“I wish we would have found more leads, but at least the food was good.” We reached the car, and I used the clicker that only sometimes worked to unlock both doors.

“It was amazing.” He looked right at me as he said it, too, and I shivered.

“So where am I taking you?” I asked as we settled into our seats and got buckled up.

“How about 1435 Birchwood? That would be nicer than going to Luther and James for sure.” He recited his old address with a wistful smile that made me remember memorizing our addresses and moms’ phone numbers together in prep for being allowed to walk home from school.

“Sorry.” Maybe I should invite him back to my room. Not for…that. But because he seemed so reluctant to go back to his place, and him sad was apparently my personal kryptonite.

However, right as I was about to offer, he sighed. “It’s over by that big shopping complex off Wilson.”

He gave me the rest of the directions, then started fiddling with my radio as I pulled out of the parking spot.

“It’s dead,” I informed him. “Gave up the ghost in the fall.”

“I could replace it for you. Stereos are easy. I did mine.”

Him offering made my chest all warm, but I had to laugh. “A new stereo in this?”

“Okay. Maybe not. You say I need new friends, and you’re not wrong, but we gotta find you a better ride.”

“Says the guy who currently swears by the bus.”

I meant it as a tease, but his face shuttered. “I’ve got reasons.”

“I know. Your car’s a collector’s dream. I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

“I know.” He exhaled hard. “Driving…sometimes makes me a little nervous. Since the accident.”

“I didn’t know. But you drove to Philly. Rather well.”

“Well, yeah, I can drive. Not gonna lie, though, my nerves were real. It’s hardest having someone in the car with me. Not personal to you. Just…”

“You were driving? In the accident?” It was the first time he’d seemed at all willing to discuss the accident, and I didn’t want to lose a chance to know more about him.

“Yeah.” His voice became distant and far off. “We were on the way back from a party we had no business being at. Right in the middle of the season, so it was against team rules to be out that late, and none of us were twenty-one yet. I was the most sober of us, which wasn’t saying much.”

“It wasn’t your car, though?”