He pockets my car key. “Come on. I’ll drive youhome.”
Like me, Brady has a sensible car—although older and more beat up than mine. I climb into the passenger seat beside him, and I appreciate that the inside of the car is clean and that he doesn’t have to throw like twenty wrappers and empty Coke cans in the back so that I can sit.
“I like that your car isn’t covered in McDonald’s French fries,” I comment.
“Oh, it definitely would be if I left Ruby to her own devices.”
“I appreciate cleanliness.”
He winks at me. “It’s next to godliness, right?”
Despite everything, I smile at that old saying. I feel the same way. I like everything neat and clean.
Brady mounts his phone on the dashboard. “What’s your address?”
I hesitate.
He gives me a look. “Nora, I understand you want your privacy, but there’s no way I can get you home if I don’t know where you live. I swear, I will only use your address this one time, and I will never use it for evil. Okay?”
“Fine,” I grumble.
I recite my address and he punches it into the GPS on his phone. He gets on the road, and I appreciate that he doesn’t speed or do anything else that makes me feel like he’s taking our lives into his hands. Of course, if he’s used to driving with a kid in the car, I guess he knows how to take it easy.
I glance in the backseat, expecting to see a car seat or booster seat. But there’s nothing back there.
“Aren’t you supposed to have a booster seat for a little kid?” I ask him.
He grins at me. “Absolutely true. Ruby informed me last time she iswaytoo big for a car seat, and as usual, she was right—so I took it out yesterday. The booster seat is coming tomorrow. And I’m incredibly excited that I don’t have to break my back every time I strap her into it.”
I pick at a loose thread on the drawstring of my scrubs. “It’s kind of hard to imagine you being adad. I think in my head, you’re still twenty.”
“Sometimes inmyhead, I’m still twenty.” He turns right at a red light. “There are some days when Ruby asks for an extra cookie after she’s already had way too many, and I’m like, why the hell not? Cookies are great. Why do I have to be the cookie police?”
“So you give her the cookie?”
“Sometimes.” He holds a finger to his lips. “Don’t tell my ex. I’m trying to get joint custody, and I have a feeling it’s the kind of thing she would use against me.”
“How come you didn’t get it in the first place?” That part surprises me. Brady seems like he’d be a responsible parent.
“It’s…” He slows to a stop at a red light. “It’s a long story. I don’t want to bore you with it.”
I look out the passenger side window, trying to ignore the tight feeling in my chest. I don’t know who slashed my tires, but I have a distinct feeling that this was not a random event. They meant to slashmytires. And once the news hits who I really am, it’s only going to get worse.
I look over at Brady, and his brown eyes are pinned onthe road. He glances over at me for a moment and smiles. What’s he going to say when he finds out? I don’t foresee any more rides home in my future.
Well, who cares? I wanted to get rid of him.
As he makes the turn onto my street, I can see the flashing red and blue lights all the way down the block. My heart leaps into my throat. Is that my house?
Oh God, I forgot to call Detective Barber back. But even so, would he show up at my doorstep with the flashing lights?
“What’s going on up there?” Brady squints at the road. “Is that a police car by your house?”
I swallow. “Maybe you should just let me out here…”
Brady keeps driving as if he hadn’t heard me. “Do you think it’s about the slashed tires? But how would they know about that? You didn’t call the police, did you, Nora?”
“Just let me out here,” I say, louder this time.
