Page 55 of The Plus One
Indira tried to find the bright side to her predicament. But, between being annoyed at her brother and worried about Jude, the situation was, to say the least, not fucking ideal.
“Turn here,” Collin said, leaning up from his spot in the back to point at a gravel path to the left.
Indira held back a gasp. “If my car suffers a single ding from this ridiculous, off-roading nightmare of a weekend, I will skin you alive, Collin.”
“It’s a gravel road on flat land—I’m not having you traverse the Grand Canyon here.”
“Feels like it,” Indira mumbled as the car jostled over a dip.
Collin scoffed and sat back in his seat.
“Just imagine the larger bumps are you running over his big head,” Jude whispered to her as he leaned forward to turn down the radio’s volume.
And Indira nearly crashed the car with how fast she jerked her entire body to face Jude. He’d been so closed off with her the past few days, retreating in on himself after their… after that moment they would never speak about. Was this real? Did Jude just peek a millimeter out of his shell to roast Collin on her behalf?
Jude looked at her with wide, cautious eyes for a moment before offering her a hint of a smile.
It was crooked and kind of awkward and the most endearing thing Indira had ever seen. She couldn’t tell if the earth was shaking from the power of that devastating little smile or just another pothole.
She found some inner strength to pull her gaze away from that growing grin and safely navigated through the winding road. When the trees were thick and the gravel turned to dirt, Collin had Indira pull over at a patch of browning grass that he referred to as a campsite.
Indira felt it would more accurately be described as a dump, but then again, her primary hobbies included eating soft pretzels in bed and online shopping, so she might not have been the best judge of the spot’s character.
“Oi, this is great,” Rake said, hopping out of the car, Collin close behind. Lizzie and Indira shared a skeptical look in the rearview mirror, but Lizzie shrugged, then grinned, following the others.
Indira sighed, scrunching up her nose as she continued to take in her bleak accommodations.
“What happened to Dira, nature girl extraordinaire, that I grew up with?” Jude asked quietly, casually, still sitting in the car with her as the others opened the trunk and started to unpack.
Indira’s heart thrummed against her breastbone at the sound of his voice, low and edged with roughness.
“She was introduced to the finer things in life like mattresses and running water and bathing regularly,” Indira said, turning her head slowly to look at him. She let her eyes flick up and down his body. “Shame that last one never took with you.”
It was delayed, Jude seeming to process in slow motion, but—ah—there it was. That whisper of a smile back again, slow like honey and just as sweet. Then he laughed, rusty and hoarse, but genuine.
And Indira’s heart, quite simply, expanded to twice its size at the combination of the two.
“Personal hygiene habits aside,” Jude said, leaning in almost imperceptibly, “between the two of us, I think you’re the one more likely to have something nest in that hair of yours while on this trip. I’d be careful.”
Indira, creature of indoor pleasures and fearer of nature that she was, did not have the wherewithal to come up with something witty, her hands plunging into her curls and eyes going wide.
“I will—and I cannot emphasize this enough—lose my ever-fucking shit ifanythingtries to make a home out of my hair.”
Jude chuckled again, then shook his head, the smile slowly fading and his features taking on that serious look that shielded him.
Indira wanted to grab his face. Make him look at her. Demand that smile to come back. But she couldn’t do that. The past few moments felt crucial. Monumental. And she’d cherish them for exactly how long they’d lasted. She had no reason to be greedy for anything more.
“We should probably help set up,” Jude said, his eyes sliding to Indira’s mouth, then quickly flicking to look out the windshield.
“Yeah, you probably should,” Indira responded, hoping her voice sounded lighter than her sinking heart. “I’ll stay in here and… not do any work.”
Jude laughed at that, opening his door and then sliding out. Indira pressed her head against the seat, trying to pull herself together.
“Dira?” Jude whispered, leaning down to peer into the car.
She arched an eyebrow.
“Thank you for coming. Thank you for… for being willing to help me.”
