Brayden, Melissa - How Sweet It Is

And yet here they were, stuck in neutral.

And she had not a clue what to do about it.

Hence, she baked.

The twenty-four hour Walmart in Franklin didn’t let her down, and to prove a point to the cosmos, she almost bought the whole wall of peanut butter. Instead, she settled on three jumbo jars of the good stuff, paid the bored with life cashier, and climbed back into her car.

Victory. Peanut butter crisis averted.

She was singing along to Bob Dylan ten minutes later and doing fifty-five on the farm road when her car began to choke and sputter until it was jerking forward in random spurts. Oh God. Oh God. Flashing back to her high school driver’s ed class, she relied on instinct, held firmly to the steering wheel, and kept her foot from pumping the gas too vehemently. As her heart hammered away in her chest, she whispered the words, “please, please, please,” until the little-car-that-could gradually decelerated altogether, and slowed to a stop on the side of the very dark, very lonely road.

Damn it all again.

After thanking baby Jesus for her life, she got out and surveyed the scene. Except there was really nothing to see. She popped the hood but had very little idea what she was looking at. An attempt to start the car again just produced more sputtering.

Maybe that victory declaration had come a little too soon.

She called for roadside assistance, but due to the late hour, and her out of the way location, she was informed it could take up to two hours before they could have the one guy on duty out to her. Seriously? Just the one guy? The script reading phone operator advised that she not head out on foot and instead encouraged her to remain in her vehicle with the doors locked until help arrived.

She hung up and did the next best thing. She called Mikey.

“Why hello there, Molly,” he said upon answering. “What’s up in your world?”

“Hey, Mikey. I’m sorry to call so late, but I have kind of a situation here and was hoping you might be able to play big brother-in-law and help me out.”

“No problem. I’m great at big brother-in-law and I was still up. What happened?”

She explained the embarrassing sequence of events that now sounded more ridiculous than any words could justify as she paced rapidly back and forth in front of her car.

After a pause and chuckle, “Give me twenty minutes.”

“You have no idea how many kisses I plan to pepper your cheek with. Thank you so much!”

“See you soon. Hang in there and—”

“Lock the door,” she said with him in unison.

*

Jordan closed the door to Risa’s bedroom. “Okay, she’s out like a light. Just needed a little reassurance that there are, in fact, no sharks swimming on her floor when the lights go out. Common mistake.”

She settled back onto the couch and pulled her feet up to her chest, all set to finish the film she’d started with Mikey three hours before. It was rare that they got much one-on-one time, but with Teresa out of town on a girl’s trip, she was taking advantage of the opportunity to bond with her brother and his kids. It was only a minor inconvenience that their movie was interrupted every twenty minutes when one of the kids needed something. She kind of enjoyed being the one to step in and help out. Plus, they really seemed to like her so the old ego wasn’t exactly suffering.

Mikey stood and turned to her apologetically. “I hate to extend the longest movie in the history of film even further, but—”

Jordan stared at him pathetically. “Et tu, Brute?”

“Afraid so.”

She decided to cut him a break. He did seem to have a lot on his plate with Teresa out of town. “So what’s up?”

“Molly’s car broke down halfway between here and Franklin. I need to get out there and pick her up.”

Jordan shot a glance at the clock. “What the hell is she doing out this late by herself?”

He shrugged. “Got me. Something about a peanut butter crisis. Your guess is as good as mine. Can you stay with the kids until I get back?”

She stood and headed for her keys. “I’ll do you one better. I’ll go.”

“Bad idea. I don’t like the idea of you out this late either.”

“Please, Mikey. I live in downtown Chicago.”

“Point taken.”

*

She put the top down on the Beetle because it was that kind of night. The wind in her hair felt good as she sped along the twisting farm road. It took her twelve minutes to reach Molly’s car. When she arrived, she could just barely make her out in the driver’s seat.

She parked on the opposite side of the road and headed over. As she approached the car, Molly stared at her through the window questioningly. Finally, she exited the car wearing cutoff denim shorts and a hooded gray Rutgers sweatshirt. She looked incredibly confused and equally adorable.

“What’s going on? I thought Mikey was coming.”

“He wanted to, but he had an existing date with a couple of small people. Hence, you get me.”

“Yeah, hence,” she said neutrally, but Jordan could tell she was relieved someone had come to her rescue. The night was dark and the road was pretty desolate. She was glad she’d gotten there when she did.

“So will the engine turn over at all?”

“It tries and tries but never really gets there.”

“It could be the spark isn’t making it to the spark plugs.”

Molly looked hopeful. “Do you know how to fix that?”

“Not a clue. Let’s get out of here and let roadside tow it to Gibson’s.”

As Molly walked around the passenger’s side of her bug, Jordan surveyed her across the car. “So. Peanut butter.”

Molly shot her a glare as she slid into her seat. “Shut up.”

“If you insist. Top down okay?”

“Sounds nice, actually.”

Jordan smiled and pulled onto the road. As they drove, the cool air rushed past them, lifting their hair as the stars twinkled brightly above. The air smelled smoky, as it always seemed to on those country highways. They rode in silence for a while. Finally, Molly leaned her head against the seat and turned. She gazed at Jordan steadily, those soft brown eyes now gentle.

“Thank you for coming out so late. That’s what I should have led with when you got here. I seem to forget my manners with you lately, so let me try again. Thank you.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t mind coming. And you’re welcome.”

Molly glanced over her shoulder. “So this car, how long have you had it? Last I remembered, you were driving a green Beetle.”

“True. When I hit twenty-five, I decided it was time to get a little more serious about life and swapped in the bright green for dark blue.”

“Because blue is infinitely more refined?”

“Well, objectively.”

She laughed and Jordan felt it right in the center of her chest. It was nice to laugh with Molly again. It had been days since she had, and it was apparently her new favorite pastime. “So outside of the infamous peanut butter breakdown, how was your day?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Oh, you know, baking cookies and saving the world, that kind of thing.”

“Multitalented.”

“Aww, you noticed.”

“I notice a lot. I love you in the cutoffs, by the way.”

Molly’s cheeks colored and she glanced down at her shorts. “Thanks, but maybe let’s not flirt. It just causes problems.”

“I wasn’t flirting.” She tossed Molly a serious glance and watched her turn an even deeper shade of red.

“Oh, right. No. I didn’t mean—”

Jordan held up a hand as she watched the road. “Kidding. I was totally flirting.”

Molly exhaled slowly, her tone measured. “I don’t know what to do with you sometimes. It’s like I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.”