I forgot how painfully boring it is to drive ten hours from home in the middle of winter. It wasn't like there was a plethora of activities on the Trans Canada Highway. Occasionally we passed an old motel or an exit into a small town, which I figured could be interesting but Jade wanted to keep going and arrive before it was too dark. As it was, we were behind schedule, thanks to the gas blunder.

I was sober now, we'd left the gas station about two hours ago. The snow had let up but the roads were still sleek with ice and the clouds hung low. I'd spent the last half n hour tapping  out emails for work.

I had a dozen case loads to check in on, even though we rotated our rosters for the Christmas, so we could have some time off, there were kids I cared about stuck in foster homes or having supervised visits with their family. I had to read up all of the reports just so I could see how the meetings had gone and how the kids were doing.

It almost saddened me to think of them not seeing my face for the next week. A lot of those children had come to see me as a constant in their life, someone they could trust while everyone around them continued to let them down. I looked forward to getting home and fulfilling the promise I made when I left, that I would be back.

It'd been two hours since we'd left the gas station and after I was done with work, I found a notepad and pencil tucked down beside my passenger seat.

For the last fifteen minutes I'd been sketching the car in front of us, using my thumb to smudge and create shading. There wasn't much else to draw around here.

"You're still sketching?" Jade observed, his gaze flicking between my notepad and the road.

I'd been pencil sketching since I was a child, not in the sense that I ever thought it'd be a career, but for a while, I'd had an art tutor.

I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand being told what to draw, what techniques to use, what brushes, paper, form. The number of times I thought of what I might like to do and the tutor refused to let me veer off her structured course. It took all the fun out of being creative.

It made no sense to me. Art was supposed to come from within, an expression of oneself. What good was expression if it was someone else's?

Eventually, I refused to do anything else but sketching rough drafts. As soon as it came to colour, I threw the drawing out and asked to start again. The hour long lessons turned into a battle of wills and the tutor quit after six months. The pencil sketching stuck with me though. I used to sketch little snapshots of our lives.

Ivan practicing his recorder in our shared living room. Mom flitting through catalogues. Dad on his laptop at the breakfast bar. The deer that would meander past our Lake House. The other children we befriended at the child care centres we frequented during the summer. I even sketched Jade when he was around. I used to draw him with a smile, even if it was rare that he graced me with one.

I hummed a nonchalant confirmation to Jade's question and propped my feet on the dashboard.

"Doll, feet off the dash," Jade kept his stare ahead but tapped my thigh with the back of his hand. I ignored his request like a petulant brat because I was too busy thinking about how his hand sent an unwelcome tingle across my skin.

Okay so the intrusive thoughts were not just thanks to alcohol. Great.

"Dahlia," Jade demanded my attention with that one word and the bite of his deep voice. "If you were sitting next to one of your case kids, would you let him sit like that, knowing his fucking hips could shatter in a car accident."

"No, but I'm not one of your case kids."

"I don't know," Jade looked me over. "Your parents suck and I'm escorting you to supervised visitation."

I pursed my lips, doing my best to hide my amusement. "Hang on," I slid my feet back down and twisted in my seat, facing him, dropping the sketch to the floor. "You just said my parents suck. I thought you love mom and dad?"

He shifted in his seat, looking a little uncomfortable with a pinch in his brow. "It was just. . . a joke."

"Did something happen?"

Jade had always meshed well with mom and dad for the simple fact that he was charming and he wasn't their son. His schooling, career, prospects, none of that mattered to them because they weren't invested in his future. He could come over for Christmas, make them laugh all week and then disappear again. The fact that no one really knew what he did with his life was of no consequence to them. I think that was what he appreciated about them too. No pressure to impress them. So I couldn't imagine a reason for them to suddenly have an issue.

"Nothing happened," Jade attempted a light hearted tone but I could see that there was something bothering him.

I decided not to push him on it. "Can we stop for coffee?"

His shoulders relaxed and he pushed a hand through his hair as if I'd just alleviated the tension weighing him down. "Yeah, we can. You good?"

"Just feeling like I drank a lot of tequila."

"You sobered up now?"

"Mhmm," I watched him as his eyes scanned the exit information on the side of the road. "You want me to drive for a bit?"

"Nah, doll," he peered over at me with a soft smile, his lids heavier, making him look even more sensual than he always did. "You keep sitting there being the pretty passenger princess."

I grinned. "Pretty, huh."

"You know damn well I think you're fine, Dahlia."

He'd been a flirt from the time I was in college and we saw each other for the first time in two years after high school. Though, for all the one liners and comments on my appearance, he'd never made an actual move. I assumed that had something to do with respecting Ivan.

We stopped at a small cafe just off the highway. It sat among a little cluster of shops. Second hand stores, book stores and a post office. The cafe had faded yellow wallpaper and old glass cabinets but it smelled like fresh bread and coffee.

I inhaled, standing next to Jade while we waited. His arm was pressed against mine and my nose was in a battle of which to focus on more, the coffee, or him.

Suddenly, there was a deafening crash of glass shattering behind us. One second I was standing and the next I was on the ground with Jade over me. I peered around him, heart pounding out of my chest at the ongoing sound of crashing and banging and there in the middle of the store was a deer fighting itself out of a tangle of tables.

"What the fu—"

"Shit," Jade stood and hauled me to my feet before I even had time to process what was happening. He kept his arm around me and pushed me right back against the wall as the deer swung its antlers at the spot we'd been crouching.

The staff were watching, stricken and shocked.

"Open the fucking door!" Jade shouted at a man standing outside, watching the chaos unfolding through the shattered window.

I looked up at where Jade's entire body was encasing mine against the wall, arms on either side of me.

The older man outside snapped out of his stupor and pulled the door open, standing on the other side of it so the deer could get out. The poor thing was clearly stressed the hell out, the vinyl floor didn't let it get much of a grip so it slipped and scattered but eventually it made it to the door and as soon as its feet hit solid ground, he took off.

The cafe fell silent and Jade looked down at me, his frantic eyes scanning me. "You get hurt? Cut?"

"I don't think so," I said. "You?"

He pushed back from the wall and shook his head, looking around at the damage with laboured breaths.

"That was nuts," one of the girls behind the register mumbled, rubbing her face. "Jessica is going to be livid."

I didn't know who Jessica was, the owner perhaps. Jade wandered over to the turned over tables and started lifting them with ease. One of the other barista's, a girl our age, watched him with obvious appreciation.

"Thanks," she called over the counter, a little bounce of her feet.

Jade just gave her a quick nod as he put a chair up the right way and slid it against the wall. I didn't get a peppy little thanks from the barista for helping, of course.

There was glass all over the floor, which meant there was no point putting the furniture back over it. I was sure they would have to close for the day. Still in shock, I moved over to Jade and helped him stack the chairs against the wall while the staff made some phone calls and brought out a broom.

Upon closer inspection, there were specks of blood sprinkled on the floor too. Poor deer.

Our feet crunched on the glass as we took our coffees and left. The barista said they were basically done when the deer came through the window so we might as well have them. They were switching the machines off and locking up as we left.

In the car, I took a sip and winced. I looked over at Jade and saw him doing the same thing.

We looked at each other.

"Not worth it," I said and he cracked a grin. "I think that deer was trying to tell us something."

He threw his head back now in a full laugh and it sounded so sweet my stomach turned over.

We got back on the road and even though the coffee wasn't great, I sipped on it because I needed the caffeine. Jade's sat in the cup holder on the dashboard.

"At least we have a cool story to tell though," I commented, keeping my hands warm with the cup. "It was kind of exciting."

"Which part was exciting doll," his teasing tone swept over me. "The deer or me pushing you against the wall."

I felt my heart rate kick up and fought a smile. He did not need to know that I did indeed enjoy that part. "You know you could do with being a little more humble."

"Nah, I like watching your thighs press together whenever I flirt with you."

I gasped. "That does not happen."

He reached over the centre console and slid his large palm over my thigh, dipping his fingers between the tight gap, just below that forbidden spot. That was when I noticed, I was in fact pressing them together.

"Relax, doll," he pushed my thigh with his hand so they parted a little and then he took his hand back and put it on the steering wheel while I fought images of it coasting just a little higher than it had sat before.