Page 55 of The Dare

Home is here, with me from now on.

Us.

Chapter Seventeen

Natasha

I’d rather die than have Michael see where I live, but he reminds me about my stuff which sets off an avalanche of thoughts in my mind.

All the ‘what ifs’ that I haven’t dwelled on so far start to bubble up, especially once we cruise past a half dozen turn-offs I know would lead us straight to my place.

My old place, I remind myself.

“I’m just a bit...” I trail off, reaching over for Michael’s hand.

“I know,” he replies, lifting my hand while keeping his eyes on the road and kissing my fingers.

“I am a bit too,” he confides, glancing at me in the rearview mirror and making a face that sees me smiling instantly.

“I could use a hot shower and a life-sized bed,” he exclaims, keeping hold of my hand as he pops his neck.

“How do you manage? Traveling like that I mean,” I ask.

“I don’t,” he says bluntly, but meeting my eyes with his once we slow to a halt behind some traffic, he doesn’t look like he minds as long as he’s with me.

“I think we can travel inanythingexcept a train from now on,” he says and I can’t help but feel a ripple of anxiety across my belly.

“Or planes,” I add quickly, making him shoot me an inquiring look with a raised brow.

“Or planes,” he agrees without even asking why, making me sigh with relief but also with admiration.

I love how Michael just accepts me, without trying to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do, think, or anything else.

He takes me as I am. Although I can see his mind working, trying to figure out the best way for us to get around.

Something tells me he doesn’t have plans for us to stay here for too long.

Even though we just go there, I sense that Michael has a dozen things on his mind, and most of them involve surprising and most likely spoiling me.

It’s not that I expect that, I can just tell that’s the kind of man he is. He knows what he wants, and goes after it. And when he has it, he treats it with the respect it deserves.

The ‘it’ in this case is me, which I know is gonna take some getting used to if my hunch about how full on Michael is turns out to be true.

“What exactly did you do back there for Suze?” I eventually ask, steering the conversation back to her because I really thought Michael didn’t like her.

Shrugging innocently again, Michael explains that all he did was give Patrick, the steward, a little nudge in the right direction.

“But how did you know he was interested in Suze? She never said anything to me,” I wonder aloud.

Michael chuckles. “You two weren’t exactly best buds for a while there… All I did was tell Patrick to speak up and tell her how he felt. He’d kinda noticed how we’d hit it off, but wasn’t sure how to approach his own feelings.”

“I thought train employees weren’t supposed to dothat sort of thing,” I protest with a little smile, feeling happy for Suze.

“They’re not,” Michael says, widening his eyes. “It seems Patrick quit his job just after Suzanna sharedherfeelings too, I think.”

He shakes his head a little and I start to wonder about Suze and her own semi-stranger of a boyfriend.

Alone in my mom’s house.