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draped the
fleece over my shoulders. “I really try to be a gentleman sometimes.”
     
    Pushing my arms
through the sleeves, I buried my face in the material that swarmed my small
frame. It smelt like Luke. “Thank you.”
     
    But he couldn’t
hide the fact he was freezing almost as soon as he’d relinquished his fleece. I
couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty, but my comfort cancelled it out.
     
    Inside the shop, I
picked up the cheapest mascara and took it to the till. Luke hovered in the
warm blower at the entrance and rubbed his hands up and down his arms rapidly.
I couldn’t resist the mental smile. I’d definitely never expectedly gentlemanly
Luke to be shown to me.
     
    He’d obviously
forgiven my goof with Phoebe earlier.
     
    Back outside, I
shoved my mascara in his pocket and handed him back the fleece. “I think we can
call it a truce if you have it for the walk back to the car. You are driving,
after all. And I’ve just crashed your whole job thing.”
     
    He accepted the
sweater reluctantly, before holding out the unzipped front. I raised an eyebrow
at him. “Get in,” he reiterated, shaking the jacket once more.
     
    I hesitated for
only a second before aligning myself against Luke and letting him zip up the
jacket. My back crushed against his chest, I was definitely nice and warm. Heat
flooded me almost unexpectedly. “Warm enough now?”
     
    I nodded, not sure
I could manage to speak without sounding husky. It was a jokey thing from
someone who was apparently trying to be my friend, but my cheeks were burning
in the darkness and nothing could stop my heart pounding.
     
    It appeared there
was going to be another phase of me desperately wanting to bang Luke coming on.
     
    We reached the car
in three times the time it should have taken, but we were in fits of giggles
and I’d almost fallen over at least twelve times.  
     
    Luke undid the
jumper and I stepped out, really trying not to act weird. I didn’t want to be
too friendly, but I didn’t want to be obscurely shy, either. Just normal would
be fine.
     
    “I’ll remember to
bring my own jumper next time, I promise.”
     
    Luke chuckled and
unlocked the car, running a hand through his unruly black hair. “That would
probably be a good idea. Now let’s get home, because I’m really starving. We
should have just grabbed some chips before we left.”
     
    I’d been hungry
for a good four hours now and the thought of food was very appealing. I slid
into his passenger seat and rummaged through my bag, pulling out a bag of
crisps. That would at least put us both on.
     
    It was when we
were halfway back that I spotted a familiar car. The smile I’d been wearing as
we joked about Phoebe’s awful taste in music dimmed and I stared in the
rear-view mirror. “Pass me your phone.”
     
    When he hesitated,
I reached into his pocket and grabbed it myself. “Where did you save that
number plate?”
     
    Luke told me
where, his own eyes glued to the car I’d seen now, too. This was going to be
the confirmation we needed.
     
    And as I compared,
my humour slowly drained and became fear. “It’s the same one,” I clasped Luke’s
phone so tight that it was probably on the verge of breaking. “He really is targeting
us.”
     
    Luke slammed the
accelerator on and I felt my stomach drop. I’d never been entirely comfortable
in speeding cars, but for once I could accept it was better than being followed
by that creep.
     
    Surprisingly
enough, the blue car didn’t follow. Knowing they were too scared of a speeding
ticket to catch us up was something, I supposed. “What do we do now?”
     
    “I have no idea,” and
there was no way either of us could know what to do. “Maybe we should go to the
police now and tell them what we know. They might check it out or something.”
     
    “Maybe,” I wasn’t
sure what they would do other than explain how we were paranoid about the fact
we’d seen a car that happened to have the same