Page 44 of The Leaving Road

I followed Matt to the exit and walked him outside, wrapping my arms around myself when the colder temperature engulfed me.

“Listen…about tonight.”

He put his hands up in surrender. “Look, don’t sweat it. When I saw you two the other day, I had a feeling I was batting to lose, but I had to try. You call me if your situation changes, you hear?”

I think I mumbled something about it not being like that with Sloan, but he pulled me into a hug while chuckling. “Sure, Magnolia, you keep telling yourself that.”

The hug was nice, brief, and only offered the promise of friendship. He released me, stuck his hands into the front pocket of his jeans, and took off toward his car, leaving me to go back into the bar alone.

Reaching the others at the table, I noticed everyone seemed to be getting ready to leave. Nothing like a few awkward moments to totally kill an evening. Dexter and Lydia must have taken off and I hardly noticed.

“Can I take you home?” Sloan asked from beside me.

“Uh…Jace drove us.”

I eyed Lexie, hoping she would help me out of this one, but she eyed me with a mischievous glint and remained silent.

“Okay, so Lexie can go with Jace, and you can ride with me.”

We somehow made our way outside.

“I think I’ll just go with Jace. It doesn’t make sense for two cars to go to the same place.”

We approached his truck, and he eyed me up and down as if I were a snack. “Get in the car, Magnolia.”

I almost choked on my own spit at the look he was giving me.

“Lex, are you good if he takes me home?”

“Sure, babe, see you later,” she drawled and walked off with Jace.

I turned to Sloan. “No funny business. We go straight home, you hear?”

“Cross my heart.” He grinned at me while holding the passenger side door open so I could get in.

I gave him my best glare as I slid into the seat and watched him intently as he made his way to the driver’s side of the car. I was a little worried that the drive would be awkward, considering what an emotionally charged evening it turned out to be, but the silence that seemed to engulf us was an easy one, until Sloan decided to ruin it.

“Listen, about what happened tonight…”

“What happened tonight, Sloan? Cassie basically peed all over you to mark her territory. Look, I’m not trying to be rude, but we’re in our late twenties. Starting drama? Causing a scene? That’s not me…never has been, never will be.”

He looked over at me quickly while keeping most of his focus on the road. “I know… Can we just have a conversation? One where you don’t storm off and I do my best not to piss you off? We used to be able to do that.”

Now it was my time to look over at him. “We used to be able do a lot of things.”

He sighed; his normally happy face was pulled down into a slight frown. “Magnolia…please?”

“Okay, five minutes once we get back to my place.”

I swore once the second those words left my mouth, he put a little more pressure than necessary on the gas, and we made it back to my place within three minutes. In those three minutes, I took my time looking over him. He grew up. Of course he still looked good, and of course, my body responded to him—even though a part of me wished it didn’t. He smelled divine—manly, mixed with pine needles, smoke, and maybe a hint of sweat—,and I was doing my best to ignore it. I was lost in my perusal of him when his voice coated over me and caused those pesky goosebumps that were hard to hide.

“Magnolia, I just… I feel like…” He was clearly struggling to get out the words.

“Sloan, can I say something first?”

“Be my guest.”

I took a deep breath and decided to lay it all out there. Honesty was always the best policy.

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