“Now I’ll have to put it in the shop to be fixed, which you know I hate.” He sighed heavily, like the weight of the world was squarely on his shoulders. “It always comes back from that garage with a scratch on the paint, and I swear the speedometer has more miles on it. I think they take the cars for joy rides,” he continued complaining.

“Then why did you insist on bringing this thing on the camping trip? The entire trip, all I’ve heard about is how you hope it doesn’t get scratched and how a splotch of bird poop would ruin the paint and how dirt was going to get into places you couldn’t get out. And that is all before you made us sleep in it for four very uncomfortable nights since you thought you heard a bear.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at my boyfriend, who had effectively ruined my last week of freedom. “We don’t even have bears in this part of the country.”

He glared back at me, his jaw twitching as he clenched his teeth together. I had no idea why I thought this guy was hot. Well, that’s not true. On the surface, he was a golden-haired god of a specimen that only ran skin deep. Underneath, he was a narcissistic, arrogant prick that thought the sun shone out of his ass.

“I brought it because this vehicle is much nicer than your little shit box. I’m sorry that the luxury of a Mercedes wasn’t to your liking.”

I rubbed my eyes, unable to take the self-centered bullshit right now. I kept asking myself why I didn’t just dump good old Peter. The answer was easy. It kept my mother happy. Dating Peter was the one thing I’d done in my life that my mother approved of other than going to Quantico, and because of that, it kept her off my case.

The only issue was that I’d simply traded my mother, a pain in my side, for Peter, who’d turned into a pain in my ass. I crossed my arms and stared out the window. I didn’t want to return to my life, but I also didn’t want to stay a second longer in the woods or this car with Peter. An unsolvable challenge to be sure.

“You’re right. I’m sorry that I’m being a pill. I just wanted our time away to be special, but you didn’t seem to enjoy anything I’d set up for us to do,” Peter reached out and tugged on my arm until I uncrossed it and let him hold my hand.