Chapter Eleven: Practice 1

Rhea's POV

I was walking a step behind him after practice, my phone buzzing against my palm. Cleo, again, asking where I was since I was way past my usual time. I typed back quickly, explaining Jiles happened.

We reached his car and he pulled the driver's door open, dropping into his seat before reaching back to lower the back window for me. I forced a small smile his way as I slid his notebook onto the back seat, trying not to stare too long at how handsome he looked, sweat clinging to his hairline and exhaustion written all over him in a way that somehow didn't make him any less impossible to look at.

Then I handed him the water bottle through the driver's window, still smiling despite myself. "I can make you another one tomorrow."

He sighed, hand already on the door handle to pull it shut. "Just text me the name."

He said it right as the engine turned over, and my stomach sank slightly. Here we go again.

"Only the house mistress knows the name. I don't think she will tell me, honestly. It's sort of a family recipe kind of thing."

"Okay."

I stood there a second longer, scrambling for something to fill the silence before he drove off completely. "Um. Can I ask you something?"

He glanced at me through the rearview mirror.

"I promise it's nothing out of line."

He killed the engine in response, which I took as permission and he leaned back against his seat, waiting.

I fidgeted with the strap of my bag. "You told me to keep my apology yesterday, and being your errand girl is how I'm supposed to pay for what I did. I agreed to that. So does that mean you've forgiven me?"

I watched him carefully.

His expression didn't shift at all, and he looked at me long enough that I genuinely thought he wasn't going to bother answering.

"No."

My chest tightened at how flat it came out, but I pressed my lips together and pushed on.

“Okay. I understand that completely. But I want to clear up something people think about me." I took a breath. "Staying quiet doesn't mean I don't understand what's happening around me. I just don't want trouble. My guardian worries, and staying out of trouble is how I avoid worrying him more than I already do. As for Ricky, I genuinely thought he just wanted to walk past me. And when he went all what are you doing here," I dropped my voice into a rough imitation of him, "I just thought, that's really not his business, and silence tends to infuriate people more than anything I could actually say, so I just..."

My voice trailed off as I caught faint, unmistakable amusement shifted across his face.

I pressed my cardigan sleeve over my mouth. "Am I talking too much?"

He didn't answer.

My face went warm with embarrassment and I lowered my gaze.

"Sorry." I turned to walk off before I could embarrass myself further, when his voice stopped me cold.

"The mistress is the one who set your curfew?"

I turned back around and nodded. "Yes. But only because my guardian asked her to. Yesterday was actually the first time in years I had broken it. I had to go to a few different stores before I found the right pills. I figured they must be harder to track down than I thought."

The second it left my mouth, I realized I was doing exactly what I had just apologized for. My cheeks heated further as he kept looking at me, like he was turning each word over in his head, replaying it slowly.

"Get in.”

My eyes went wide. "What?"

He rolled his eyes, already reaching to unlock the front passenger door. "I'm not repeating myself."

I didn't need telling twice.

I rounded the car fast and pulled the door open, and dropped into the seat before he could change his mind. The air conditioning hit me first, followed by the faint scent of his cologne filling the cabin and I had to physically fight the smile threatening to take over my entire face.

I'm inside Jiles Ashford's car!

I screamed it internally with everything I had, keeping my expression carefully blank on the outside as he started the engine. There was a backup camera glowing on the dash, but he didn't glance at it, instead he stretched his arm back over my headrest to reverse, and I went completely still, suddenly, painfully aware of exactly how close that put us, his arm just inches from my shoulder, the whole car filled with the quiet hum of the engine and absolutely nothing else.

Then he straightened back up, shifted into drive and pulled us out of the school lot.