She stood with her back to the street and pushed the crosswalk button.
I dropped a few dollars into the red bucket in front of the bell-ringing Santa and laughed at her dance to the Christmas music pouring from the stores lining the street. The snow was coming down a little harder now. Flakes dropped onto the side of my hand before melting and rolling down over my skin.
A flash of headlights caught my attention.
Over her shoulder, a car rocketed out of a parking spot to make the still-green light and skidded. The sound sent my stomach plummeting—the sound of loss of control and the desperate wheel-turning to try to gain it back. Only it wasn’t possible, not with how quickly the road had become blanketed.
I bolted across the sidewalk, fear propelling me faster than I’d ever moved before.
Her eyes widened as I rushed toward her, and I jerked her away from the curb. Inside my head, the volume increased, drowning out every other sound and sight except for ones that signaled the direction for our escape.
Darting to my right, I pushed her against the painted metal of a bus shelter and locked my body around hers, bracing for impact.
A sickening screech and splintering of glass split the jovial night air. A bang rumbled the ground at my feet. Screams, a revving engine, and twisting metal roared in my ears along with the pounding of my heart and Sabrina’s sharp, panicked breaths. A shower of glass hit my back and tinkled, bouncing off the metal we were braced against.
But there was no pain, no breaks or bumps. I opened my eyes and stared into her wide, frightened ones.
Unlocking my muscles like they’d been cemented in place, I pulled myself away from her and looked over my shoulder.
Bystanders rushed to the driver of the car. The pole Sabrina had been standing in front of had been ripped from the concrete and lay on the ground a couple feet behind me.
Sabrina took in the scene at the same time I did, her fingers gripping my arms even tighter. “Are you okay?” Her hands searched my body and flicked at my hair. Pieces of glass fell to my shoulders.
I pulled a single cut cube of glass from her hair. “I’m okay.” My throat tightened, nearly choking me. “Are you okay?” My body was numb as if I had taken the hit and my nerves hadn’t registered the pain yet.
She nodded, swallowed, and sucked in a shaky breath. “A little freaked out, but I’m not hurt. You saved me.” Her gaze darted from the wreckage where the driver was walking and talking and being tended to.
“Let’s go back home.” I grabbed her hand, just wanting to get us back between our four walls where I could calm down and stop feeling the crazy whirling vortex in my mind threatening to drag me under.
She swallowed again and held onto me, not letting me walk back toward the apartment. “No, we’re both okay. Let’s go to dinner. I could use a glass of wine after that.”
“We have wine back in the apartment.”
“No, let’s—I don’t want this to ruin our night.”
“You could’ve died.” My voice boomed in the post-accident commotion.
Heads turned in our direction, but I wasn’t focused on them, I was focused on her like my life depended on keeping my gaze locked onto her.
She held onto my arm, stopping my attempt to drag her back to the apartment and wrap her in bubble wrap. “But I’m perfectly fine. You grabbed me and the pole stopped the car.”
It had all flashed in front of my eyes. All the time we’d had together and what it could stretch into in the future, right along with an end that would destroy my world. “How are you being so casual about this?”
All the planning I’d been doing without a thought of where this could go, of what this would mean to me and how easily my world could be shattered all over again with a random diagnosis, car accident—hell, anything. My lungs must have been working at a quarter capacity, based on how hard it was to drag air into them.
“I’m not being casual. Sitting in the apartment isn’t going to help keep your mind off this.”
“You were the one who wanted to go back a few minutes ago.”
“And now I want to go to dinner.” Her facade of pretending she wanted to go back home was dropped now that I was finally on her side.
The insistence didn’t make any sense—she could’ve been killed. Was she in shock? Did I need to call Dr. Sean to check her over? Panic flooded my limbs.
“From the way you’re looking at me, it might be my last chance to ever leave the apartment again.”
At least her quips were back. The ground swell of unease ebbed away a little. “Are my feelings that transparent?”
She slipped her glove off and locked our fingers together. “Let’s not let what happened ruin our night. Can you do that for me?” Maybe she needed the distraction of other people and a good meal to keep her mind off what had almost happened. If it was what she needed, then as much as I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and carry her back to the apartment, I’d deal.
I tucked more of her hair into her hat with my other hand, which shook. “I can try.”
“It’s all I ask.” She lifted my arm over her head and draped it over her shoulder, holding on tight like she still didn’t trust me to throw her into a taxi and go back to the building.
And a reason for that insistence sat right inside the entrance to Parc.
Ryder stood from the padded benches in the vestibule in front of the hostess station, smoothing out his tie and standing up like he was showing up for a job interview—nervous but still wearing a smile. I had a feeling he wasn’t here for an interview.
Thunderbolts felt like they were raining down around me. I was trapped. I’d been trapped, and the spring had been sprung.
I shot a look to Sabrina, who evaded my eyes. “What a crazy coincidence.”
The insistence on coming and not putting up nearly the fight she normally did on date night made so much more sense now. My adrenaline was still running high, speeding through my veins.
She’d lied to me, hadn’t said a word, knowing how I’d feel about this—and after I’d spoken to him after Thanksgiving just like I promised I would. Now, after asking her to let me do this my way, she went behind my back and invited him out on our date night.
My anger simmered, primed for flaring.
“Hey, Sabrina. Hey, Hunter.” Ryder waved to us both like Christmas had come early.
She pulled my arm down from her shoulder and held onto my hand and with the other arm, hugged Ryder. “It’s almost Christmas, and I thought it would be nice for us all to eat together.”
Pulling her closer, I spoke into her ear, trying to keep the fire of my fury out of my voice. “I thought you agreed to let me handle this my way.”
She tipped her chin. “Your way seemed to be not handling it at all. Let’s head inside.”
Ryder held out his hand, but I ignored it, instead kept my gaze on her retreating figure.
The feelings I’d had outside were morphing and melding into new feelings of betrayal by the time we handed off our coats and were seated at our table. She’d overstepped.
Sabrina and Ryder were chatting like old friends, and at this point, she seemed to know him better than I did, which was entirely intentional.
The two of them talked across the table with me on my end where an ominous cloud of dread felt like it was rolling in from the horizon. Everything felt out of control, like the car on black ice on a winter’s evening. Somehow, the night had turned from a routine night out with Sabrina to one where the weight of everything I’d been holding at bay for the past five months was coming to a head.