I moved over more, and I could feel the heat from Cole’s skin, but there was still an inch between us.
At least until Brady scooted against me, pressing me up against his cousin while he wrestled the door shut. “There we go.”
I felt like the filling in a sandwich cookie. My arms were against their arms. My thighs against their thighs. And my feet—well, they had no room with Brady’s scuffed tennis shoes filling the space.
“Where are my feet supposed to go?” One was on top of the other in an uncomfortable way.
Brady grinned and patted his lap. “I’d be glad to hold them for you.”
Yeah, that wasn’t happening. I wiggled around, trying to get more comfortable, and was very aware of the hard, muscled bodies on either side of me. Then I yelped as I felt a hand on my thigh. Brady buckled his seatbelt, and then rooted around in the space between us.
“Hey!”
He grinned and tugged out a seatbelt buckle. “Just trying to help you stay safe.”
“Want me to help you find the other side?” Cole asked in his low voice.
“I can get it myself.” I could—but I had to lean hard against Brady to fish out the other side of the belt.
Cole took advantage of the space I made between us to fasten his own seatbelt.
Once I was buckled in, I felt like I was in a straitjacket. I couldn’t lean more than an inch or two in either direction, not that I wanted to. I sat as straight as possible, trying to touch the two men as little as possible.
“Would you be more comfortable in the back with your luggage?” Brady asked innocently, but I could hear amusement in his voice.
“I just might be.”
“It’s not safe,” Cole said unnecessarily. It wasn’t like I could get out of the truck without one of them moving anyway. “By the time we’d got there, you’d be covered in bruises.”
My heart sank—likely it would be my luggage that would be disfigured after the drive. “How far is it to the inn?” On the online map, the Elburn station and Donovan’s Mill weren’t that far apart. But the map had also shown the roads getting smaller and smaller.
“About forty minutes.”
Incensed, I turned to Brady. “You said it was a short trip.” It was disconcerting to have his face so close to mine.
“Thatisa short trip around here,” he said mildly.
I eyed the small restaurants and shops on either side of the main road we were traveling down and already felt homesick. “How long would it take to drive to Chicago from your place?”
“Just under two hours if there wasn’t much traffic,” Brady said.
“Which would never happen,” Cole added.
I got the feeling Cole and Brady were the type who might finish each other’s sentences. They acted like brothers, maybe even twins, but I knew from my research that their fathers were brothers. They’d jointly inherited the old farmhouse their grandparents had owned and had opened it as an inn a few years ago.
I’d found out other things, too. According to their dates of graduation at the ancient Donovan’s Mill High School, Brady was twenty-eight, three years older than me. And Cole was a year older than him. I’d also found out that they both played football and baseball for their small school. That part didn’t surprise me—they were both in good shape now and must work out.
I hadn’t found out much about their buddy Gideon—nor had I wanted to. That guy rubbed me the wrong way. But then my mind returned to the small room where I’d seen him. Okay, so, he didn’t literally rub me the wrong way. That massage, though a really nasty trick, had been incredible. But even if you discounted that, something about him bothered me.
“When’s your friend driving out?” Brady said conversationally.
“Tonight. And she’s my assistant.” I don’t know why I said that. Penny was also a friend. But these two already had the advantage over me with that trick they’d played, and I didn’t want to give up any ground. “You have a room for her, right?”
“Of course,” Cole said. “We told you that.”
“Sorry,” I said, my voice deliberately casual. “This is my first time being kidnapped, so I’m a bit unfamiliar with the protocol.”
Brady gave a snort that turned into a laugh. “Kidnapped. A little dramatic, don’t you think?”