Page 11 of All That History
It was not the time for sarcasm, I knew, however tempting.“Yeah.What happened?”
He had to shout, almost, to be heard over the rain.Thunder echoed in the distance, a flicker of lightning outlining his car and revealing Flynn’s hair plastered down to his head.“Car just died.All the electrics.Just...stopped.”
A flat tire, or a jump start, I could’ve handled.The full, arcane electrical system of a modern SUV was thoroughly beyond me.
“Bring your keys and get in,” I shouted back.“We’ll just leave it here, until it can be towed back.”
Flynn’s frown was just about visible.“Are you sure it’s safe?”
I made no hiding of my glare, hoping for a convenient bolt of lightning to make entirely certain the expression would register.“If you can’t drive it, how’s someone gonna steal it?”
He grimaced, but at least got out.Slamming the door behind him, and then running around the front of the truck.Momentarily lit up in the headlamps, until he was at the passenger door and pulling himself in.
Bedraggled didn’t even begin to cover it.
It was mostly the same outfit I’d seen him in at the store.White t-shirt and gray sweatpants, with a dark blue hoodie.Only they’d been dry, then, and now they - just like Flynn’s hair - were soaked through.Clinging to him in ways that you just knew had to be unpleasant.
“Why are you grinning?”He didn’t sound amused.
I shrugged.“You got kinda wet, from just running over.”
Flynn sighed, leaning back against the head-rest.“I thought I might be able to see something wrong, under the hood.”
It was an idea as admirable as it was stupid, I thought.“Did you?”
He glanced at me, out of the corner of his eye.Clearly I’d not done a great job of hiding my skepticism.
“It was dark and I didn’t have a fucking clue what I was looking for, so no, Oli.Turns out I’m not a fucking mechanic, okay?”
I held up my hands, placatory.“Sorry, sorry.Just wondered.”
Another sigh, though this time it shifted into a full-body shiver.
I reached for the heater, cranking up the thermostat and the blower.It was my turn to feel ill-prepared.
“Uh, I didn’t think to bring any towels,” I admitted.
Flynn’s shrug looked resigned.“It’s fine.”
Considering he was shivering more, as he said that, I wasn’t inclined to agree.
“It’s gonna take us getting on for two hours to get back, in this weather,” I pointed out.“You’ll end up with pneumonia.”
He wiped a hand across his wet face.“I wouldn’t have thought you’d be much bothered by that.”
At the right time, in the right place, that would’ve been the perfect excuse for an argument.It was neither of those things, so I bit my tongue.
“Your mom is gonna kill me if I return her darling son with a chest infection.”
He looked over.“So, your suggestion is...”
That was a good question.I hadn’t really thought that far.
“Look, you’ll just have to take off the wet clothes, okay?The heater gets pretty warm in here.”
Flynn may have been shivering and looked like a drowned rat, but he still managed a smirk.“If you wanted to get me out of my clothes, Oli, you just had to ask.”
I rolled my eyes, as I put the truck in gear.“You wanna wait in your expensive paperweight for triple-A?”
