Free Driving Her Crazy by Amy Andrews

he dumped a plastic bag between them.
    She was wearing pretty much the same type of outfit as yesterday—cut-offs and a loose polo shirt. He wasn’t quite sure what she was trying to achieve in denying her curves the artistic outlet they deserved but he’d hate to see them starved into oblivion.
    Sadie shot him a sweet smile through gritted teeth as the vehicle got back onto the highway. ‘Imagine my surprise,’ she said as she bit into a carrot stick with a loud crunch.
    Of course the crunch of breaking wafer biscuit as he bit into a chocolate bar was far more satisfying. Especially followed by a waft of something sweet.
    Chocolate?
    Sugar...
    A smear of caramel clung to that beautiful full lower lip and Sadie turned away from the decadent scene. Kent Nelson eating a chocolate bar should come with an obscenity warning!
    She munched on a handful of carrots sticks and ignored him for a while. They staved off the grumbles but were hardly satisfying. Kent licking his lips in her peripheral vision did not help.
    ‘So, you want to hear my story now?’ she asked.
    Kent didn’t look at her as he shook his head. ‘Not really.’
    Sadie blinked at his rejection. The implication that she wasn’t remotely interesting stung. And besides, she needed to keep him talking, not least of all because the silence was driving her crazy. ‘But you told me yours.’
    He shrugged. ‘I like hearing mine.’
    Narcissist. ‘It’s only polite to listen to the other person’s story, you know? It’s called conversation.’
    Kent eyeballed her. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any way you’re letting this drop, is there?’
    Sadie gave her head a firm shake. ‘Nope.’
    He took a deep breath. Fine. ‘So tell me, how was it growing up? Blissful?’
    Sadie ignored the wisecrack. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t heard it before. She looked out of her window at the dry yellow-green scenery flashing by. ‘Not so much, as it turned out. My dad up and left when I was twelve and got himself a new family. With his secretary. Spreading the bliss...as you do.’
    Kent whistled. ‘Ouch.’
    Sadie nodded. Ouch all right. She still remembered the day he’d left. Coming home from school to her mother crying. Trying to comprehend what had happened. That her father had been so unhappy he’d left her. Just walked away. The years of trying to hold onto him, trying to make him love her all for nothing.
    ‘Do you have a relationship with him?’
    ‘Of sorts,’ she murmured. ‘I have two half-brothers. Twins. I see them, ergo I see him.’
    Kent thought about how close he was with his own father. ‘That seems kind of...distant.’
    ‘Well...I never really quite measured up. He was a bit of a jock who’d wanted a boy. Someone he could take to the footy and the cricket. And—’ she lifted a shoulder ‘—he got me. Who liked to read. And draw. And daydream. I’m afraid I was a bit of a disappointment. I spent a lot of years trying to be who he wanted me to be but I never quite got there and then the twins came along and...’
    Kent nodded. ‘He had someone to take to the footy.’
    Bingo. ‘Yes.’
    Not even the engine of the Land Rover, loud by modern standards, could drown out the wistful note in Sadie’s voice. ‘And your mother?’
    ‘Mum’s great. She’s been a rock. Through everything. She could have become bitter, but she wasn’t. She just got a part-time job and supported me in everything I wanted to do. When I went to art college she took on a second job to pay my tuition.’
    Kent looked at her. ‘Art college?’
    Sadie nodded as she transferred her attention back to the blur of the outback. ‘I wanted to be an artist for a while.’
    She shook her head even as she said it. What had she been thinking?
    Kent flicked his gaze to the road, then back to her. ‘What medium?’
    Sadie ironed the flat of her palms down the fabric of her fake cammo cut-offs. ‘Painting.’
    ‘What happened?’
    She twined a finger into her hair. I met