“Upper-class? Wow. What do your parents do?”
I froze for a second. “Err, my parents’ money came from their parents’ parents. Import-export mostly. Back in the day. My dad worked for the government and my mum stayed home with us. Mostly.” The hair on the back of my neck prickled, and I couldfeel the wave of heat overtaking my face. I was just glad for the mostly dim interior so Hannah couldn’t see me sweat. I was horrible at lying. So I kept babbling. “My mum is awesome. Or she was before. When we were little, she loved to play with us, encouraged us to run around and play crazy little kid games. She always had time for us and didn’t care if she got dirt on her dress or messed up herhair. She was involved.”
“Was?”
I flinched, drawn back into the present by Hannah’s soft question. “Quoi?What?”
“Did you lose your mother, too? You speak about her in the past tense.”
“No, she’s still very much alive. But…losing her son changed her. And my father, too, obviously. But she took my brother’s loss especially hard. And it doesn’t help that I look exactly like him.”
“Wow. I’mso sorry, Luc.” Hannah reached over and took my hand. She gave it a slight squeeze, then gently swiped her thumb over the back of my hand. “That has to be so unbelievably hard on all of you.”
“Oui.”
Silence filled the cab, broken only by the sound of the SUV’s turn signal clicking. I looked out the window next to me and wondered if I’d ever be able to escape the shadow of my family. They seemedto hover over every aspect of my life. Even when I was pretending to be someone else.
“I get it,” Hannah said softly.
I turned back and faced her, waiting for her to say more.
But she didn’t look up from her lap. She threaded her fingers with mine and stared at our hands as though they held the secrets of the world. “I…went through some stuff in high school—I don’t want to bother you with thedetails—but it changed my family. We were close before—don’t get me wrong—but after? It was like they were afraid to let me out of their sight. Like everything would be okay as long as they could see me, could touch me. They went the opposite way from your mom. So overprotective it felt suffocating.”
I nodded slowly, thinking through what she said.
“People handle grief in different ways.” Hannahgave me a sad smile. “Wow, we got kinda heavy there for a minute. And here I thought your evil plan was to get me into the backseat so you could have your wicked way with me. What happened to that?”
“Wait, are you questioning my…what do you Americans call it?” I gestured between us.
“Game?”
“Oui,you’re questioning my game?”
“Well, you talked a big talk yesterday at the bar. Military man.Stranger in town. Needed someone to show him the sights. All that flirty talk. And the way you danced? But then tonight…” She paused and shrugged.
I didn’t find her intimation that she’d found me lacking tonight to be a deterrent. The way she’d melted in my arms earlier and how she kissed me back at the museum, those were the actions of a woman who was into me. She was clearly leveling a challengeat my feet.
One that I was more than happy to accept.
I rested my arm on the top of the bench seat and leaned toward Hannah. “I had no idea you were so disappointed. Is there some way I can make this up to you?”
“Oh. No. It’s just—I was just—I didn’t mean…” Hannah flushed and shrugged helplessly, caught in her own trap.
I leaned closer still and cupped her jaw in my hand. With a soft nudge,I turned her head until she was forced to look at me. The interior of the vehicle was dim, but I could still make out how her eyes widened when I leaned toward her. And the darkness couldn’t hide the sound of her uneven breath as I slowly ran my thumb over her cheek. “It should be a crime for a woman such as yourself to ever be disappointed. You should never want for a thing,mon chou.”
“I just—”
“Sssshh. No, there is no excuse. It is my fault that I have disappointed you so.” I was close enough that I could feel her breath puffing against my lips.
Hannah’s eyes fluttered shut and her lips parted slightly.
“Hannah?” I whispered.
“Mmm-hmm?”
“Why have we stopped at a motorcycle shop?”
“Wh-what?”
