I’d like something to hide behind, a shield to protect me from Mick’s curious glances until I can purge the sour from my system.
“Want to talk about it?” He eases out into the airport traffic, heading back toward downtown and the hotel Naomi booked for us.
“Talk about what?” I sniff and keep my focus out the window, watching people dragging luggage and children into the terminal on their way to destinations unknown.
I’ve never been on a plane before and can’t imagine what it would have been like to go on an airplane trip when I was a kid. Back then, Mama and I barely had money for groceries, let alone planes or vacations.
“The fact that you’ve been scowling since we left your mom’s hotel, maybe?” Mick says gently. “Did you two get into a fight while I was grabbing breakfast?”
“No.” I don’t intend to say anything else about it. Unfortunately, it seems my lips don’t get the memo. “She just drives me crazy,” I say in a rush. “She wouldn’t stop talking about how amazing you are, and what a good job I’d done forcing you to date me or whatever. She just went on and on, even when I told her I didn’t want to talk about it.”
He grins. “Well, I am pretty amazing.”
“No, seriously,” I say, not in the mood for jokes. “To hear my mom talk, this morning was my greatest accomplishment. Apparently, getting a good-looking guy to drive me to New Orleans is the most impressive thing I’ve achieved in twenty-three years of life.”
He’s quiet for a moment before he reaches out to rest a warm hand on my thigh. “Yeah, well…I think it’s obvious your mom’s priorities are a little out of order.”
I snort. “You think?”
“Have I told you I like it when you snort?” he asks, making me snort again, this time with laughter. “Because I do,” he continues. “I think it’s sexy.”
“You’re weird, Whitehouse.” I smile his way, admiring how the morning sun lights up his strong profile.
He grins back, his blue eyes sparkling. “You feel better?”
“A little,” I say in a grudging tone that I’m not really feeling anymore. It’s kind of crazy how fast he can cheer me up.
“Then do you think you can help me find the hotel? I could use a navigator.”
“Sure.” I pick up his phone. A few moments later I have the info loaded into the GPS. “You need to head right out of the airport and get back on the highway. But looks like we’re only twenty or thirty minutes away.”
“Thank God.” He sighs. “I’m so tired I’m starting to hallucinate. I swear I thought I saw a clown waiting at that last crosswalk.”
I twist around to look through the truck’s back glass and my brows shoot up. “You’re not hallucinating. There’s a guy in a clown suit, wearing a ball cap, and carrying a guitar case.” I turn back around with a laugh. “Looks like New Orleans is a pretty entertaining place.”
“Too bad all we have time to do is sleep,” Mick says with a yawn. “But I’m too beat to even think about seeing the sights.”
“Me, too. A cold, dark room with some heavy blankets and a fan going sounds like heaven right now.”
He moans. “Oh man, that does sound good. I love a cold room when I’m sleeping. And lots of blankets.”
I make a soft considering sound, trying to play it cool. “Guess we’ll be compatible bed partners, then.”
“Was there ever any doubt?” he asks, a husky note in his voice that makes me blush.
“I’m going to be too tired for that too,” I warn. “So, don’t get any ideas.”
“I know.” He pats my leg with an affection that makes my chest feel tight. “Just teasing you, Miller. That all right?”
“That’s all right,” I say before turning my attention back to the directions, ignoring the flutters in my belly.
I definitely want to explore our…compatibility, but right now things still feel new and a little raw. I’ve never been as honest with a guy—or maybe with anyone—as I was with Mick this morning.
I don’t know if it was the exhaustion that made me drop the walls or the sincerity in his eyes, but that was a lot of sharing for me and I’m feeling a little shell-shocked. I need time to adjust to the fact that we’re officially a couple before taking the next step.
A couple.
We’re a couple, and Mick Whitehouse is my boyfriend.
It’s…surreal, but true.
Now to figure out an easy way to tell him that he’s only my second serious boyfriend and that I’m probably a lot more inexperienced than the other women he’s dated recently.
Ugh, not yet. Sleep first. Then I’ll start figuring.
“Take the next exit,” I say as the green line on the screen veers off the highway up ahead. “Then turn right. The Carriage House should be on our left.”