Tell Me It’s Right (Sweetspire #1)

Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

GRACIE

Miles was right about one thing. The food is divine. And the more I drink the wine, the more I like it.

The more bearable the whole night becomes.

The conversation comes a little easier the later we get into the night, though we mostly just talk about the food and other places he likes around town.

There’s also a good chance my expectations are unreasonably high from my reading habits. Maybe this is what dating is like.

I try not to acknowledge how soul-crushing that prospect is.

It feels twice as cold when we leave, and I wrap my arms around myself as I follow Miles to his car. He staggers a bit as he weaves for the driver’s side, and my steps slow. He hadn’t seemed that drunk in the restaurant, but he…he wouldn’t drive me home if he wasn’t okay, right?

The wind picks up, and I shiver as my teeth start chattering. It’s enough to spur me forward and climb in. I bite my tongue to keep from asking if he’s good to drive as he starts the car. Would that be offensive to ask? Is it stupid not to?

“You really do look gorgeous tonight,” he says as he pulls out of the parking lot in a perfectly straight line and acceptable speed.

My shoulders relax. “Thank you. And thank you for dinner.”

Fortunately, he hadn’t let me look at the bill when it arrived.

“Of course. I’m glad you liked it.” He reaches over and squeezes my knee.

Then he leaves his hand there.

I stare at his fingers on my bare thigh as he merges onto the main road, frozen in my seat. Maybe if the date had gone better, I would be thrilled at this revelation, but right now, his hot, meaty hand feels like dead weight against my leg, and the longer it sits there, the stronger the urge to fling it off becomes.

I focus on the night sky out the window. The stars are so bright out here. If the wind didn’t make it so cold, I could just lie outside and stare at them for hours.

Miles flexes his fingers against my thigh, and I stiffen.

“It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?” he offers.

I hum my agreement.

“I swear no one else is ever on this road,” he adds. “Always so quiet.”

I haven’t noticed many other cars on the two-lane highway—not now or on the way here. The restaurant is one town over, and there’s not a lot in between.

Finally , he pulls his hand away from my leg to rummage around in his pants pocket. “Do you smoke?”

My eyes flick from his pocket to his face. “I—no.”

“Do you mind if I do?”

My mouth hangs open. I know very well he’s not talking about a cigarette. Not that I’d appreciate that either. “While you’re driving?” My voice comes out small and high-pitched.

He laughs, removes his hand from his pocket—sans joint—and rests it back on my leg, higher up on my thigh this time. “I’ll take that as a no. You got it, boss.”

The clock on the dashboard says it’s 10 PM. It took about thirty minutes to get here, and we’ve been in the car for, what? I’d like to say ten minutes, but realistically, it’s closer to five.

God, I hate the way I want to cry right now. I was so excited for tonight, and now I’m counting down the minutes until it’s over.

His fingers dig into my inner thigh as his thumb makes light strokes. My stomach flips, and not in a pleasant way. I don’t know how to ask him to stop, but I also don’t know if I can take this for twenty more minutes.

How can he honestly think something is going to happen? Or does he see nothing wrong with how dinner went?

“So, are you still living with your family?” I ask because apparently I am incapable of not filling the silence.

I cross my legs.

He doesn’t take the hint and leaves his hand there as I do.

“Oh no.” His smile is too wide and full of teeth. “Don’t worry. I got my own apartment in town.”

I realize too late how that question came across. Fuck. But I should wait to confirm he’s taking me to Leo’s house until we’re closer, right? So I don’t make it awkward?

“You know, Miles, I?—”

“Hold that thought, gorgeous.”

I brace my hand against the door in surprise as the car slows and pulls off onto the gravel shoulder. My eyes widen as I turn to look at him.

“Is there something wrong with the car?”

“Oh! No. No. Sorry to worry you.” He squeezes my leg and chuckles as he shifts the car into park. His grip is starting to get uncomfortably firm, and his fingers somehow managed to climb a few inches higher. “It’s just been such a nice night. Thought maybe we’d make it last a little longer.”

It takes everything inside of me not to let my thoughts show on my face. Such a nice night? Were we on the same date?

“You’re so different from the other girls around here, Gracie. It’s refreshing.”

Now my eyes are really threatening to bulge out of my head.

I’m so different? How would you know? You haven’t asked me a single question about myself!

Not knowing what else to do, I laugh. It comes out awkward and forced and too high, but like everything else this evening, Miles doesn’t notice. He unclips his seat belt and starts leaning toward me.

Oh my God. He wants to hook up in his car on the side of the road ?

I turn my head and try to laugh it off. “I’m not really a kiss-on-the-first-date kind of girl.”

He stops a few inches from me, close enough that I can smell what he had for dinner, and snorts. After he searches my face for a few moments, his smile dims. “Wait, you’re serious?”

I nod.

The smile snaps back into place. “That’s just because you haven’t seen how good of a kisser I am yet.” He leans forward, undeterred when I turn away again. “And I’ve been told I’m quite good at a few other things.”

The reality of my situation starts to trickle in. I’m in his car in the middle of nowhere. He’s twice my size. And he’s clearly not picking up on any subtle hints.

His hand pushes farther up my leg, trailing under my skirt, and he presses his lips against the side of my throat.

“Miles,” I say, and I hate the way my voice shakes. “I’m really not comfortable with this.”

He kisses my collarbone, his other hand coming up to weave in my hair. “The nerves wear off. Promise.”

The blood drains from my face. He’s just…not getting it. Or choosing not to.

“No, Miles, I mean I don’t want to do this at all.” I grab his hand that’s nearly all the way to my hips and push it away for emphasis.

The look on his face when he pulls back makes every alarm bell in my mind go off. It’s his eyes. They’re just…dark.

“So that’s your game, huh?”

I blink rapidly and shift my weight, trying to put more distance between us. “I—I’m not playing a game. I just—I just take things slow, is all. This is moving too fast for me.”

“Don’t you think we’re a little old for this? I pick you up, bring you flowers, take you to the nicest place within fifty miles, I pay for your food.”

My hands tremble as I tug the hem of my skirt lower. “I really just want to go home now.”

“Unbelievable,” he mutters under his breath as he shakes his head.

We sit in silence for what feels like forever, but he doesn’t put the car in drive. He faces forward and wraps his hands around the steering wheel in a death grip.

“You know what? No.” He whips toward me and juts sharply with his chin. “Get out.”

“ What? ”

“Get. Out. Of. My. Car.”

I look from him to the dark nothingness outside the window. “Miles, you can’t?—”

“Yes the fuck I can. It’s my car. You thought I was going to be your chauffeur and meal ticket tonight?—”

“That is not what I?—”

“ Get out, Gracie .”

I flinch at the volume of his voice in the small space, and hot tears spring to my eyes.

“Get out!” He reaches across me and shoves the door open.

In the process, his elbow clips me under the chin. I rear back, my mouth filling with the taste of blood.

He grabs my purse from the floor and chucks it out the open door.

“You can either climb out yourself or I’ll do it for you.”

I scramble with my seat belt and trip over my feet as I hurry out of the car, a mix of tears and blood streaming down my face. I barely have both feet in the gravel before he’s speeding off with my door hanging open. It slams shut as he twists the car.

The rev of the engine echoes as he drives away. Within moments, the headlights disappear, and then I’m in complete darkness. My mouth throbs, and the coppery taste of blood overwhelms my senses. I gingerly fish around with my tongue to find my lip split.

I don’t know how long I stand there, unable to move. Long enough for goose bumps to blossom over every inch of exposed skin, and then I start to tremble. From the cold night air or the adrenaline subsiding, I don’t know.

Because surely this isn’t happening. This can’t be happening right now.

A shaky breath passes my lips, the sound suddenly too loud in the quiet. I take a step back from the road, and my heel digs into the gravel at a weird angle, making my ankle roll, and it’s enough to snap me out of whatever trance I’d been in.

I hunt for my purse on the ground, and once I find it, my hands are shaking so badly that it takes three tries to get the clasp undone. The first thing I notice when I dig my phone out is the angry red symbol in the top corner of the screen—low battery.

Oh God.

Unlocking it, I immediately flip it to low power mode, then freeze with my finger poised over my contact list.

Who am I supposed to call? Leo and Keava are in Philly for the wedding. Mom and Dad are in New York for some restaurant opening. Carson is at work all the way up in Newark tonight. This town is so goddamn small that no rideshare apps function out here.

I don’t…I don’t…

My breaths come in short and fast as I take in my surroundings. I don’t even know what road this is, my service is hanging on by a thread, and my battery has already lost a percent. I’m down to ten.

The only other person I know in town is Liam.

Tears sting my eyes, but I swallow them down. I can’t afford to panic.

I tap his number. It rings and rings, and with every moment that passes, my heart sinks deeper into my stomach.

I don’t have a plan B. I guess I could start walking the way Miles drove off, but a half-hour drive going like fifty miles an hour? How long of a walk is that? Twenty-five miles?

I don’t know the number for the cab company, and I don’t know if my service—or battery—can handle a Google search.

If I wait for someone else to drive by, I could be here all night, and even if someone did happen to show up, I don’t know if I could bring myself to get in the car. I’ve seen way too many crime documentaries for that.

Fuck.

Do I call 911 next? How fucking mortifying. I finally go on a date and end up needing a ride home in a police car.

“Hello?”

I nearly drop the phone. “Liam?” My voice cracks around his name, and whatever resolve I’d been clinging to breaks. Tears stream down my cheeks, and I hiccup, trying to catch my breath.

“Gracie? Gracie? Are you okay?”

“I—I—” Down to eight percent battery. “I don’t know where I am,” I gasp. “My phone is about to die.”

“Slow down, slow down. What happened? Where are you? What do you see?”

“The side of the—road. Kicked me out of—the car. I see—nothing. There’s nothing. It’s just—dark. God, I’m at—I’m at seven percent.”

I sink onto the ground and tuck my knees into my chest as I try to catch my breath.

“Gracie, I need you to listen to me. You’re going to share your location with me. Then you’re going to stay right there until I come to get you.”

I nod quickly before realizing he can’t see me. A whimper escapes me as I send the invite to share my location. My battery is down to five.

“I got it—I got it!” There’s rustling on his side. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Okay,” I whisper.

“Are you somewhere safe to wait? Is there anyone else around?”

“There’s no one here.” I shiver as the wind picks up. “There’s nothing out here.”

Except maybe wild animals waiting in the bushes to jump out and tear me apart.

The phone cuts off before he responds. I yank it away from my ear, expecting the screen to be dark, but my battery is still hanging on.

What if he doesn’t come? What if he can’t find you? whispers a voice in the back of my head.

But then my phone starts to ring, and I jump as it shatters the silence.

“Hello—?”

“I’m here” comes Liam’s voice, followed by a car door slamming and an engine revving to life. “I always fucking lose signal here. Just stay on the line with me until your phone dies, okay?”

“Okay,” I say, my voice barely a whisper.

“Gracie.” His voice is suddenly hard, firm. “You’re going to be fine.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to be right there.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and pull my wrap tighter around my shoulders. “Okay.”

“It says you’re about twenty-five minutes out.”

I nod, my teeth starting to chatter.

A few moments of silence pass between us, save for the howls of the wind, some chirping bugs nearby, and the low hum of Liam’s car through the phone. I press my forehead to my knees, trying to keep my breathing calm.

Lowly, he asks, “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

I gently touch my lip, and my fingers stick in the drying blood. The pain feels distant now, unimportant. I’d almost forgotten about it.

“I’m fine,” I rasp.

“Gracie…”

“I’m fine,” I repeat, forcing my voice to come out a little more evenly, but when I glance at the screen again and see a single percent of battery staring back at me, my chest starts to shake.

“Gracie—”

My phone dies.

My head drops against my chest like it’s too heavy to hold up anymore, and the tears fall from my cheeks into the dirt. But the longer I sit here, the more violent the shivers become, so I push to my feet and pace back and forth, trying to force some warmth into my limbs.

I want to go back to a few hours ago and slap myself for deciding against a jacket because it didn’t look good with my dress. Hell, I should slap myself for thinking this was a good idea in the first place.

But kicking me out of the car and leaving me here like this? Who does that? I guess part of me thought he’d turn back after a few minutes, but that window has long since passed. Not that I’d want to get in his car if he did, but I flinch at every branch cracking in the distance, my heart lodged in the base of my throat like my body is preparing for a threat to lunge out at any second.

I search my purse for anything I could use as a weapon, but I don’t know what good some pepper spray would do me against a bear. Are there even bears around here? Wolves, maybe?

With every step, my heels sink into the uneven ground, threatening to throw me off balance. Sighing, I pull them off and toss them beside my bag. They’re open-toed and strappy, so it’s not like they were keeping me warm anyway. But after a few minutes—maybe seconds, I can’t tell—I realize the pacing isn’t helping. I’m shivering, my teeth are chattering, and my toes are starting to feel numb.

I crouch next to my things and wrap myself in a ball, hoping to conserve what little body heat I have left.

Liam will be here soon , I remind myself over and over. He’ll be here. He will. He will.

When I lift my head again, headlights appear on the horizon. My breath catches in my throat, and I scramble to my feet.

The lights grow quicker than I would have expected, like he’s driving much faster than he should be. I take a few steps back from the road, my arms wrapped around myself. As it gets closer, the car takes on the familiar form of Liam’s truck, and what was left of the apprehension in my shoulders finally relents as he pulls up. And I can’t help it—I let out a sob. He jumps out of the car so quickly I’m not sure it fully stopped first.

He hurries toward me, stripping his bomber jacket off as he goes, leaving him in a thin white T-shirt. He wraps it around my shoulders as he reaches me. I can’t stop trembling as he tightens his hands on my arms, his entire body going still as he takes in whatever damage is visible on my face.

I don’t remember choosing to do it, but I collapse against his chest. He pulls me in, one hand cradling the back of my head. I can’t tell if the frantic heartbeat is coming from his chest or it’s my own echoing in my ears.

He loosens his grip and gently says, “Get inside.”

I start to turn back for my things, but he nudges me toward the car. “Go on. I’ll get those.”

I do as he says and let out a soft moan as I climb onto the heated seats and turn the air vents in my direction. I quickly wipe the tears from my cheeks as he climbs in a moment later and sets my things at my feet.

“I’m—I’m sorry. I didn’t know who else to c-call. Leo is out of town and?—”

“Gracie.” I suck in a surprised breath as he takes my face in his hands and looks me up and down. “It’s okay,” he says softly. “Christ. You’re freezing.”

He yanks the beanie off his head and pulls it onto mine instead, then takes a few moments to adjust my hair so it’s not stuck in front of my eyes.

“I’m f-fine,” I insist, but my chattering teeth ruin the intended effect.

He pulls his leg up to untie his shoes next. He rips a sock off, then gestures to me. “Give me your foot.”

“Liam—”

“Foot.”

My poor toes are so cold I can barely move them, so I don’t stop him as he takes my leg and works the sock onto my foot, then does the same thing for the other.

His eyes search my face, and I brace myself, waiting for him to ask and silently pleading with him not to. I don’t want to have to say it aloud. I don’t know how I’d put what happened tonight into words.

But in the end, I see it the moment he decides something, and he nods toward the seat belt behind me and shifts the car into drive.

“Buckle up.”

I stare out the window as we drive, though there isn’t much to see. The darkness swallows any details in the distance. The pit in my stomach grows heavier with each moment that passes in silence, the drive stretching on even longer than I remember it being on the way here. I try to imagine myself out there, stumbling my way back in the dark and the cold. How far would I have made it before I gave up? No other cars have appeared.

I shiver and force myself to stop the line of thinking.

Liam must think I’m still shaking from the cold, because he cranks the heat up higher and turns the remaining air vents in my direction. But the chill has sunk well beneath my skin, burrowing deep into my bones in a way that feels like it’ll never leave. It weighs on my eyelids, making it harder and harder to stay awake as the steady hum of the truck’s engine threatens to lull me to sleep.

But when we make it back to Sweetspire, my head jerks up as we reach the light before my neighborhood and Liam turns in the opposite direction.

He spares me a quick glance before refocusing on the road and tightening his fists around the steering wheel. “Leo and Keava won’t be back for a few days,” he says. “I…well, I don’t want to leave you alone right now. And I want to make sure you get that lip cleaned properly. Is it all right if I take you to my apartment?”

I probe at it and wince. It hurts more now that I’ve warmed up. I’m afraid to look.

“But I can just take you home, if you’d rather,” he adds when I don’t respond.

As much as I want to curl into a ball in my bed and never come out…I think about being in that house right now. The darkness. The quiet. And I realize being alone is the last thing I want.

“No,” I croak. “That’s okay.”