The Thief Who Saved My Life

Chapter 25

The music stayed low as we got on the highway, Tyler's hand resting on my bare thigh. It was dark, but I could still make out the smile on his face. He was relaxed, probably more relaxed than I'd ever seen him before.

"Have you heard from him?" He asked after several minutes of comfortable silence.

"No," I gave him the same answer I did every day he asked the question. "Can we forget that he exists? Just tonight."

Tyler glanced from the road to me apologetically. "Sorry," he said and squeezed my thigh where his hand rested just above my knee. I flinched at that started to pull away but Tyler immediately turned to me, concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I quickly reassured him, realizing that he was used to me flinching away because something hurt. "That just tickled."

The concern in his eyes quickly changed to mischief. "You're ticklish?"

"A little," I said skeptically.

"How did I not know that?" He asked, but I didn't give an answer because that would mean up bringing up ugly truths and people that I wanted to just forget for tonight. Tyler must not have expected an answer anyway because he didn't wait for one before his fingers tightened around my leg again, quickly squeezing and releasing over and over. I squirmed in the seat, squealing with laughter that burned my still bruised ribs but I didn't care.

"That's not fair," I said trying to catch my breath through my laughter.

Stopping, Tyler laughed. "What's not fair."

"I'm stuck here," I said grinning and half anticipating his hand that was still resting on my leg to start it's tickling assault again. "I can't even run."

"You would run from me?" He challenged, one eyebrow lifting.

I opened my mouth to say yes at the same time his hand began to slide up high on my thigh and my mouth closed, seemingly forgetting how to speak. He held my eyes for a second before briefly glancing back to the road and then to me again as his fingers inched a little higher still.

"Evie?" He prompted, amused.

"No," I said. "I wouldn't run from you."

He grinned, wide and toothy. "Good," he said and then dragged his hand back to my knee and tickled me again.

He laughed at me laughing so hard that no sound was coming out and tears were filling my eyes which only made me laugh even harder.

"That's just mean," I said when I could finally catch my breath.

"I love hearing you laugh."

"Even when I'm snorting?"

"Especially then," he said sincerely.

I rolled my eyes. "You're weird." I faced the window, not really sure where we were headed but looking for clues. We were leaving town and I wasn't sure what there really was to do getting further from the city. "Are you going to tell me where we're going?"

"Not yet." When I heaved a sigh, he added, "We're nearly there."

He hadn't been lying it was only a few more miles before he exited the highway and if I thought that would have given me an idea of where we were going, I was wrong. My legs bounced up an down impatiently as we took several turns down small roads.

"You know," I said. "If you're just taking me somewhere to park and get some, we could have stayed a lot closer to home."

He let out a loud, amused laugh. "I'm not taking you somewhere to park. I don't think that's a thing anymore, Evie."