Three minutes later, we were in Mom’s car, the windows down despite the March chill, the radio humming softly.

He let me pick the music, and I flipped through the stations until I landed on Street Dreams by Nas, nodding along to the beat. It filled the car for all of ten seconds before Blake reached over and switched it back a track—to Heaven Ain’t Hard 2 Find by 2Pac.

I shot him a look, silently protesting my lost choice.

He just shrugged and said, “This one reminds me of you.”

A sudden tug at my heartstrings stopped me from protesting further. “Hm,” I hummed, tapping my fingers against my knee, watching streetlights blur past the windshield.

We drove past dark houses and empty streets, past gas stations with flickering neon signs, past the familiar edges of town.

The farther we went, the more awake I felt, as if every inch of me was buzzing.

“So,” Blake tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. “Are you actually going to tell me where we’re going, or are we just driving until we run out of gas?”

Suppressing a grin, I rolled the window down even further, letting the cool night air whip through my hair. “The beach.”

Blake’s eyes widened, his hand freezing mid-motion on the gear shift. “B, that’s an hour away⁠—”

“Then we’d better pick up the pace.”

“—and the water’s freezing⁠—”

“Come on, live a little,” I said, batting my lashes. “When’s the last time you did something just for the fun of it?”

He sighed, turning the volume up. “God help me.”

I stole a glance at his bare chest, the muscles gleaming under the soft glow of the dashboard lights. “You couldn’t put on a shirt?” I asked, fiddling with the hem of my pajamas that I hadn’t bothered to change before leaving the house.

Blake glanced down at himself, as if just now realizing his state of undress. “Didn’t think I’d need one. I didn’t think we’d be heading to the beach in the middle of the night. I figured it was just a quick drive to park somewhere and maybe grab some ice cream or something.”

I smiled slyly. “You underestimate me.”

“Clearly,” he muttered, eyes back on the road.

My knee bounced, buzzing. Maybe it was the thrill of sneaking out. Maybe it was Blake beside me, his hands gripping the wheel, his jaw tense in that way that meant he was fighting a smile.

“Trust me,” I said, propping my feet up on the dashboard. “The beach beats sitting around in a parking lot.”

He shot me a sideways glance. “That remains to be seen.”