I rested my head against the seat and closed my eyes. Maybe when I opened them, we would be home. I was dying to see Mom and Dad and my older brothers. I also couldn’t wait to see my horse, Apple, and take her out. One of the things that sucked most about college was that I couldn’t ride her whenever I wanted to.
“Quinn,” Maiken said softly. “No one will ever break us apart.”
I opened my peepers. “I know.” Deep down, I did believe that.
“I think we should pull over,” Ariel said, “so you two can fuck like bunnies and get that tension right out of both of you.”
I busted out laughing. I should’ve known she was listening.
Maiken choked.
“What?” Ariel lifted her hands in the air. “Yes, I’m eavesdropping. I’m nosy. So shoot me.”
Ariel was as direct as they came. She might have been a klutz who misplaced her stuff more times than I cared to count, but I loved her for all her flaws.
“Quinn and I will get more than enough chances to fuck like bunnies,” Maiken announced proudly. “And I’ll show her that she has nothing to worry about when it comes to other women.”
“Are you proposing?” Ariel asked.
My jaw came unhinged as I shot Ariel a wide-eyed look.
Maiken shrugged. “Maybe.”
“What the…” My throat was suddenly in need of ice-cold water.
Chapter Three
Maiken
Wherever in the loving fuck did Ariel get that idea? Not that proposing to Quinn was farfetched or out of the question. I loved her more than I could articulate at times. I saw a future with her and a house full of kids, much like the big family I had.
However, we’d just started college, and I wasn’t ready to get down on one knee. Quinn and I had too much to do before we began to build a family. I wasn’t even sure if she would say yes, at least given how pale and seemingly ready to hyperventilate she was.
Ariel stuck her hand through the seats and touched Quinn’s shoulder. “I was kidding. Breathe.”
I cracked the window, needing air myself. The word maybe had flown out like a fast-moving train out of control. Still, I wasn’t about to backtrack, but I couldn’t figure how to get out of it without causing more anxiety.
Quinn rounded her gaze to me. “Are y-you a-about to propose?”
Suddenly, I was transported back to the snowy November over three years before, when I’d met the beautiful and shy Quinn Thompson, who had a habit of stuttering when she was super nervous.
I swallowed the Mount Everest-sized lump in my throat. “Can we talk about this later? Like when we’re alone? No offense, Ariel.” Now, I was the one avoiding.
Quinn might tell her roomie everything, but I wasn’t about to. The topic of marriage was private and only between Quinn and me.
“None taken, dude,” Ariel said with giddiness in her voice.
The girl was enjoying watching Quinn and me sweat way too much.
I focused on the road, my thoughts all over the damn place. I pumped the brakes as traffic began to slow on the highway. On a sunny day, we would probably have been home already and not in that suffocating truck cab. But given the blizzard conditions, I doubted we would be home anytime soon.
“So.” Ariel’s high-pitched tone grated on my nerves. “Let’s play a game.”
I glared daggers at her through the rearview mirror. The girl was usually as sweet as they came, but just then, she was far from it.
Quinn let out a very loud sigh. “Sure, why not? I need something to distract me.”
Whatever game Ariel had in mind was going to be bad. I could feel it in my bones. According to Quinn, Ariel enjoyed playing truth or dare. Not me.
Ariel clapped like my youngest sister, Maple, did when she got her way.
I rolled my eyes.
“Okay, a little backstory,” Ariel began. “It’s not really a game but a tradition that my family used to do every year when my parents were married. Two months before Christmas, we would sit down and tell each other three things we wanted.” She stuck her head through the opening between the seats. “So are you both in?” She sounded too excited, which gave me the feeling that there was more to the tradition than she was letting on.
“I’m in,” Quinn said, giving me the stink eye. “I already know what I want.”
Does she mean she would say yes if I proposed? Her snippy tone meant I wasn’t one hundred percent sure she would. Part of me was getting the vibe that she wanted to chop off my head.
Note to self: don’t turn down sex with my girl even if a national weather disaster is bearing down on the city.
I shrugged. “I’ll bite.” I needed something to take my mind off of things. I wasn’t sure how we’d gone from kissing outside her dorm to a potential marriage proposal.
Ariel squealed. “Yay. There are some conditions before we start.”
Quinn narrowed her eyes into slits at Ariel. “Oh?”
Ariel sat back. “Don’t worry. It’s all in fun.”
I doubted that. The look on Ariel’s face was smug, as if she’d just caught Quinn and me in a trap.
“Out of your three things,” Ariel began, “one of them has to be a wish, the other a promise, and the last one is something you want. Keep in mind that a wish is usually out of your control, where a want isn’t. And one last thing. The promise has to be something you won’t do again. A confession of sorts to right a wrong.”
I could feel my eyebrows drawing down. I was beginning to get the feeling that Ariel was playing relationship counselor for Quinn and me.
“Any questions?” Ariel asked.
Quinn chewed on her bottom lip. “I’m not sure I like this tradition.”
At least she and I agreed on something that day.
Ariel giggled. “I didn’t at first either. I always thought my mom and dad were trying to get me to confess all my sins, especially when I hit high school. Anyway, this might sound weird, but I always walked away feeling a sense of relief, and I had a wish or two come true.”
“What did you wish for?” Quinn asked.
“One of my wishes was to get into Boston College,” she said. “BC had been my number one pick since I was eight.”
“Doesn’t that fall into the want column?” I asked.
She shook her red head of hair. “Of course not. I couldn’t control the outcome of the college’s decision.”
I’d wished for a ton of things over the years. One in particular would never ever happen—I wished my dad was still alive. I stared out the windshield as we inched forward little by little. Christmas had always been Dad’s favorite. He’d loved seeing his kids tearing into presents on Christmas morning.
“You can start with any of the three. Then when you’re done with your first, let someone else go,” Ariel said. “That way, you have time to think before you answer again.”
Quinn rubbed my arm. “You okay?” Her tone was soft and sweet, as though she knew that I was reminiscing about my dad.
I bobbed my head. “I’m cool.”
“I’ll go first,” Quinn said. “I wish for Maiken to get an NBA contract.”
I jerked my head at her. “Really?” Not that I was surprised. Quinn always wanted good things for her family and those she loved. Still, I thought she would have wished for her dad to not have another heart attack—he’d had one about a year back.