Page 67 of Always Been You

So she pulled a move that her mom had done to her when she was around twelve and giving her all kinds of preteen attitude. Reaching across the console, she flipped down the sun visor, exposing the mirror that was on the backside.

"Look at yourself."

He continued to stare at her.

"I'm serious, look." She pointed to the small, rectangular mirror.

He turned his head slightly, and she saw his eyes raise so that he could see his reflection.

Feeling filled with righteous indignation, she repeated, verbatim, the speech that her mom had once given her. "That is the look that you're giving someone that is trying to take care of you. Someone that only wants the best for you. Someone that loves you."

The final sentence was out of her mouth before she even realized she'd said it. She may not have meant to say it but it certainly did get his attention.

His eyes flew to hers and although she couldn't quite put her finger on the expression that he now had on his face, it wasn’t the anger that had been there moments ago. Maybe confusion mixed with some fear? Yep, that was it. That's what her declaration had just inspired.

A small voice in the back of her head asked, What if Ali is wrong and he really did ask you to pretend to be his girlfriend because he knew that you wouldn't get attached?

And to that voice, she answered, well...tough shit.

If that were the case then his plan backfired. And, this may not have been exactly the way she would’ve wanted to tell him how she felt, but it was the truth and she wasn't about to apologize for it.

Still, just because she wasn't willing to apologize for her feelings, that didn't mean that she just wanted them hanging out in the air.

So she acted as if she hadn't just confessed her love to him and continued her lecture. "And in about five minutes, we're going to arrive at your house and there's going to be some people waiting for you."

"How many people?"

Seriously?!

"I don't know."

"Is it a couple or-"

"I don't know."

"Did you invite them?"

"No."

"Who invited them?"

"Your grandma."

She stared at him in challenge, just waiting for him to say something, anything, to give her an excuse to continue lecturing him. Her mom was the Queen of Lectures. Bonnie Myers was the most patient, understanding, even-tempered, and easy-going woman in the world, but if you pushed her too far, there was no going back. If it got to the point where she was upset, the only thing to do was hunker down and get comfortable because no amount of "I'm sorrys" were going to stop the Lecture Train once it left the station.

That's exactly how Jess felt now. She had on her conductor hat and her hand on the cord ready to pull the whistle. The train was about to leave the station and it had plenty of coal to stoke the fire. She realized that for the first time since all of these role-reversal situations started popping up in her life, she was enjoying the phenomenon. It was much better being the lecturer and not the lectured.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on whose perspective you were looking at it from, Ethan didn't comment any further on the welcome home reception that Daisy had put together.

When Daisy first brought up the idea, Jess had thought about trying to talk her out of it, but she decided against it. Ethan may not want to come home to a house full of people, but that's the price one pays for having a lot of people that care about and love them.

"So this is what is going to happen. We're going to pull into your garage. You're going to get out of the car, and when I open the door you're going to act happy to see the people that are waiting in your house. Once they leave, you can go back to being Mr. Sunshine. Got it?"

His face no longer looked freaked out, or mad at...whatever he was mad at. Now, his expression was blank. Unreadable. Which was fine by her. If he stayed like this, she'd just tell people he was stoned on pain killers.

He didn't answer, he just leaned back in his chair. She took that as him being on board, even if he wasn’t happy about it. As she pulled back onto the highway, she reminded herself of the relief she’d felt the week before. He was alive, that was all that mattered.

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