Still the One Read online

  “Because I hold the Gummy Bears. Which means I’ve got you right where I want you.”

  She studied him for a long beat. Then sent him a smile that made him nervous as hell before leaving the truck. Her limp was definitely pronounced but not nearly as bad as it had been earlier.

  Her phone sat in the cup holder, buzzing with incoming texts like it was having a seizure. He picked the thing up to set one of his Gatorades in there and, shit. Yeah. He glanced at the screen.

  Xander.

  She was sexting with Xander.

  The passenger door opened and Darcy went brows up at the sight of him holding her phone. “Learn anything?” she asked, struggling to get up into the cab of the truck.

  AJ had his hand on the door handle to get out and go around to help her when she bared her teeth at him.

  “Don’t you dare,” she said. A painfully long minute later, she finally relaxed into the seat, damp with perspiration and breathing heavily. “Not one word from the peanut gallery,” she panted.

  He just handed her the Gummy Bears.

  “Didn’t eat any, did you?” she asked.

  “Never fear, your bag of citric acid, dyes, and sugars is intact.”

  “Okay then.” Surprising him, she turned the radio back to hip-hop.

  He didn’t question the good fortune. He just hoped it lasted.

  It did, but only because she fell asleep. It had taken her a while to get comfortable though. She’d tossed and turned and tossed some more. Eventually she laid her head on the console between the two front seats and shifted around miserably.

  Reaching behind them, he pulled out a pillow he’d packed for her. “Lift up,” he said.

  She settled onto the pillow with a sigh and was gone in what appeared to be three seconds. Like completely out cold, limp, unmoving, breathing heavily and deeply.

  Knowing how rare it was for her to get into a good sleep, he sighed a breath of relief for her. And because the sun had come out and was in her face, he lowered her visor.

  Her face was relaxed and she looked … Damn. With her smart-ass mouth closed, she actually had a sort of girl-next-door innocence thing going, looking younger. And sweet.

  Pain free.

  Her arm slipped off the console. AJ carefully replaced it, and though she twitched, she didn’t awaken.

  With her arms bared by her tank top, he could see a few of the scars on her exposed right shoulder and biceps where she’d been cut by the windshield on the night of the accident. They were fading and he was grateful for that. Not because they took away in the slightest from her natural beauty, but because he knew exactly what scars could do to a person, how the daily sight of them could make getting over what had happened to her even more difficult.

  She shifted in her sleep, stretching one of her legs up on the dash. She’d long ago kicked off her boots and socks. Her toenails were painted sky blue alternating with bright pink. Her right foot was still badly scarred. It had a plate in it and had required a skin graft over the top.

  She was lucky she hadn’t lost it.

  In her sleep, she sighed. A sweet, endearing sound that softened him when he didn’t want to be softened. Didn’t want to think of her as anything other than the woman who drove him nuts. Didn’t want to entertain that they could have something more.

  There were a lot of reasons for that, the biggest one being that he’d already been in love with a woman who’d been through a terrible tragedy, and she’d dumped him because she couldn’t believe herself lovable after.

  He knew reckless Darcy wasn’t too far off the same mark as Kayla, and he didn’t plan to go there with another woman ever again.

  “You’re thinking too loud,” Darcy murmured sleepily. She sat up and blinked at him, her eyes heavy-lidded. “You’re regretting bringing me.” She rubbed her eyes. “Buyer’s remorse, right? Don’t worry, it happens all the time.”

  His gut took a hit, as did his heart. If he could, he’d have cheerily strangled her parents for putting her default setting at defensive and always braced for rejection.

  How hard could it have possibly been to give her even a little bit of genuine love and attention, much less affection? Instead they’d treated her as an afterthought, proving to her time and time again that she was worth zip to them.

  “I don’t do regrets,” he said.

  She thought about that for a minute. “You’re not even a little bit worried about tonight?” she asked. “Or don’t you do worry either?”

  “Oh, I worry,” he said.

  “About?”

  You, he nearly said. Your pain, your recovery, your happiness, and why you still feel the need to carry around pain meds like a security blanket. “Plenty.”

  “Such as … me behaving tonight?”

  He didn’t answer on grounds that it might incriminate him.

  She shook her head. “You really think I’d screw you over tonight. Good to know where you’re at, AJ. Thanks for the trust.”

  “Darcy—”

  “Oh no,” she said, her face to the window on her side, watching Idaho go by. “Don’t try to be nice now, you’ll ruin my mood. Just tell me flat-out what you need from me, okay? Tell me right now and then do me a favor and don’t talk to me again until we get there.”

  “I need you to be available, receptive to questions, and …”

  She turned her head and eyed him. “And?”

  “Charming wouldn’t hurt.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t think I can do charming?”

  Honestly? He had his doubts.

  She blew out a breath. “Whatever. So is that it, then? Be available, receptive to questions, and charming?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fine.” She turned forward, expression resolute. “I’ll keep my part of the bargain. You just make sure you keep yours.”

  “Darcy—”

  She pointed at him. “No talking.”

  Nine

  When they finally arrived at the hotel that afternoon, Darcy slid out of the truck before AJ even shut off the engine.

  “Wait,” he called out to her. “It’s raining again—”

  Darcy couldn’t wait. Nope, she needed to escape the tight confines of the truck where she’d been hyperalert to his every movement for the past six hours. Actually, seven, because they’d been blocked by a five-car pileup and had sat on the highway for an hour.

  A very long, silent hour.

  She’d spent the time soaking up the way AJ’s hands took the wheel, how his broad shoulders remained relaxed under any circumstances, even when he’d been cut off by some lady who was older than dirt. Twice.

  And then there was his scent. Logically she knew it was his soap or deodorant or whatever and not really his skin, but damn.

  It should be effing illegal for a guy to smell that delicious. It was distracting, for one thing. And for another, it just wasn’t fair. A woman was programmed to go all soft and melty when a guy smelled that good. And this was the last guy on the planet that she’d ever want to be soft and melty for.

  He thought she was a pain in his ass. And a possible druggie. Both were insulting, but only one actually hurt. She’d worked so hard, done everything he’d asked of her, followed his exercise regime, his eating plan, everything. Okay, maybe not the eating plan, not entirely. But he’d been a big part of helping her wean herself off the pain meds in the first place. In fact, he hadn’t wanted her to do it as soon as she had.

  His way had been smarter, of course, and more logical. But she’d needed a clear head. And that he could actually think she’d gotten hooked and was hiding it …

  Yeah, he’d opened a big can of ’tude with that one. Mostly because she was still in pain and not sleeping at all, and she’d give her good leg to take some Oxycontin,.

  So yeah. Her feelings were completely hurt, which surprised the hell out of her since she’d long ago realized she felt things at a different level than other people.

  Which was to say less. She felt