Driving to You (H1.5) by Marquita Valentine Read Free Book Online

tomorrow night? Thought we could go to dinner, then back to my place for a movie.”
    She laughed as they made a right onto Thirty-Sixth Street. “It’s amazing how free your social calendar becomes once you stop going to all the places your single friends like to go.”
    “Hey , I’m single and your friend,” he said and she laughed again. “And I’m asking you out.”
    Stopping at his driveway, she gazed up at him and strange look in her eyes. The setting sun highlighted her pretty face. “Are you asking me out as a friend or as a guy?”
    “C’mon, April.” He had to look away from her knowing eyes. “Thought we were besties now. Hell, Hunter is jealous of all the time we’ve been spending together.”
    “Then maybe you should ask him out.” She left him standing there, shoving her hands in her coat as she made her way to her side of their property fence.
    Way to go, dumbass. The luck of the Irish was definitely not with him tonight. “Night, April.”
    She didn’t respond, just walked up her driveway, up the porch stairs and let herself inside. Out of habit, he waited for her to turn on an interior light and lock her door before he went inside.
    Tomorrow, if she would speak to him, he would apologize. Perhaps even bring her some grapefruit covered in hot sauce. Ugh. He had no idea what that dreadful combination made her so happy.
    A pounding on the front door woke him out of a dead sleep. Pulling on a pair of pajama bottoms, he yawned and started for the door. He smacked his toe along the way and began to hop like a deranged Easter Bunny. “Motherfu—”
    The pounding started up again.
    “I’m coming. I’m coming.” He punched in the security code before unlocking his door and opening it. April nearly fell into his arms.
    “I’m sorry,” she said on a hiccup, then began to sp eak at him, a rush of words that ran together. “Buthehadallmy-myutilitiescuto-off, and I had a noteab-boutmyhouse, myhorribleminivan. And he foundoutaboutmymoney. Oh God, Finn, I’ms-scaredandhaven-no one b-but you .”
    Still not fully awake or comprehending what she was saying, he gently guided her into the house, flipping on the living room lights along the way. After getting her settled on the couch, he sat down beside her. She had a death grip on his hand.
    “Start from the beginning and go slowly,” he said.
    A shudder racked her body. “He kept his promise.”
    “Who’s ‘he’?” he asked, wrapping a blanket around her bare shoulders. She wore nothing but a yellow tank top, green shorts and flip-flops. He wanted to lecture her for going outside in the middle of a freezing March night, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. She had come to him. Him. That had to mean something, right?
    “The Governor.” She stared off in the distance. “I thought I could do this, all by myself. I thought I didn’t need anyone.”
    Not even him? So much for coming to him. So much for the past month of dates, of tentative smiles and talks and baby classes. April still didn’t trust him. His fault though. “Everyone needs a little help now and again.”
    “I need more than a little help, Finn,” she said, her pretty eyes fixing on his face. “I’m broke. I have no insurance. No house, no phone, no lights or water. Not even that stupid minivan is mine anymore. He took it all away, just like he promised, because I couldn’t convince my ex to pretend that the baby was his.  I couldn’t do it, Finn. I just couldn’t, especially after offering Carter money to be with me. I felt like a whore.”
    Swallowing down his righteous fury at the thought of his child being passed off as someone else’s, he said, “You are not a whore, April.”
    “No, I’m worse. I’m a liar and a horrible person to be around.”
    “A liar wouldn’t have told me the truth about the baby.”
    Big blue eyes blinked up at him, lashes all spiky and wet. “You’re not mad at me?”
    Oh, he was mad all right, but not at her. Jesus, he hated to