Page 57 of True Blue

Bentley gets in behind the wheel, starting the car with the push of a button and cranking the heat in the backseat. I look around, smiling at the sleek interior. “You have a car. How did I not know you have a car?”

He shrugs, backing out of the space and putting his hand on the back of my headrest to look behind the car. “It was a graduation present from my grandfather.”

I whistle. “All my mom got me was a gift certificate to her favorite spa.” I run my hands over the dashboard. “I’ve never had a car.”

Axel sits forward, head appearing between the front seats. “You have your license?”

I nod. “Yeah, but I never had the time to get an actual job and Mom was too busy to look for a car for me.”

“How’d you get around if she was always out?” Bentley asks, watching the road, but side eyeing me for a moment.

“I didn’t really.” I shrug. “I went running a lot if I needed to get out of the house. And I would ride my bike to the park, but otherwise I took the bus to and from school and Mom hadsomeone to drive me to events if she had to be there before I did.”

Axel stares at me from the side and when I look over, I feel overwhelmed by the compassion radiating off him. “There are a million reasons I wish you stayed in Maine.”

I laugh. “Layla used to write these really convoluted plans for me to run away and come live with you guys in her emails. She’d probably agree with you.”

Bentley reaches over and takes my hand, intertwining our fingers before bringing them up to his mouth to kiss the inside of my wrist. “I’ll buy you a car if you want.”

I balk at him before pulling my hand back from his. “You are not buying me a car.”

“Will you buy me a car?” Axel asks, batting his eyelashes at Bentley in the rearview mirror.

Bentley laughs. “You already have a car.”

“Yeah.” Axel shrugs. “But I’d be okay with having two.”

Bentley rolls his eyes. “What did you do after class?” He places his hand on my thigh as he changes the subject.

“Hung out with Mira, actually.” I smile when he turns his head completely over to look at me before snapping his eyes back to the road.

“Really?” He squeezes my leg with a smile. “How did it go?”

“Pretty well actually. We talked about boys,” I joke, waggling my eyebrows at Axel.

He laughs, shaking his head. “I hope my name came up then.”

Bentley glances in the mirror at him, smile falling.

His reaction sets my nerves off, but I push forward, knowing I need to tell them the juicy part. “Actually, it did.” I watch Bentley’s reaction as I say, “I told her I'm seeing Axel.”

“You did?” Axel’s posture shoots up, bright smile lighting up his face. I nod and Bentley continues to stare ahead, but I notice his teeth grind a little bit.

“I thought we weren’t telling people anything yet,” he mutters. Axel deflates a little at his reaction, looking over at him.

“She knew I was seeing someone, and I accidentally said that it was Layla’s brother,” I explain.

He nods once, pulling into the sushi place’s parking lot and focusing on finding a spot. Once we’re parked and the silence from the lack of car engine hum sets in, he turns toward the two of us. “That’s probably smart. She won’t think it’s weird if she catches you at our place now.” I nod, feeling relieved that he’s okay with it.

Axel sits back, biting the nail of his thumb. We both turn in our seats to look back at him, spread out in the middle of the back row.

“What’s wrong, Axe?” I reach out to touch his knee.

He looks up at Bentley, dropping his hand from his mouth. “You don’t want to tell Mira about us?”

Bentley glances at me. “We’re trying not to tellanyoneright now, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s killing me not to tell Layla about this. The second you both are comfortable with it; I'm going to spill everything to her.”

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