Within the confines of her seat belt, Erin shifted to face him. “If I sit in the middle, will you promise not to think I’m hitting on you?”

His golden brows snapped together in a puzzled frown. “Why else would you want to sit right next to me?”

“Because I’ve got an idea!” She disengaged the seat belt hasp. “For chatting, I mean.”

As he buckled up, Erin shoved back the center console and slid over to sit beside him. After engaging the center restraint across her lap, she smiled up at him and said, “Okay. Let’s try it. You stare straight ahead like you’re driving and ask me a question.”

As dubious as he appeared to be, he did as she asked. “What’s your favorite color?”

Erin extended her hands to speak in sign to the right of the steering wheel. “My favorite color is pink. Some of my signals will be out of your visual range, I guess, but maybe you can see enough to get the general gist.”

“I got that you like pink.”

“You see? It may work if we play this right.”

As they drove home, Wyatt engaged with her verbally while she responded in ASL. At one point when she needed him to see all of her to get a point across, she unbuckled her belt, slid forward on the seat, and turned to face him. He immediately hit the brakes and pulled over onto the shoulder of the road.

“Erin, I’m a fuddy-duddy about seat belts. Please get yours back on.”

Erin gestured at the windshield. “It’s a country road, Wyatt! Hardly any traffic. It is Mystic Creek, remember. Do you know how many thousands of times I’ve buckled up and never once needed a safety restraint?”

His laser-blue eyes gleamed with determination. “So you’re canceling your only insurance as a passenger? It didn’t work out very well for you when you canceled your policy for roadside assistance. Look what happened to your Honda.”

She couldn’t help herself and giggled. “You happened to my Honda.”

“Yeah, well? I’m driving. Don’t give me an opportunity to happen to you.”

It wasn’t really that funny, but the next thing Erin knew, they were both laughing like fools, and she discovered that she loved the sounds of Wyatt’s mirth. They were unpracticed and from the gut. It was as sexy as a man’s laugh could get.

When the hilarity finally subsided, Wyatt sighed as if he were exhausted. “Oh, man. I haven’t laughed like that in years. Maybe never.”

“Why on earth not?”

“Because there’s no language program that critiques the sound of laughter, and I know us deaf folks can have some really weird laughs.” He glanced over at her. “Back to your own side, Erin. You promised not to hit on me.”

“I wasn’t hitting on you!” she protested.

“Tell that to my body. It doesn’t register the difference between a friendly leg rub and a flirtatious one.”

“Oh.” Erin felt as if he’d just doused her with cold water. Her leg had been touching his. “Sorry.” She slid back over to the passenger side. “I didn’t think of that.”