44. A Step Back

The first thing I notice when I open the passenger side door is the candy littered on the seat.

Jude, who has already settled in the driver's seat, notices my hesitance to sit down. "Oh," he mutters, then scoops the candy from the seat and puts them in the glove compartment.

I get inside and close the door. "I didn't know you still had a thing for candy."

"I don't. I didn't. It's been a while."

"Can I have one?"

"Now? So you can yell at me tomorrow when you get a sore throat?"

I laugh. "You remember that?"

"I remember everything about you." He reopens the glove compartment and retrieves one that's wrapped in a green wrapper. He hands it to me. "You can have this. It has mint and whatnot. It's the kind used to relieve sore throats, not cause them."

I take it, lifting an eyebrow. "You were all about cherry back then."

He chuckles. "Well, the dentist said I need to rethink my sweet tooth."

"Bad, bad dentist," I joke, to which he laughs as he starts the engine. The sound of his laugh is s