“No-ooo. If you work with someone, you just say work with. Why is this do business instead? That’s like trying to say something without saying it. Why is it different?”

“You’re making a big deal out of nothing, Carly.”

“Why did you say you were going to play racquetball?”

“I didn’t know how long I’d be gone.”

She was quiet long enough that he thought she might be done. He’d run her fresh out of moves with a nonsensical answer. It was a good strategy.

But a slight psychic whir of gears still moved the air between them.

“Is a game of racquetball longer or shorter than forever?”

Jonathan let a sigh stand in for trying to outdo her, dodge for thrust. But her comment tingled at the base of his skull.

He resisted drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as the plan of what to do took on its edges. She was right. It was time to go. He slowed the car and dragged the wheel over into a hard U-turn.

“I’ve changed my mind. Text your mom. Tell her we’re coming to pick her up. It’s been a long day. I don’t feel like going to the store. I’m thinking Don Julio’s for dinner.”

“Shouldn’t she just meet us? We’re almost there anyway.” Carly stretched into the back seat behind him for her phone.

“No. Let’s just all go together. It won’t take long.”

She flopped back into her seat, scooching deep into a slouch, thumbs tapping out the message.

She couldn’t keep it up forever. She was a kid, not a practice partner for his mental chess. He slid a sideways look at her and nodded at the phone in her hand. “And I’m going to want to see exactly what you said to Ada to drag her into this.  Your friend is not going to thank you for getting her into trouble, too.”

But when their eyes met, a little jolt rocked Jonathan’s heart in its nook. She wasn’t gassed out for the sparring. Not by a long shot. She was glowing and more than happy to blow up his bluff.

“You want to talk more about why I wondered where you were? Really?”

She wasn’t off guard. He was. A riptide of embarrassment pulled at him. Jonathan fixed his stare on the road ahead and locked his posture against reconciliation. “No. I want you to text your mother like I asked you to.”

Carly went back to her typing.

His face went warm and the heat sank all the way through him, prickling under his shirt collar. “This smart-ass phase isn’t going to go well for you.”

Carly shifted at the edge of his vision, looking at him for a few weighted seconds, then turned her face to the window.

His thoughts shifted to the trunk.