But mom’s too busy huffing her own cases to the truck to really be worried about me.
She does return my icy look once it’s clear Mack’s not helping her with her cases though.
His hands are filled with mine, and he opens the passenger side up front for me, and I scoot in without hesitation.
Already feeling so familiar with Mack that it should be weird. But it feels like I’ve known him forever somehow, even though we’ve only just met.
“I’ll sit in the back, shall I?” my mom chimes without trying to hide her sarcasm.
Mack chuckles as he settles himself in front after stowing my bags. “Sorry, Rose. I was going to get your bags, but you beat me to it,” he says cheerfully. Giving a little shrug when she ignores him and pretends to look out the window.
“We really do need to get moving, though. It’s almost dark, and with this fog…,” he says, but mom’s already sulking.
Both of us are feeling the strain of a long day, and her not being able to boss a guy like Mack around is probably annoying her more than anything.
“We’ll take the short cut through the National Park,” Mack informs us, sounding like a complete professional now. His mind suddenly focused on his job.
“Be about twenty minutes, and you can put your feet up.”
But despite his almost business-like mode, I notice his eyes shifting over to mine plenty in the little while it takes me to get up the courage to actually speak.
Mom’s busy on her phone, and it’s clear she has no interest in Mack other than having him drive us to the ranch.
All the more for me.
“So…what’s Mack short for?” I ask, trying to make conversation.
“Don’t be rude, Tina,” Mom drones from the back seat, not even looking up from her scrolling.
“I’m not being rude,” I hear myself snap back at her, sounding a lot like the kid she’s been treating me like all day.
“I was just asking if Mack was short for anything,” I add, trying to smile it away when Mack’s eyes lock onto mine. But now I just feel stupid.
Maybe this is just stupid, and all I need is something to eat and a hot bath.
Maybe I should just stop trying so hard. I mean, seriously?
The guy wouldn’t be caught dead with me.
Maybe I could just sleep the whole weekend?
“It’s just Mack,” he finally says in his deep voice, ignoring my mom and instantly setting my mind at ease somehow.
It’s as if nothing I could say or ask would be stupid.
But then again, we have only just arrived here. And I have a bad habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time.
“Why don’t you just let the man drive, Tina?” Mom clips.
But Mack doesn’t seem to mind my question at all, and he gives me a knowing look before he rolls his eyes when my mom says her piece.
I cover my laughter with my hand over my mouth. Mack already making me feel like we have a lot in common. And as much as I love my mom, she does kind of drive me nuts after a full day together.
Realizing how much I have to crane my neck up to even look at him properly, it dawns on me just how big he really is.
He’s an attractive man, sure. But sitting next to him, I feel so small. So…plain.
Petite almost, by comparison, though.
The thought makes me smile.
There are not many people I could sidle up to and feel tiny.
His truck’s huge, but I’m feeling like a rag doll trying to stay in my seat as we move deeper into the woods by a dirt road.
All while his thick, silver-flecked hair is pushing against the roof.
His huge hands gripping the wheel and his massive forearms flexing as he steers us safely home.
His chiseled jaw is set in a way that matches the light in his eyes.
Did it just get like twenty degrees hotter in here?
Seeing a man like Mack up close, even brushing his hand is one thing.
But seeing him so casually dismissive of my mom has to be the biggest fucking turn on of all.
The silhouettes of the forest trees blur into darkness suddenly.
As if the black, inky sky has been suddenly tipped out over the landscape.
The thick, wide beams of Mack’s lights cut a little way into the now heavy fog, and I can see what he means now about us never finding our way if we’d been stuck in this alone.
I can’t help staring up at him again, feeling my heart swell by the second the longer I look at him.
Curling my fingers into my palm, still sure I can feel the electricity from his touch clinging to me like some dreamy static.
He mutters a curse to himself, and I watch his features pinch into a grimace as he plants his foot firmly on the brake.