Mess Me Up
Page 32

“We got an anonymous call that there was an erratic driver in a vehicle with a similar description as this one.” Wade paused, eyes glancing over at the woman on the opposite side of me. “You weren’t driving erratically, were you?”
Izzy’s eyes were big on her face as she stared wide-eyed at Wade.
She blinked at him in confusion. “I haven’t even gone over forty yet!”
As if there were some magic number that meant she couldn’t possibly have been driving erratically since she hadn’t gone over that speed.
This girl.
Wade started to laugh.
“You do have a taillight out, though,” Wade pointed out.
“Bullshit,” I said. “This is a brand-new truck.”
He gestured to the back. “Come and see. There’s a crack in the tail light, too.”
We all climbed out of the truck and went to the back, Izzy stopping closest to the side of the road as all three of us crowded around the cracked tail light.
“It looks like someone took a bat to it,” Wade said, looking down at Izzy. “You didn’t do that did you, Izzy?”
She flipped him off.
Grinning, I gave Wade a look. “Don’t tease my girl. She’s scared. This is her first official pull over while driving, and you damn well know the only reason you did it was because it’s her.”
“You didn’t.” She turned accusing eyes on Wade. “You wouldn’t do that, would you Wade?”
Wade’s eyes were full of mischief. “Being a cop is so much fun.”
“Being a cop is not so much fun!” Izzy stomped her foot in anger. “Cops are dumb!”
My lips twitched. “Your brother’s not dumb.”
Izzy paused. “My brother did dumb stuff like this to me all the time, too. One time he came up behind me while I was running and did that loud siren thing right on my ass. I didn’t hear him pull up because I had my headphones in. Scared eight years off my life, and I fell down. That’s how I got this scar.” She held up her wrist and showed us both. “So, he’s included in that blanket statement.”
Her stubbornness and anger combined to make me want to wrap her up in my arms and fuck the attitude right out of her.
But, before I could think much more on the subject at hand, a loud whooshing growl had me reacting before I could think.
Seconds later, both Wade and I had taken Izzy down to the ground as a black truck passed by so fast and close that the vehicle nearly took Izzy out.
Hearts pounding, I stared down at Izzy who was wincing.
“Owwww,” she cried. “Did both of y’all have to do it?”
Wade got up and reached for the mic at his shoulder, calling in the truck’s description in case someone happened to be in the area.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean to almost kill me.” Izzy sat up with her hand on her head. She had little asphalt pieces stuck to her skin where we’d both pressed her down, but luckily none of them had actually torn her skin. “Jesus Christ, y’all are fast. I kind of always wondered what it’d feel like to be taken down by you, Rome.”
I hadn’t.
I never wanted to experience that again.
My heart was in my goddamn throat, and I was finding it hard to breathe.
“Jesus,” I growled.
“It’s against the law to ride that close to a police officer’s vehicle when it is pulled over on the side of the road for a traffic stop,” Wade explained. “Either you change lanes or you slow down fifteen miles per hour below the posted speed limit. Fucker broke the law.”
Wade’s grumbled words had Izzy smiling. “You kind of like me, don’t you, Wade?”
Wade rolled his eyes. “Only because you make my brother happy, honey. Don’t allow your head to get too big now.”
Izzy giggled. “Let’s go eat. I’m starved. I need caffeine to make my head feel better. And a cookie. Possibly a slice of cake, too.”
Wade and I both snorted.
“I’m down,” Wade said. “It’s my lunch break anyhow.”
And that was how we ended up back on the road, but this time we were traveling at a much faster rate of speed than the road we’d been on when Wade pulled us over because the posted speed on this road was sixty miles per hour.
“There.” I pointed. “Let’s go there.”
I gestured to a restaurant across the street, and she looked at it with dismay. “I’ll never be able to pull out in that traffic. They’re going sixty-five, Rome!”
I chuckled.
“Pull in there, and we’ll grab something to eat,” I suggested. “When we’re done, I’ll drive home if you’re not comfortable pulling out into fast-moving traffic like this.”
She sighed and put on her turn signal, then eased over into the turn lane.
“The key to this is to go fast enough to get you into the parking lot without anyone hitting you, but also with enough control that you don’t ram into the building,” I teased.
She flipped me off, but I could tell that she was nervous.
She didn’t like traffic, especially when it was moving at a higher rate of speed, but it was also something she’d have to learn to get used to.
“The driver at the DMV will take you out on the interstate.” I paused. “And the speed limit there is seventy-five. You’re going to have to get used to this, honey.”
She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Maybe. But it won’t be where I drive every day.”
That was true.
“There’s an opening coming up, get ready to go. Ease your foot off the brake…good. Ready…go!” I ordered.
Zero hesitation, and the perfect amount of speed on her end.
“Perfect!” I said as she pulled across traffic. “Now, back into that spot.”
She looked at the spot warily and then did as she was instructed. It only took her three tries to get it in there perfectly.
“See!” I squeezed her still shaking hands. “You’re a natural!”
Before I could so much as prepare myself for her, she launched herself over the center console and started peppering my face with kisses.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She pronounced each statement with a kiss. “God, I love you.”
Chapter 19
The most dangerous drinking game is seeing how long I can go without coffee.
-Coffee Cup
Izzy
Slate’s comment from our previous visit stuck with me throughout the following weeks.
The last time you freaked out over nothing, you were pregnant.
Every time I overreacted about something—like yesterday when someone asked me if I was pregnant when I really just had a few extra pounds in my tummy area—I went back to that statement.
It wasn’t until a few weeks had passed that I realized that I might actually be pregnant.
At first, it started out with my clothes not fitting as well as they once had before I had started spending so much time with Rome and not walking as much.
Then it started out with me not being able to run more than a mile before I felt like I was going to die—something that I’d been able to do since before I could remember.
Then, it was the way my brother looked at me after having not seen me from the week before. He didn’t flat out say anything, but I could tell he wanted to.
His eyes had dropped to my stomach, and he’d stared so long that I’d gotten uncomfortable.
It wasn’t until he told me to go to the doctor that I figured…what could it hurt?
And now, as I exited my doctor’s office parking lot, I wondered what I was going to do.
Rome made it no secret that he didn’t want any more kids.
I was scared out of my mind.
There were two things in this world I knew that I couldn’t live without.
Air in my lungs, and Rome.
And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was a very good possibility that, by telling him my news, he’d break free and run.
Knew it with every fiber of my being.
Yet, I couldn’t keep it from him any longer…I’d already managed to delude myself for weeks.
He deserved to know, and I was getting to the point where I’d start showing any day now—possibly was showing if my brother could see it after only a week and a half of not seeing me.