Page 53 of The Man I Love

“You’re not?” She took the earbuds from her ears and shoved them into her bag.

“I’m not what?” He glanced up at her.

“Hot?”

He only stared out the windshield for what felt like a full minute, then lifted his shoulders and shrugged. “I’m fine.”

For some reason, his response irked her. It made her want to lean across the seat and wrap both of her hands around his neck.I’m fine.She repeated in a singsong voice inside her head.I’m fine. I’m Tristan, who isn’t eight months pregnant in the middle of July. I’m fine.

The heat, as well as her hormones, were getting the better of her. She decided the best thing to do was to ignore him and close her eyes again.

“What’s that?” she heard him ask five seconds later.

She wanted to outwardly groan, but she held it in. “What’s what?”

“That,” he replied, flicking his eyes to the notebook on the bench seat between them.

“Oh,” she opened the binder, then flipped through the pages. “The itinerary for our trip.”

He made a face. “The itinerary?” He seemed amused as if the only reason to have an itinerary would be for a vacation.

She took a deep breath, suddenly feeling like she needed to defend herself. “I didn’t want it to be like last time—” But she stopped herself, then glanced out the window, hoping he wasn’t paying attention.

“What about last time?” He focused on the open road ahead, but his voice lowered slightly, as though the mention of their last trip bothered him.

She’d told herself she wasn’t going to bring up the past, and she certainly hadn’t planned to bring up their last trip. The one where things got heated, and hot, and ended with them fallinginto his bed and in love. She gazed out the window, as memories played in her mind like a broken record. “We should arrive at our hotel by dinnertime,” she said out loud, her voice far off and distant.

One brow arched over his glasses. “You booked a hotel?”

“I’ve planned everything. Gas stations, restaurants, every hotel has a paid reservation.”

“I’ll pay you back,” he said gruffly.

She shook her head. “That’s not necessary.” She’d made more than enough money while in New York, the least she could do––”

“I’ll pay you back,” he said, interrupting her thought. Though this time his hands were taut on the steering wheel, and he looked annoyed.

“Fine. Then I’ll pay you back for the truck.”

“Are we keeping track now?” he asked, not even allowing the last word to fully exit her lips.

This was something they’d never done before. There was never ahisandhers, ayoursandmine. When they lived together it wasus.Ours. They worked as a team for everything.

But things had changed since then.

Everything was different.

Of course they wouldn’t share bills on this trip.

“I guess we are.” She squared her shoulders firmly. “You got the truck. The least I can do is pay for the rooms?—”

“Why?”

“To thank you?—”

He pulled the truck off the road, his eyes straight ahead as he came to a full stop at the curb.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her hands braced on the dashboard.

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