“Hey, you know I’ve had flashbacks before. I know how awful they are.” The silence in the truck cab ate at Natalie. Why wouldn’t he talk to her? He just kept sitting there staring at the pumps in the gas station parking lot.

“I know. I’m sorry. I’m…” He shook his head.

“Angry, sad, embarrassed?” She listed all of the things she knew were the results of a flashback. “Your muscles and your brain ache like you’ve gone ten rounds with a prize bull?”

“Yeah. All of that.”

Bile singed the base of her throat but she forced herself to go back to the last flashback she could recall. It had been a few years ago. Brock had grasped her hand to keep her back from a snake she hadn’t seen in the grass. His hands looked so much like his father’s. She’d screamed. Everyone thought it was because of the snake. It was a snake she supposed just not the one in the prairie.

Luke had understood what was actually happening. He’d taken her back to her parents’ house. Holly and her mother had talked her through it. She remembered what had finally helped her grasp reality.

“I mean it’s just such a stupid fucking thing. Fireworks. Who thought that was a good idea? It’s basically colored gunpowder. So stupid. Literally no one needs that in their lives.” She gave him a place to start. She gave him an out. Something to hate, somewhere to place all of the anger he refused to forget. She threw a life preserver out in the freezing sea where he was sinking before she jumped in herself. She wouldn’t let him drown. Being angry at something that should never have happened was a step toward accepting it. She knew.

He stared at her with pain and hope fighting for placement in the haze of confusion in his eyes. “Yeah, they are really stupid. People get hurt fucking around with them, too.”

“I know. I read that kids get burned every summer. It’s ridiculous.”

“Houses and barns go up in flames with them, too.”

“Oh, I know. You know the farm near the Kilroys? Their kids were messing with them and caught an entire field of corn on fire. Do you know how much money they probably lost?” Natalie let the adrenaline she’d felt drive her.

“Stupid fucking things.”

He gripped her hand again, clinging to her. If he needed a lighthouse, or someone to hold on to in this life, she would be that for him. Leaning across the bench seat, she brushed a gentle kiss on his cheek. There was a gash there. She’d noticed it the night she’d missed his lips and gotten his cheek instead. Every wound he’d endured she would find a way to heal. Every scar he clung to she would find some way to help him accept.

“I even read about how fireworks cause flashbacks,” she continued.

Suddenly, his brow furrowed. Okay, maybe she shouldn’t have said that. He managed a nod but he’d keyed in on that point more than any of the others.

“I’m really sorry about all of that. Want me to take you home?”

“No.” No, no, no. She would not let him take her home so he could crawl into some kind of internal hole with no light. Never. Searching for something, anything, for them to do an idea sprang to her mind.

“Let’s go in the gas station and get scratch-offs.”

“What?” At least he seemed to have let that last point on fireworks go.

“When I turned sixteen, Luke gave me this huge box of scratch off lottery tickets for my birthday. It was so much fun. It’s probably my favorite birthday gift ever. It’s like a reminder that there’s always a chance. We might win some money. We might not but that’s not the point. Come on.” She popped open the door of the truck praying he’d follow.

When his fingers laced through hers, she let the breath she’d been holding escape her lungs. If it had been her, she would’ve wanted him to pretend nothing had happened until she was ready to talk about it, so that’s precisely what she did.

Marching into the gas station she gave him a beaming grin. That wasn’t difficult. He always made her smile. “Okay, for scratch-offs we need Dr. Pepper, and Red Vines, and Air Heads, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.” Picking up a basket by the door, she guided him to the snack section.

“You’re gonna be sick, sweetheart.”

“Nah, I’m kind of a junk food junkie. My stomach has learned that there are times I need Cheetos.”

“I was aware, but this is extreme even for you.”

“It’s the rule for scratch-offs. Don’t harsh my mood, Weber,” she teased.

The light made its return to his eyes. He was there with her, fully now. She thanked the universe for that.

“Never, baby.” Winking at her, he picked up four snack bags of her favorite Cheetos and placed them in the basket before locating bags of Red Vines. “You sure you’re okay with… everything?” leapt from his lips.

“I’m here with you. I’m much better than okay. Come on.”

They made their way to the register hand in hand. “We want ten Quick 7’s, ten Ruby Red Roundups, and ten Seven Elevens.”

Aaron pulled one of the fifties from his wallet and laid it on the counter. She started to protest but sealed her lips instead. He’d already proven what a weak asshole he was that night. The least he could do is pay for her lottery tickets.

She all but skipped back out to his truck. When he’d come to, he was pressing her into the ground like they were being shot at. How had he not freaked her the fuck out? Strongest, bravest woman on the planet. There was no doubt.

Ripping open the bag of Red Vines, she handed him one and took one for herself. She held hers up. “To getting rich off of scratch-offs.”

“I’d rather Red Vine toast you.” He touched the candy pieces together.

That infectious giggle of hers worked its way through his ears and settled squarely in his chest. “Scratch.” She handed him a ticket. Fishing in his pocket for the change from their purchase he handed her a quarter and did as he was told.

Keeping the tip of his tongue between his teeth kept him from apologizing constantly and begging her to forget that this night ever happened.

“Nothing,” she sighed, tossed her first ticket back in the plastic sack, and grabbed another one.

“Hey, look at that, this one’s worth five bucks.” He showed her his match. An odd sense of satisfaction chased away a little of his hopelessness.

“See, I told you it’s fun.”

“Give me another one.”

His next was a dud but the one after that was worth a buck.

“Look you’re rich,” Natalie laughed.

“Oh yeah, this six bucks is gonna get me places.”

“Keep going. You’re on a roll.” She pressed another ticket in his palm. He gripped it and her hand. Guiding her in, he stared into her eyes. Their breaths mingled. Electricity sizzled between them.

“Kiss me,” she whispered.

The ticket was lost in the floorboard as he drew her in and layered his lips to hers. She tasted like cherry candy and her, confection and heat. That sweet little gasp she always made when he did this erased more of his shame. Her right hand worked down his chest. She stopped at the end of his rib cage, leapt over the scars on his abs, and palmed his cock.

His hum of approval vibrated against her lips but he wasn’t doing this again. He refused to take more than he gave. Never again. The next time he came with her it would be deep inside her pussy after he’d made her weak with orgasm after orgasm.

Their conversation standing at the cotton candy stand rushed back into this consciousness. Things had been going so many good places before his past had ruined everything. Why couldn’t he escape the damn thing for one night? Just one fucking night.

Her head fell back offering him an undeniable invitation. He spun his tongue and suckled with his greedy lips against her throat. She shivered and his cock pulsed out its hunger for her.

His hands traced the cups of her bra. Her breasts spilled over the top. Her nipples strained against the lace between them and the palms of his hands. His sweet, needy baby. “They hurt, sweetheart? Are they tender for me?”

“Oh God, yes.” Her breaths quickened.

Before he lifted her shirt, the sound of a truck horn reminded him where they were. She jerked back. A truck driver parked at the diesel pumps gave him two thumbs up. Aaron cringed.

“Okay, maybe we shouldn’t park here.” Natalie squeezed her eyes shut.

“I can’t get anything right tonight.”

“Stop it. We’re having a good time. Let’s finish the tickets, go get our money, and then we could go up to King’s Creek.”

King’s Creek had long been the make out spot of couples young and old in Pleasant Glen. “You ever been up there before?”

She shook her head. “Not with a guy.”

He’d be her first. He’d make her come for him, in the fogged up windows of his old truck, grinding in his lap with her tits bouncing in his face, calling out his name. A wave of greedy arrogance washed through him. Instead of calling himself an asshole he rode it for all he was worth. That night, after everything that had happened, he needed the jolt of confidence.

“Give me the tickets. I want to get you out of here.”

She licked her lips. “I want that, too.”

They worked through the tickets. Aaron’s last scratch was actually worth a hundred bucks. His mouth hung open in shock.

“See! You never know. There’s always a chance. Things get better,” she vowed earnestly.

“Nah. I think you’re just good luck.”

“I kind of think we’re good together.”

“I think so too, Nat. I’m really sorry about…”

Her index finger landed on his lips again. “You have nothing to be sorry about. Let’s go get your cash.”

“I’m spending it on you.”

“You better not.”

“I am. Hey, your birthday is coming up. What do you want?”

“To do something with you.”

The girl sure as hell knew how to stroke his ego and his cock. “Okay, what do you want to do with me?”

A decidedly naughty grin formed on her kiss-swollen lips.

“You think I’m gonna be able to wait that long? You’re giving me way too much credit, babe.”

“Never said anything about it being the first time.” She batted her eyelashes at him as he threw open the door to the gas station for her.