Page 14 of Saving Tatum (Trace + Olivia 4)

We fell into silence for the rest of the drive to the nursing home.

I was cursing myself for not getting something from the vending machine at the library before we left. It was already five o’clock and I was used to eating dinner at this time. I didn’t dare tell Jude I was hungry. Not even when we passed a McDonald’s and my stomach rumbled like a jumbo jet.

“Was that—?”

“No,” I quickly cut him off. “I don’t know what that was. Maybe a plane.” I proceeded to look out the window, totally playing up the plane thing.

He laughed, banging his fist against the steering wheel. I was surprised tears weren’t streaking his cheeks at this point, since he was laughing so hard. Like the kind of laughter that shakes your whole body. “I will never understand why so many girls won’t admit they’re hungry.”

I hated being compared to anyone else, especially lumped into a category as ambiguous as girls. Honestly, what did that even mean?

“Fine, turn around and take me to McDonald’s so you can watch me devour a Big Mac.”

He looked at the clock on the dashboard and shrugged lightly, immediately executing a very dangerous U-turn that had illegal written all over it. “We’ve got time,” he said when he saw my open mouthed expression.

“You could have killed us!” I cried in shock at the Duke’s of Hazzard move he’d pulled.

“And before you got your Big Mac?” He joked. “That would’ve been a shame. But you’re okay, so it’s all good.”

“You infuriate me,” I seethed, glaring out the window. After Graham’s wreck I was always scared to be in a car. For a long time I wouldn’t even drive. The stunt Jude had pulled startled me. I didn’t like not being in control.

I didn’t stay mad for long though once I saw the McDonald’s. I was too hungry to care.

Jude pulled his truck around in the drive-thru and placed our order. I slid over beside him and yelled into the speaker that I wanted a Hi-C and an Oreo McFlurry. When I returned to my previous position he shook his head, a small almost boyish smile lifting his lips.

“What?” I prompted, pushing stray pieces of hair out of my eyes. It was honestly too long now, but I refused to cut it.

“You’re going to have a severe sugar rush in an old folks home. I’m really looking forward to watching this play out.” His smile grew wider and I was sure he was probably imagining something silly—like me singing, dancing, and spinning around in wheelchairs.

“I’m hungry,” I responded, “and no meal is complete without desert.”

“That doesn’t explain the Hi-C,” he countered, sitting up a bit to grab his wallet out of his back pocket. “That drink is for five years old, and doesn’t it turn your tongue blue or something?”

“Red,” I answered, “and you’re not paying for my food.” My protests went unheard as I dug through my backpack for the money I kept stashed there.

He handed the lady working at the window his credit card and tilted his head to look at me. “Last time I checked, it was the gentlemanly thing to do.”

“Last time I checked,” I countered, smiling despite the fact that I shouldn’t be enjoying this at all, “there was nothing gentlemanly about you.”

“Touché,” he chuckled heartily, scratching his chin as he waited for her to hand him his card and the receipt.

Once he had it he pulled up to the next window where they handed us our food.

He busted out in laughter at the sound I made upon smelling the food. I was starved and the smell of a greasy cheeseburger was calling my name. I didn’t think I had ever wanted anything more than I wanted that burger.

I set my food in my lap and handed Jude his so he could eat as he drove. He promptly shoved a handful of fries in his mouth, chewing loudly. The fries stuck out of his mouth like the tentacles of an octopus. I couldn’t help laughing. “What?” He asked around the mouthful. He took a large sip of his soda and said, “Isn’t this how everyone eats their fries?”

“No,” I shook my head, eating one single fry to make a point.

He shrugged. “I’m a man and that’s how we eat

fries.”

“Maybe if you were a caveman,” I mumbled under my breath, but he heard me even over the music blasting from the radio.

“Cavemen didn’t have the convenience of drive-thru’s or the salty deliciousness of French fries.”

At his words I realized I would never win in an argument with Jude. Well, more like neither one of us would win. We were both far too argumentative and neither of us would back down.

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