Chapter 24: The Night Drive

We left at ten the next night, with the windows cracked and a thermos of tea between the seats.

I drove. Damian sat beside me with a blanket over his knees, wide awake, his eyes on the road.

The coast road was empty. The sea was somewhere out to our right, black and loud.

"You can start," he said.

"I don't know where."

"Start with why you never let me drive at night."

I kept my eyes on the yellow line.

"Because you fell asleep once," I said. "And I couldn't bear to be in the car if you ever did it again."

He nodded slowly.

"That's all of it. I never told you, because you'd have felt it."

"I felt it anyway."

"I know."

"Five years of you taking the keys, Jo. I thought you didn't trust my driving. I thought you didn't trust me."

"It wasn't that."

"I see that now."

He was quiet for a mile.

Then he reached over and laid his palm on the back of my neck, warm and light.

My shoulders came down.

"Pull over," he said. "At the guardrail."

I knew the place before I saw it.

The shoulder widened. The rail ran gray along the edge of the dark.

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