Twisted Up by Lissa Matthews

Four
    “It’s so dark out here.”
    “Yeah. I like it. Quiet too. I don’t think I could live in the city for a long period of time.”
    They were on the small two-lane road headed toward his place. About ten miles back, Justin had pulled off the highway and begun the last leg of the road trip. He’d been driving something close to twenty hours, but given the woman at his side, it was worth every bit of tired eyes and aching ass from having been awake and sitting too damn long.
    He could get home in the dark. He knew this road so well. Three more bumps in the pavement and he turned left onto the dirt lane leading up to the house. It was about a quarter-mile to his front door.
    “How long have you lived out here?” Ella asked, staring out her window.
    “All my life. I bought this part of the property and some cattle from my parents. It still runs as one big operation, but I keep whatever profit I make on this side. I usually just put it back into the upkeep.”
    The outline of the small clapboard house loomed ahead, and he parked the truck in front. There was no designated driveway or parking area and that was just fine with him. “Here we are. Home sweet home.”
    Ella leaned forward in her seat a little and squinted out the windshield. “Well from what I can see, it’s a pretty little house.”
    “You’ll see the outside tomorrow. Tonight though…” Justin turned off the ignition and climbed down out of the truck. He tried not to sound like a girl when he hit the ground and his legs wanted to give out as soon as he stood. He bent and flexed and reached as he stretched his body out. He loved his truck, but damn…
    He walked around the front end to the passenger side and opened Ella’s door. She turned to the side with her feet dangling over the edge of the seat. “Bunny slippers? Really?” Justin shook his head, but the smirk was firmly in place as he looked down at Ella’s feet clad, not in the cute pink sandals she’d been wearing earlier, but in a pair of gray bunny slippers, complete with floppy bunny ears and what looked like a cotton tail at the back of the heel.
    “Yes. Things were getting too serious in the truck there for a while.”
    “I know.” And he did. He’d wanted, needed to lighten the mood for both of them. “That’s why I flipped up your skirt for the truckers. But, bunny slippers?” Never in a million years would he have guessed her to be the bunny-slipper type. He thought those were reserved for giggly college girls at slumber parties.
    “After I signed the divorce papers, a couple of friends came over and brought me wine, chocolate and these slippers. They told me that when things got too tense, too serious, too dramatic, or too emotional, put the slippers on to ease and lighten things up. That you couldn’t be too much of any of those with bunny slippers.”
    Much as he hated to admit it… “I guess I can see that.” She grinned, and he couldn’t help but move in and kiss her pretty mouth.
    “Thank you,” she whispered when he pulled away a little.
    “For what?” His hands gripped her hips, and he eased her to the ground.
    “For not making fun of my slippers, for not…judging me.”
    His heart ached for the softness in her voice. “Baby, you know I don’t judge you. Never have. Never will. Look—” he smoothed her hair back from her face, curving it over the shell of her ear, “—remember when I told you about Megan? The woman I lived with for a while?”
    Confusion marred her brow for a moment but cleared soon enough. “Oh God, Justin. I’m so sorry. I’d forgotten all about her and… Oh damn, she left you for your friend.”
    “Yeah, she did. I asked her a few times why when I saw her after the fact, and she never gave me any solid answer. I only got some version of ‘it just wasn’t working out, Justin’. I would have done anything to change whatever she thought or felt was wrong, but she never gave me anything to go on. All I got was how sorry she