pretty close to him. I grab my purse, shut my hood, and lock up my car.

“Emmett, have you ever heard of a garbage can?” I ask as I get in his truck.

He picks up a fast-food bag from the passenger seat and tosses it in the back. “Yeah, it’s my back seat.”

I sit and wait for him to start driving.

“Gilly Be, we don’t drive without seat belts.”

“Oh yeah.” I reach for the seat belt and slide a box of condoms to the side. “Please tell me you don’t have sex in here?”

He laughs and presses the gas. My back jolts to the back of the seat. “No. I picked those up last night. The girl seemed feisty, but turns out she was a one-and-done.”

“I love you, Emmett, but I hope you never date my sister or my friend.”

He doesn’t say anything, but he turns the opposite way of the shopping area.

“Emmett, you’re going the wrong way.”

“I didn’t know we were going shopping. I gotta get my wallet.”

I sigh. “Are you driving without your license?”

He doesn’t answer right away. “Don’t tell Sheriff Watson. Or do.” He shrugs.

Emmett’s never been a rule-follower. It’s just not in his nature. But pushing the boundaries? That’s in his nature.

He pulls down the long road that leads to Plain Daisy Ranch, and I place my hand over my stomach.

“Relax, it’s fine. Benny’s not home,” he says.

We pass the family house, and he turns into the drive that circles the lake. I’m not sure I remember the way back here, but I’m pretty sure when he takes the first left, something is up.

“Emmett?”

“It’s a shortcut.” He nods, both of our asses bumping up and down on the ripped vinyl seats.

Then he stops the truck in front of a path of rose petals.

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