Page 65 of Run
Fonz scoffs. “Please, you have not beenin the dark. You both”—he points between the two of us with his fork—“have been acting like idiots. I was just trying to toe the line.” He puts three pancakes on his plate and cuts into them like a civilized human.
“Fine,” Ethan concedes as he goes for what could very well be his fifth pancake—I’ve lost count—then grabs the last one left and flops it on my plate.
“Enough!” I shout, giving the guys a startle. “Enough dredging up the past. Let’s just have some fun.” I throw my arms up and start to move on my stool to a Miranda Lambert song that starts playing over the Bluetooth speaker.
“Heck yeah!” Ethan pulls his phone out and ups the volume.
“Awe shit, our girl is back.” Fonz singsongs, coming around the island, bending down and hoisting me over his shoulder like a rag doll.
“Hey!” I squeal through laughter.
Fonz turns a few times, then slides me down the front of him and I find myself plastered between him and Ethan as the three of us sing along to the lyrics, grinding and swaying to the music.
And just like that, I’m home.
ETHAN
This is so surreal. I can’t stop stealing glances at Ari just to makesure she’s really here. We’re in the Jeep as I drive her home. Well, to the Millers’ house.Does she call it home?
We had a little tiffgetting into the Jeep. It’s a much bigger step to get up into it, and I wanted to just pick her up and put her in the damn seat, but she fought me. When I mumbled under my breath something about her being stubborn and not accepting help, she fired back that she’s not an invalid. Our fate was sealed when she pulled the visor mirror down, shrieked, then yelled at me for not pointing out that her hair “looks like a rat’s nest on fire”—her words, not mine. It looks goddamn adorable, but she apparently doesn’t like walking around with bedhead.
The GPS notifies me we have arrived at our destination, and I pull into the driveway of a beautiful raised ranch home with a formal walkway up the front and a detached two-story garage. The yard is lush and green. “Nice digs.”
“Yeah,” she says as she unbuckles her seat belt. “I do really like it here. I just feel bad Sophie also had to move back after everything.”
“Could she not afford rent on her own?”
“Umm …” Ari chews her lip as she looks out the window. “That and, well, she couldn’t stay at the apartment we had any longer since Axel used to stop by and raise hell.”
Before I can ask what that means, a side door on the garage building swings open and a round young woman comes barreling out, headed straight for us. She’s wearing a pair of black leggings that stop midway down her thick calves and a snug V-neck T-shirt with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it, which shows off her rolls and ample breasts.
Ari giggles as she opens her door. “Soph—” she starts but is interrupted.
“You have got a lot of explaining to do,” the young woman says as she approaches, pushing her black-rimmed glasses up her nose. “You stay out all night and just roll back here the nextmorning like it’s no big deal. I get no phone call, no text telling me you haven’t been abducted by a serial killer. And don’t think I don’t know these are the clothes you wore out last night.”
As if routine, the young woman reaches her arms out and Ari grabs them as she slides out of the Jeep. “Soph, you’re the one who set me up with Ethan. You know I wasn’t out with a serial killer.”
“I’ve never met Ethan! He could be a serial killer.” She leans past Ari to look at me in the Jeep. “No offense,” she says with a wave.
I grin at her, unbuckling my seat belt. “None taken.” I open my door and climb out, making my way around the vehicle. “I’m glad Ari has such a good friend.”
“Yeah, well,” the young woman says as she places her hands on her hips and blows a lock of dark hair out of her eyes, “she’s a pain in my ass.”
“Oh good, then it’s not just me.” I lean against the side of the Jeep.
Ari laughs out loud at our exchange. “Sophie, this is my oldest friend, Ethan. And Ethan, this is my best friend, Sophie.”
I take the young woman’s hand in mine. “It’s very nice to meet you, Sophie.”
She smiles and gives me a once over, then turns to Ari. “So, it turns out I don’t have to work today. I was headed over to see Meg and Lars. You heading inside?”
“Yeah, I want to say good morning. Then I have to plug in for a bit.” She turns to me. “I, uh, guess I’ll let you get going.”
I nod and push away from the Jeep. “Yeah, sure. I have to go into work a little later, so I’m gonna get a workout in and whatnot.”
“I thought you work out in the evening.”
I smile sheepishly. “I do. Sometimes I get in two workouts.” Sophie makes a noise in the back of her throat, and Ari just stares at me like I have two heads.
