Page 49 of Fastlander Phoenix

Oooh, the way his voice purred through the phone line and drove straight into her center.

“Wreck?” she blurted out.

“Yeah?”

“I like you! Okay, bye!” Panicking, she hung up the phone and stared down at the screen in mortification as the glow faded to black.

Why had she said that? It was way too deep, way too fast. It was experimenting with getting closer to the L-word way too early. He would see that from a mile away.

“Stupid,” she muttered, shoving her phone into her back pocket. She was blushing so deeply, her ears were hot with it. Gah, she had never felt so giddy about a boy. She felt like she was in high school with this intense crush, but that didn’t make any sense! She was grown. She was smart, and educated, and knew the ins and outs of emotional maturity, but her heart did not care about anything logical.

Wreck consumed her mind and took up every molecule of space.

Feeling insecure, she texted,I’m sorry I said that.

She checked her phone three times as they loaded up the rest of their purchases. No text back.

She checked it while they ate lunch, and also when they were driving to the store to find an outfit for tonight. Nothing.

After the second dress she tried on in the changing room, Timber typed out another apology for saying that, and asked him to forget all about it, but then chickened out and deleted it. She could just pretend it hadn’t happened. Yep, that was the plan. Tonight she would be happy and chatty and never, ever mention that she’d blurted out something so silly this early on in the relationship. They hadn’t even talked about what they were. Was this even a relationship? She didn’t know!

Wreck was powerful, and sure of himself, and everyone had this fear of him…or perhaps respect was a kinder word. He was something big to Damon’s Mountains, and she was just this weird little overthinking, talkative, crossword-puzzle nerd that studied botany for funsies on the weekend. He didn’t even know that! Because they barely knew each other! Right? They’d already slept together. God, she’d let all her walls down so fast. Too fast.

She picked the dress the girls liked the best, paid out, and then climbed back into the truck, still feeling mortified that he hadn’t responded. Was she thinking too hard about this? She had no right to feel rejected. Right? Gah. Timber wanted to throw her phone out the window and move to another country. He hadn’t texted her back, and hadn’t told her that he liked her too. He was probably freaking out. Like she was freaking out! They were definitely having twin freak-outs, all because she couldn’t keep her big mouth shut.

He was probably planning a way to break up with her.

Criminy!

Hallie leaned over to her and sniffed. “You smell like panic with subtle undercurrents of ‘fuck this’.”

“I did something stupid,” she wheezed. Maybe she needed to breathe into a paper bag.

“We’re here,” Silver announced as she pulled her truck over to the curb in a neighborhood Timber didn’t recognize.

Here where? Timber’s attention landed on a half-built fence next to a house. The sight of Wreck striding toward them, looking very unsurprised at their arrival, had her asking, “What did you do?”

“Wreck texted me and asked me to bring you to him. We will unload your furniture when we get back. Some of us have to go in to work now.”

“He…he asked you to bring me.”

“Stop being a wiener and go fix whatever happened,” Hallie advised her. “I’m nauseous as hell right now.”

Willa was sitting up front with a diaper bag that was apparently full of snacks, because she immediately handed back a package of saltine crackers and a frosty bottle of ginger ale.

“Growing a parasite is hard,” she told Hallie sympathetically.

“Willa,” Corey said from the other side of Hallie in the back. “You shouldn’t call a baby a parasite—”

“You’re pregnant?” Timber blurted out.

Hallie was busy shoveling a pair of crackers into her maw, so she just nodded.

“Oh my gosh, congratulations!” The door opened beside her. Wreck reached across her lap, unfastened her seatbelt, and then scooped her out of the seat.

“Okay, that was hot,” Hallie said around a bite of crackers.

Wreck reached in and grabbed her purse from the floorboard, carried her around the truck and to the middle of the yard, and then set her down. He wrapped his strong hand around hers and pulled her toward the side yard.

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