Playing The Game (Nathan/Haley) - Chapter Six
Title: Playing the Game
Author: Hana thedreamygirl
Pairing: Nathan/Haley
Rating: Mature
Summary: For authors Haley James and Nathan Scott it was attraction at first sight, and hate two minutes later. Luckily, they only have to endure each other for one day. Or do they?
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Disclaimer: The play mentioned is a real play, by J. M. Synge. It opened in 1907.]
Author's Note: Yes, it's finally an update! I'm *so* sorry this one took so very long, but the chapter is quite long so hopefully you guys aren't too annoyed? A big thank you to Diane for betaing this for me! :D
The Player’s Handbook Rule Number Four:
Gifts are okay, but not more than once, and nothing expensive. Jewellery should be avoided at all costs.
Chapter Six
The next morning Haley stood leaning against the rental car, her arms folded across her chest as she waited impatiently for her travelling companion to arrive. Brooke had asked her not to get cross with Nathan when the trip hadn’t even started yet, but he was late. When she had come down from her hotel room with her bags, Lucas had informed her that Nathan had already put his bags in the trunk, but had gone back inside since he had forgotten something.
Brooke and Lucas had left soon after and since then five minutes had passed with no sign of Nathan. Haley was beginning to contemplate driving herself there and letting Nathan take the train - after all, unlike Brooke, he didn’t have to be in Chicago until tomorrow - but before she was about to give in to the impulse and make her way to the driver’s seat Nathan finally showed up.
Haley huffed as he took his own sweet time strolling down the main steps before coming up to her. “You’re late,” she informed him.
Nathan just grinned. “Well, good morning to you too, sunshine. And actually I was early, I just had to go back for something,” he said as he opened the trunk and unzipped his smaller bag.
“What did you forget?”
Nathan held up the thin rectangular shaped case in his right hand. “My toothbrush.”
Haley stared wide-eyed while he stuffed the toothbrush into his bag. “It took you that long to find a toothbrush? What, was it under your pillow or something?”
“I had to wait in line at reception to give back the room key,” he explained.
“Well, you could have just bought a new one,” Haley pouted.
“Will you calm down, it’s not like we’re going to be late for anything. And I like this one,” Nathan said simply as he zipped the bag closed. “I’ve used it for a while so that the bristles are all smushed and fit around my teeth.”
“That’s a sign that you need a new one,” she exclaimed.
“No, I only need a new one when the blue strip in the middle of the bristles has gone completely white, and it’s only half-white at the moment,” Nathan informed her, having locked the trunk.
“You know, that’s an estimate. God, how old is your toothbrush really?”
Nathan raised one eyebrow at her. “Why are you so interested?”
“I happen to think good dental hygiene is very important,” Haley stated, hands on her hips.
“I meant,” Nathan said amused, “why are you so interested in my dental hygiene. After all, it’s not like you have any reason to be so concerned in what I do with my teeth...unless, of course, you plan on getting to know them real well,” he finished with a smirk, wiggling his eyebrows.
“You’re disgusting.”
“Aw, come on,” Nathan called out as Haley stormed away from him to get into the car. “My teeth are totally clean…I won’t bite unless you ask me to!”
Haley sat down in the driver’s seat and shut the door with a loud bang although it didn’t completely drown out the noise of him laughing at his own joke. “You have five seconds to get into the car or I swear I will drive there without you!” she shouted.
Nathan sauntered over to Haley’s door and bent down so he was level with the open window. “That would be a bad idea.”
“Oh, really?” Haley glared at him. “What awful thing are you going to do to me if I leave you behind?”
“Nothing,” Nathan shrugged. “It’s just that if you leave without me you’ll probably get lost since I’m the one with directions, remember?” he added, tapping his left jacket pocket.
Her mood distinctly souring, Haley realised he was right. She didn’t know the way and, apparently, Brooke had found out yesterday that Nathan and Lucas had driven in this area when they went on a road trip all across the country in college. She, on the other hand, had never driven anywhere other than Tree Hill, and she didn’t even have a great track record there, having had more than a few minor accidents in her time.
With an annoyed huff, Haley turned to her right to climb over the gears and move into the passenger seat. Nathan smiled as he opened the door to the driver’s seat and sat down while Haley scooted down into her seat. Nathan put on his seatbelt, before glancing over at Haley to ask, “You ready?”
“Let’s just get this over with.”
*
“Are you sure this is the right way?”
Nathan sighed in frustration. The first part of their journey had been conducted mostly in silence since the radio didn’t work, which had been boring, but at least it was painless. However, over the past fifteen minutes Haley kept questioning his driving, which was getting on his nerves. “I’ve already told you, Haley, yes, I’m sure.”
“But we’ve been driving on this stretch of road for a really long time,” she whined.
“It’s a highway, that’s what you do on them! Our turning doesn’t come up for a while. Just trust me, okay?”
“Well, I don’t,” Haley said frankly. When he sent a pointed look her way she continued, “Look, I’ve never been on a long road trip with anyone other than my Dad driving and I don’t want to get lost in the middle of nowhere.”
“You mean, not with me?”
“Especially not with you. Can I please see the map?”
Nathan took a hand off the wheel to take the map out of his inner jacket pocket and pass it over to her. “Here.”
“Thank you.” Haley opened it up, surprised to find it was a black and white map on an ordinary piece of paper. “Wait, what is this? Is this a printout?”
“Yeah.”
Noticing the text on the paper Haley exclaimed, “You got your directions from Google Maps?”
Nathan frowned, noticing how her voice had increased a few decibels again. “So?”
“So when Brooke said you had a map I thought she meant a proper map!”
“This is a proper map. Haven’t you ever used Google Maps before?”
“No, I-”
“Well, you should, they’re really good. And see, on the bottom of the page, they also tell you approximately how long you’ll be on each road too.”
“I cannot believe you’re trusting our fates to something you got off the internet!”
“‘Our fates’?” Nathan repeated. “Don’t be so overdramatic.”
“I am not being overdramatic, I am being practical. What if this thing turns out to be wrong and we get lost?”
“It’s not going to be wrong but if we get lost then we ask someone for directions,” Nathan said with a shrug.
“Ask who? In case you didn’t notice, we haven’t seen that many cars and it’s not like many people would stop for us anyway. I can’t see anything except r-” Haley stopped short of saying road when she did notice a lone building on the right side of the road just a little bit ahead of them. “Is that a gas station over there?”
Relieved at the change of topic, Nathan nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it looks like. But we don’t need to stop there, we have enough gas.”
“I need to stop there!”
“You need to go to the bathroom?” Nathan wondered, slowing down the car as they neared the station.
“No, I need to buy a proper map.”
Annoyed, Nathan glared at her, an act that almost caused him to drive past the station completely if Haley hadn’t let him know that he was about to. Despite his irritation, Nathan stopped the car anyway so he could buy something to drink. Although he had remembered to bring his snacks he’d forgotten to bring more than one small bottle of Gatorade, and he didn’t expect Haley to share her water.
After he had parked, both of them got out of the car and headed for the small shop, although Nathan purposely walked slower past the gas pumps so that she could go on ahead of him. Once inside Nathan took his time choosing a drink and only headed to the cashier after he heard the door open and close again to signal Haley’s exit. After he’d paid for his drink and began to head to the door Nathan thought he heard the woman wish him a pleasant journey; well that wasn’t likely, he thought wryly.
When he got back in the car he noticed Haley was already poring over her newly acquired map with his one propped up on the dashboard for comparison, but he didn’t say anything until he had put his purchase away. Then he leant sideways to look over her shoulder at the maps; the discovery made him pleased with himself but even more annoyed at her. “They’re exactly the same!”
“They’re not exactly the same,” she pouted, although she had yet to find a place where they significantly differed.
“What because yours is in colour? So if I had got a colour printout then you wouldn’t have questioned it?”
“Colour has nothing to do with it. I just think it’s better to have a proper map.”
“But it’s the same thing,” Nathan stressed, “only it costs more! You may have never used Google Maps but there are lots of people who do! Don’t you think they’d have been called on it by now if their maps were giving the wrong directions? Why do you have to be such a -” A heavy sigh completed his sentence rather than a word before he put the key into the ignition and finally drove away from the gas station.
They had driven in complete silence for two whole minutes before Haley finally asked, “Why do I have to be such a what?”
“What?” Nathan jerked his head at the sound of her voice, having been lost in his thoughts.
“You didn’t finish your sentence.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered, turning his eyes back to the mostly empty road.
“Well, I think it does. What were you going to say?”
“Look, just, never mind.”
Haley carefully folded up her new map, frowning as she chose her words. “You shouldn’t start a sentence that you don’t intend on finishing.”
“It wasn’t important,” Nathan bit, his patience wearing thin.
Haley let out a short, humourless laugh. “Well you were just about to insult me; I’d like to know what you were going to say.”
“I wasn’t going to insult you.”
“Well, you certainly weren’t going to say ‘Why do you have to be such a nice person’!” she laughed.
“Look, will you just let it go already,” he bit out.
“I want to know what you were going to say!”
“You really want to know?”
“I really -” Haley started to yell back, but suddenly shrieked when there was a loud bang and the car started to skid off the road. Nathan jerked the wheel, trying to regain control of it and managed to get them to stop, but not before they had gone a few meters off the road and into the surrounding field.
“Are you okay?”
Haley nodded, not realising he wasn’t looking at her to notice, before asking “What happened?”
He stayed in the car long enough to tell her, “I think the tyre burst,” before getting out to check.
Haley took a few moments to catch her breath after the sudden shock before going out to join him. She found Nathan squatting in front of the right back wheel. “Is it flat?” When Nathan nodded, she added, “Well, the gas station isn’t far at all. I didn’t see any tyres but I’m sure they must have some. If we just go and ask -”
“It’s okay, we have a spare tyre.”
“We do?”
“Yup,” Nathan informed her standing up to open the trunk. He took out his bags so he could lift the spare tyre that was hidden behind them and showed it to Haley. “It came with the car.”
“That’s great! So we can get back on track soon,” Haley assumed, brightening instantly.
“Hold on a second there,” Nathan told her. “We have to fix the thing first.”
“Don’t you know how to change a tyre?”
“Yeah, I do,” he laughed. “But it’s not exactly a one minute job.”
“Oh. Well, I’ll help you. I mean, I’ve never changed a tyre before but I can try…I can hold stuff,” she offered.
“Don’t worry about it. I can manage,” he told her, putting the tyre down on the ground in front of the faulty tyre before going back to get the tools he’d seen lying on the floor of the trunk.
“Okay…” Haley stuffed her hands in her pockets and silently watched him getting ready to change the tyre before she finally blurted, “You know, I was only trying to be nice.”
Nathan stopped what he was doing to look over at her. “I know…but really, I can manage it myself. I’ve done it on my own before,” he replied honestly.
“You’re not saying that just because you think I’m too much of a something to help you change a tyre?”
A smile tugged on the corners of his lips as he repeated, “A ‘something’?”
“Well, you never did finish your sentence,” she pointed out, although she sounded considerably less petulant than when she had been asking about it a few minutes ago.
“How about we just pretend like I never said anything then?” Nathan suggested. After a pause he added, “I’m sorry.”
Haley nodded. “And, uh, I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have made such a big fuss about the map.”
He resisted the urge to say, “No, you shouldn’t have,” and instead removed his jacket so he could get started on the tyre. He placed the jacket on top of the car and squatted down in front of the offending tyre before picking up one of the tools. He had started work on it when he suddenly looked up at Haley again and asked, “Do you mind helping me keep this in? It can get slippery and fall off sometimes.”
“Sure,” Haley responded, moving to kneel down next to him.
It didn’t take Nathan long to explain the process to Haley and soon they were working together diligently. It wasn’t a fast process but it didn’t take as much time as Haley had thought it would from his comments.
“Well, that’s it then,” Nathan said when they were finally done. “Thanks for your help.”
“I think I was more of a hindrance sometimes,” she admitted.
He smiled because she had in fact gotten in the way sometimes, but she had clearly tried to help. “No you weren’t really.”
“Well, then, you’re welcome,” Haley responded with a small laugh.
“So, I guess we better get this show back on the road. Although I do feel slightly hungry now,” he admitted.
“Yeah, I feel a little thirsty.”
“We could always have some of the stuff we bought with us now and then stop for a meal at the next place we pass that looks good,” he suggested.
Haley nodded her agreement. “That sounds good with me.” She dusted her jeans and stretched her right leg which she had been sitting on, willing the pins and needles feeling to go away. By the time it did Nathan had already stood up and, she realised, was holding a hand out to help her up. Pleased with the polite gesture, she took it and thanked him.
“No problem,” he replied before opening the door to the backseat to take out their snacks. “Which of your drinks do you want?”
“Just the water bottle please.”
He handed it over to her and then had a swig of his Gatorade before he took out a pack of crackerjacks.
“Are those crackerjacks? Wow, I haven’t had those in ages.”
“Want some?”
Haley shook her head. “No, it’s okay.” When Nathan shrugged and tore the packet open she saw a little packet containing the present inside. “Oooh, what did you get?”
Nathan grabbed a handful of the stuff and began to munch on it before he tended to the present. “It’s just a plastic bracelet,” he said once he had ripped it open.
“But it’s cute,” Haley noticed when he held it up for her to see.
“You want it?” he offered.
“Oh, you don’t have to give it to me,” she began to protest.
“I’m not going to do anything with it,” he laughed. “Here,” and with that he slipped the bracelet onto her wrist before she could prevent him from doing so.
“Thanks,” she admired the colourful bracelet as they completed the rest of their refreshment break in silence.
It wasn’t long before they had everything packed away and were driving again. However, Haley decided this time they were going to have a proper conversation instead of just sulking in silence, or worse, arguing needlessly. She knew she hadn’t been making as much of an effort as she could have been and there were some things she was curious about. Now was probably as good a time as any to ask him. “Uh…can I ask you something?”
Nathan glanced at Haley before turning his attention back to the road. “I guess.”
“Why did you write your book?”
“Why?” he repeated.
“Yeah, I mean, why did you want to? Had you thought of doing something like that for a while? Or, did you suddenly realise there were a large number of…potential ‘players’ out there who had no guiding force in their life?” she wondered before she could stop herself, even making air quotes with her hands at the appropriate moment.
Nathan laughed heartily at that. “No, I didn’t think about that actually. Well, not at first. It was just kind of something to do, I suppose,” he said with a shrug.
“Oh.” Haley didn’t want to be disappointed in that answer but, somehow she’d been hoping for something a bit more substantial.
Although he was concentrating on driving, Nathan couldn’t miss the slightly strained tone of her voice. “Would you rather it had been my life-long ambition to write a player’s handbook?” he joked.
Haley smiled at the thought. Him not taking the book too seriously had to be better than if he thought you could really teach men to play women through some self-help book, didn’t it? “No, I wouldn’t,” she admitted truthfully. “I suppose I just never thought of people writing and publishing books so they had something to do. When I feel bored I go to the cinema.”
“Well, I didn’t write it just because I was bored,” he countered a little defensively. “One day I was talking with the guys - well, you know Lucas. I was talking to him and some of our friends - and someone came up with the idea of a player’s handbook. I don’t even remember who thought of it or how the conversation came up actually, but it did. And our friend Chris suggested I write one and at first I didn’t think I actually would, but I remembered that a few weeks later when I wasn’t doing anything so I sat down and wrote a little, and every now and then when I was free I’d write a little more. It was only when it was about half-way through that I started to think of it as anything more than just something for fun,” Nathan explained. “It probably wouldn’t have been published though if Lucas hadn’t found it by accident one day just before I’d almost finished.”
“You didn’t show it to him?”
“I didn’t show it to anyone. No one really thought of me as a writer - especially not myself.”
He noticed that that she seemed satisfied by that answer so he decided to indulge his own curiosity and ask, “How did you decide to write your book?”
“Oh, I always knew,” Haley said easily, a wide smile on her face.
“Since you were a kid?”
She nodded. “I was always writing stories, from when I was about seven or eight. My mum still has some of them actually; she always said she was going to keep them because if I ever became a famous author they’d be worth something one day. Although I don’t think I’d want anyone else to read them; at least not the earlier stuff.”
“Bad handwriting?”
“No, my handwriting’s okay, but those stories are terrible! The earliest one she still has was about a volcano erupting and everyone in the story died except me,” Haley admitted sheepishly. When Nathan chuckled she blushed, but couldn’t help but laugh herself.
“Well, think of it this way: at least that shows how far you’ve progressed with your work. Well,” Nathan added after a pause, “I hope you have.”
“I have!” Haley exclaimed, but when she caught sight of the teasing grin on Nathan’s face she gave him a playful poke on the shoulder.
“Hey, I don’t know; I’ve only read a few pages of your book.”
“True. I’d say you should read the rest of it if I didn’t think you probably wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.”
“I thought you said it wasn’t chick lit,” Nathan joked, recalling their initial conversation.
“It’s not!” Haley quickly defended. “Well, maybe…sort of. But not exactly the way you think.”
“And what do you think I think it is?”
“You mean other than mindless drivel?”
“Hey, I never said I thought that.”
Haley shrugged, but decided she’d rather steer the topic in a different direction. She always had been a bit over-sensitive when it came to her writing. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. But, you know, if you ended up writing almost out of accident, what are you going to do now? I mean, once the tour’s over?”
“That’s actually something I’ve been asking myself,” Nathan admitted slowly. “My last job before the book and all this was as a salesman.”
“What kind of sales?”
“Cars; my Dad owns a dealership and I was working there. I could always go back to that when this is finished but…I don’t know; I don’t really want to. I was never really much into selling stuff, it was always just…”
“Something to do?” she offered.
“Pretty much,” Nathan said with a laugh. “Plus, I think my Dad wants me to take over when he retires, which I know I don’t want so it’s probably best if I don’t go back there.”
“Do you think you’ll write another book then?”
“Maybe, but I’d have to think of something to write about first. Do you have any ideas?” he said jokingly, but Haley immediately sat up straighter and started thinking.
“Oh, I’m sure I can come up with something for you!” She pondered for a moment and then suggested, “Have you thought about a follow-up? ‘A Player’s Handbook: Take Two’? I don’t know what you’d say in it though. Or maybe a version for women?”
“I don’t know if I’d like to give dating advice to women.”
“Probably a good idea,” Haley agreed. “But there’s plenty of other things you could write about! How to seduce a women in thirty days or less? Or, ooh, you could even write a fiction about a young bachelor’s exploits. A regular modern day Playboy of the Western World,” she spouted off as ideas popped into her head, but stopped when she noticed Nathan had long since stopped keeping his eyes on the road and instead trained them on her. “What? I wasn’t trying to make fun of you!”
“I know! It’s that you were serious that worries me!” he stated sourly.
“Wh-but I…I didn’t mean to offend you,” she said meekly when she realised he really was off-put by her suggestions.
“It doesn’t matter,” he shrugged and began to properly return his focus on the road only moments before sputtering, “Playboy of the Western World? I mean, what-”.
“It’s a play,” Haley interjected.
“What?”
“‘The Playboy of the Western World’; it’s a play!” she repeated. “That’s what I was thinking of when I said that.”
“Oh. So you meant for me to write a book version of that?”
“Well, not really. For starters it’s from the 1900s and…well, it’s kind of weird. At least, I thought so. Plus, the title is kind of misleading.”
“How so?” Nathan wondered. “Is he not really a playboy or something?”
“Well, he is; all the women in the village like him but it’s sort of more about if he killed his father…although they’re all pretty sure he did at the start.” Haley shrugged before continuing, “Oh, I can’t remember, I read it a long time ago. But, you know, I wasn’t trying to suggest that was all you could write. I just don’t know what other genres you like,” she explained. “Not chick lit obviously,” she stated, gaining a chuckle from Nathan. “Um…do you like mystery stories?”
Nathan nodded. “Yeah, actually, I do. Mysteries are pretty cool.”
“Me too!” she agreed enthusiastically. “I always want to see if I can work out who the murderer is before the detective does.”
He smiled at that. “I kind of just let them figure it out for me.”
“You never try to work it out yourself?”
“Well, not actively, I guess, but sometimes I’ll know who the murderer or robber or whatever is before they reveal it at the end.”
“Oh, I don’t like the ones that are just about robberies or…” Haley thought for a moment trying to come up with an alternative, “drug smuggling or whatever. Most of them are just so dull. Murder mysteries are so much more…exhilarating!”
Nathan glanced over at her side of the car and the excited expression in her face made him pause. “You know, you scare me a little bit.”
Haley laughed, but only briefly for his own deadpan expression told her he wasn’t completely joking. “Okay,” she replied slowly.
“But, hey, since you like murder mysteries so much have you thought of writing one of them yourself?” he wondered.
Haley bit the side of her lip as she paused for a moment. Finally she admitted, “Actually, I’ve started writing one of my own.”
“Really? Well, I guess I don’t have to ask you what you’ll be doing after the tour.”
Haley laughed. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that. I started it more than a year ago now and I haven’t really made much progress. It’s just been difficult because I want it to be interesting, but…still believable, you know? Plus, I’m still figuring out what all the clues will be and then there’s the problem of how it’s actually going to be solved…”
“Sounds like a chore.”
“Oh no!” she exclaimed. “Don’t get me wrong; it’s difficult, yes, but it’s not a chore. Figuring it all out is one of the things I love so much about writing. Some people say sometimes you should try not to think about it and just let your creativity or whatever take over you and let it flow, but I can never do that; well, I can when I play but when I write I have to have everything figured out, which takes ages. It’s kind of a long, drawn out process - well, for me anyway, I always get stuck,” she added, laughing, “but I love it all the same.”
It was a feeling that shone through in her eyes and Nathan found it hard to tear himself away from looking at her and re-focus his attention on the road.
“So,” Nathan cleared his throat before continuing, “what do you play?”
“Oh!” Haley blushed, not having realised what she’d let slip. “Just the piano and the guitar,” she confessed.
“Wow. You any good?”
She chuckled, “Not really. I just play for fun. But, what about you? Do you play any instruments? Or have any hobbies or something?”
“I like playing basketball.”
“Oh yeah? You any good?” she smiled repeating his words.
His reply, “Hell, yes!” made them both laugh. “Do you play ball?” he wondered.
“Oh, no,” she shook her head vehemently. “I’m terrible at sports. I have zero co-ordination, really. In high school I almost flunked Gym because of it.”
Nathan shot her a look. “Nobody flunks Gym.”
“It’s true! I was terrible. Hey, it’s not that funny,” she pouted, poking him in the shoulder at the way he was laughing. “It was very traumatic back then when it ruined my GPA.”
“Let me guess; you had a 4.0?” he smirked.
Haley crinkled her nose in disgust as she said, “3.9 thanks to stupid Gym!”
Nathan grinned but spared her from any remark. “I haven’t thought about high school in a long time,” he noted.
“Must be your old age,” she retorted, smiling innocently when he glanced back at her.
“Very funny. You know, I bet you were quite the good little girl back then. I wonder what your teachers think about you writing sex novels, now.”
“They’re not sex novels!” Haley exclaimed.
At the look of pure shock on her face it took all he had not to burst out laughing. “Well, I can’t call it chick lit, now I can’t call it sex novel either? Although I suppose the correct term for that is erotic-” His speech was interrupted by a loud slap on his arm.
“It’s not that and you know it.”
“Not what?” he teased, glancing at her again and grinning at her flushed appearance.
“You know,” she muttered.
“Oh come on. You’re telling me you can’t say it?”
“Well, of course I can.” Nathan was about to point out she hadn’t though when Haley continued, “I suppose you just must be more comfortable talking about that kind of stuff with people you don’t really know since you’ve already written about it.”
“No, no, so not true. My book is about dating not what happens when the date is over - or before the date, you know, whenever,” he shrugged. “I don’t know if I could write an actual sex manual…or erotic novel or whatever.”
“Why not? Don’t tell me you’re shy?”
“Not shy,” he said pointedly, “Just…I don’t know,” Nathan admitted. “I guess it’s not really something I’ve thought about before, but I do prefer my porn visual rather than literary.”
Haley slapped her palm against her forehead and sighed. “How did we start talking about porn?”
Nathan shrugged. “You were the one who started the conversation so it has to be your fault. Ow!” he yelped when she pinched his forearm. “It was a joke! Will you quit abusing my arm? I am driving here. Anyway, it’s your novel that’s erotica-”
“It’s romantic fiction, that’s not the same thing as erotica, Nathan!” Haley retorted, her face still slightly red.
“Okay, okay. So I guess even jokes about you writing it are out as well?”
“Yes! Besides, it would probably be a while before I had enough authority on the subject to think about writing it,” she commented off-hand.
“What?” Nathan wondered, his eyebrows rising.
Haley blushed as she realised what she’d let slip. “Oh, I didn’t think I’d actually said that out loud,” she admitted before biting her lip.
“You don’t mean what I think you meant do you?”
“Let’s change the subject, shall we? And keep your eyes on the road!” she reminded, when he continued staring at her.
He followed her instructions but the roads were still mostly empty so he continued to glance at her every now and then, although she was staring determinedly out the window and wouldn’t meet his eyes.
His better instinct was telling him to change the subject or better yet, just shut up, but he found himself saying, “You, you have…I mean…No, of course you have,” he finished, shaking his head as if that would knock some sense into him.
There was a distinct pause before she suddenly burst out, “What did you just say?”
“Nothing…just…I mean, you’re what, 25? Of course you’ve had sex.”
Her face flushed red but Haley found she was unable to stop herself from blurting out, “So you think everyone over the age of 25 has had sex?”
“Well, not everyone,” Nathan said as if it were obvious.
“Then how did you automatically include me in that?”
“Because you’re hot,” he replied, unable to keep the “duh” expression from creeping into his voice.
Haley’s mouth formed an “O” shape as her cheeks blushed brighter. “I feel strangely humiliated and flattered at the same time.”
Nathan smirked and at first Haley smiled back but then broke from his gaze and turned to look out the window. By doing so she shortly noticed a prominent building up ahead.
“Does that look like a rest stop to you?” Haley wondered.
“Yeah, I think it is. Are you hungry?”
“Um…not really.”
“Yeah, I’m not that hungry either. But it might be better to eat here anyway. We don’t really know where the next place we can eat at will be.”
“That’s true…Oh, wait!”
Nathan almost stopped the car at her sudden exclamation but Haley simply opened her map that had been resting on the dashboard in front of her and started flicking through it.
She seemed to find what she was looking for soon because her eyes lit up and she held up the page for him to look. “This has a list of all the major rest stops on our route, see?”
“Oh, that’s useful.”
She nodded as her eyes darted across the page before she finally looked up. “Ooh, there is another one up ahead. It looks about…half an hour from here,” she worked out.
“That sounds good.”
“Then we’ll stop there instead?”
“Sure.” Nathan nodded as he drove past the stop they had seen just in front of them.
“You know…I don’t think your Google Map came with a list of all the rest stops along the way.”
Nathan bit back a smirk as he glanced over his shoulder at Haley’s triumphant smile. “No, I don’t think it did,” he admitted.
“See. I told you getting a proper map was a good idea.” When he didn’t respond she prodded, “Right?”
Nathan wondered if he should tell Haley she was on the verge of returning to downright annoying, but he gave in to her teasing and let out an, “I suppose.”
She settled back into her seat looking so smug he almost couldn’t help himself from asking her outright what he’d just been wondering. But then she grinned widely at him before flipping through the map and Nathan decided to let it slide as he forced himself to concentrate on the rest of the drive ahead.
Author: Hana thedreamygirl
Pairing: Nathan/Haley
Rating: Mature
Summary: For authors Haley James and Nathan Scott it was attraction at first sight, and hate two minutes later. Luckily, they only have to endure each other for one day. Or do they?
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Disclaimer: The play mentioned is a real play, by J. M. Synge. It opened in 1907.]
Author's Note: Yes, it's finally an update! I'm *so* sorry this one took so very long, but the chapter is quite long so hopefully you guys aren't too annoyed? A big thank you to Diane for betaing this for me! :D
The Player’s Handbook Rule Number Four:
Gifts are okay, but not more than once, and nothing expensive. Jewellery should be avoided at all costs.
Chapter Six
The next morning Haley stood leaning against the rental car, her arms folded across her chest as she waited impatiently for her travelling companion to arrive. Brooke had asked her not to get cross with Nathan when the trip hadn’t even started yet, but he was late. When she had come down from her hotel room with her bags, Lucas had informed her that Nathan had already put his bags in the trunk, but had gone back inside since he had forgotten something.
Brooke and Lucas had left soon after and since then five minutes had passed with no sign of Nathan. Haley was beginning to contemplate driving herself there and letting Nathan take the train - after all, unlike Brooke, he didn’t have to be in Chicago until tomorrow - but before she was about to give in to the impulse and make her way to the driver’s seat Nathan finally showed up.
Haley huffed as he took his own sweet time strolling down the main steps before coming up to her. “You’re late,” she informed him.
Nathan just grinned. “Well, good morning to you too, sunshine. And actually I was early, I just had to go back for something,” he said as he opened the trunk and unzipped his smaller bag.
“What did you forget?”
Nathan held up the thin rectangular shaped case in his right hand. “My toothbrush.”
Haley stared wide-eyed while he stuffed the toothbrush into his bag. “It took you that long to find a toothbrush? What, was it under your pillow or something?”
“I had to wait in line at reception to give back the room key,” he explained.
“Well, you could have just bought a new one,” Haley pouted.
“Will you calm down, it’s not like we’re going to be late for anything. And I like this one,” Nathan said simply as he zipped the bag closed. “I’ve used it for a while so that the bristles are all smushed and fit around my teeth.”
“That’s a sign that you need a new one,” she exclaimed.
“No, I only need a new one when the blue strip in the middle of the bristles has gone completely white, and it’s only half-white at the moment,” Nathan informed her, having locked the trunk.
“You know, that’s an estimate. God, how old is your toothbrush really?”
Nathan raised one eyebrow at her. “Why are you so interested?”
“I happen to think good dental hygiene is very important,” Haley stated, hands on her hips.
“I meant,” Nathan said amused, “why are you so interested in my dental hygiene. After all, it’s not like you have any reason to be so concerned in what I do with my teeth...unless, of course, you plan on getting to know them real well,” he finished with a smirk, wiggling his eyebrows.
“You’re disgusting.”
“Aw, come on,” Nathan called out as Haley stormed away from him to get into the car. “My teeth are totally clean…I won’t bite unless you ask me to!”
Haley sat down in the driver’s seat and shut the door with a loud bang although it didn’t completely drown out the noise of him laughing at his own joke. “You have five seconds to get into the car or I swear I will drive there without you!” she shouted.
Nathan sauntered over to Haley’s door and bent down so he was level with the open window. “That would be a bad idea.”
“Oh, really?” Haley glared at him. “What awful thing are you going to do to me if I leave you behind?”
“Nothing,” Nathan shrugged. “It’s just that if you leave without me you’ll probably get lost since I’m the one with directions, remember?” he added, tapping his left jacket pocket.
Her mood distinctly souring, Haley realised he was right. She didn’t know the way and, apparently, Brooke had found out yesterday that Nathan and Lucas had driven in this area when they went on a road trip all across the country in college. She, on the other hand, had never driven anywhere other than Tree Hill, and she didn’t even have a great track record there, having had more than a few minor accidents in her time.
With an annoyed huff, Haley turned to her right to climb over the gears and move into the passenger seat. Nathan smiled as he opened the door to the driver’s seat and sat down while Haley scooted down into her seat. Nathan put on his seatbelt, before glancing over at Haley to ask, “You ready?”
“Let’s just get this over with.”
*
“Are you sure this is the right way?”
Nathan sighed in frustration. The first part of their journey had been conducted mostly in silence since the radio didn’t work, which had been boring, but at least it was painless. However, over the past fifteen minutes Haley kept questioning his driving, which was getting on his nerves. “I’ve already told you, Haley, yes, I’m sure.”
“But we’ve been driving on this stretch of road for a really long time,” she whined.
“It’s a highway, that’s what you do on them! Our turning doesn’t come up for a while. Just trust me, okay?”
“Well, I don’t,” Haley said frankly. When he sent a pointed look her way she continued, “Look, I’ve never been on a long road trip with anyone other than my Dad driving and I don’t want to get lost in the middle of nowhere.”
“You mean, not with me?”
“Especially not with you. Can I please see the map?”
Nathan took a hand off the wheel to take the map out of his inner jacket pocket and pass it over to her. “Here.”
“Thank you.” Haley opened it up, surprised to find it was a black and white map on an ordinary piece of paper. “Wait, what is this? Is this a printout?”
“Yeah.”
Noticing the text on the paper Haley exclaimed, “You got your directions from Google Maps?”
Nathan frowned, noticing how her voice had increased a few decibels again. “So?”
“So when Brooke said you had a map I thought she meant a proper map!”
“This is a proper map. Haven’t you ever used Google Maps before?”
“No, I-”
“Well, you should, they’re really good. And see, on the bottom of the page, they also tell you approximately how long you’ll be on each road too.”
“I cannot believe you’re trusting our fates to something you got off the internet!”
“‘Our fates’?” Nathan repeated. “Don’t be so overdramatic.”
“I am not being overdramatic, I am being practical. What if this thing turns out to be wrong and we get lost?”
“It’s not going to be wrong but if we get lost then we ask someone for directions,” Nathan said with a shrug.
“Ask who? In case you didn’t notice, we haven’t seen that many cars and it’s not like many people would stop for us anyway. I can’t see anything except r-” Haley stopped short of saying road when she did notice a lone building on the right side of the road just a little bit ahead of them. “Is that a gas station over there?”
Relieved at the change of topic, Nathan nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it looks like. But we don’t need to stop there, we have enough gas.”
“I need to stop there!”
“You need to go to the bathroom?” Nathan wondered, slowing down the car as they neared the station.
“No, I need to buy a proper map.”
Annoyed, Nathan glared at her, an act that almost caused him to drive past the station completely if Haley hadn’t let him know that he was about to. Despite his irritation, Nathan stopped the car anyway so he could buy something to drink. Although he had remembered to bring his snacks he’d forgotten to bring more than one small bottle of Gatorade, and he didn’t expect Haley to share her water.
After he had parked, both of them got out of the car and headed for the small shop, although Nathan purposely walked slower past the gas pumps so that she could go on ahead of him. Once inside Nathan took his time choosing a drink and only headed to the cashier after he heard the door open and close again to signal Haley’s exit. After he’d paid for his drink and began to head to the door Nathan thought he heard the woman wish him a pleasant journey; well that wasn’t likely, he thought wryly.
When he got back in the car he noticed Haley was already poring over her newly acquired map with his one propped up on the dashboard for comparison, but he didn’t say anything until he had put his purchase away. Then he leant sideways to look over her shoulder at the maps; the discovery made him pleased with himself but even more annoyed at her. “They’re exactly the same!”
“They’re not exactly the same,” she pouted, although she had yet to find a place where they significantly differed.
“What because yours is in colour? So if I had got a colour printout then you wouldn’t have questioned it?”
“Colour has nothing to do with it. I just think it’s better to have a proper map.”
“But it’s the same thing,” Nathan stressed, “only it costs more! You may have never used Google Maps but there are lots of people who do! Don’t you think they’d have been called on it by now if their maps were giving the wrong directions? Why do you have to be such a -” A heavy sigh completed his sentence rather than a word before he put the key into the ignition and finally drove away from the gas station.
They had driven in complete silence for two whole minutes before Haley finally asked, “Why do I have to be such a what?”
“What?” Nathan jerked his head at the sound of her voice, having been lost in his thoughts.
“You didn’t finish your sentence.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered, turning his eyes back to the mostly empty road.
“Well, I think it does. What were you going to say?”
“Look, just, never mind.”
Haley carefully folded up her new map, frowning as she chose her words. “You shouldn’t start a sentence that you don’t intend on finishing.”
“It wasn’t important,” Nathan bit, his patience wearing thin.
Haley let out a short, humourless laugh. “Well you were just about to insult me; I’d like to know what you were going to say.”
“I wasn’t going to insult you.”
“Well, you certainly weren’t going to say ‘Why do you have to be such a nice person’!” she laughed.
“Look, will you just let it go already,” he bit out.
“I want to know what you were going to say!”
“You really want to know?”
“I really -” Haley started to yell back, but suddenly shrieked when there was a loud bang and the car started to skid off the road. Nathan jerked the wheel, trying to regain control of it and managed to get them to stop, but not before they had gone a few meters off the road and into the surrounding field.
“Are you okay?”
Haley nodded, not realising he wasn’t looking at her to notice, before asking “What happened?”
He stayed in the car long enough to tell her, “I think the tyre burst,” before getting out to check.
Haley took a few moments to catch her breath after the sudden shock before going out to join him. She found Nathan squatting in front of the right back wheel. “Is it flat?” When Nathan nodded, she added, “Well, the gas station isn’t far at all. I didn’t see any tyres but I’m sure they must have some. If we just go and ask -”
“It’s okay, we have a spare tyre.”
“We do?”
“Yup,” Nathan informed her standing up to open the trunk. He took out his bags so he could lift the spare tyre that was hidden behind them and showed it to Haley. “It came with the car.”
“That’s great! So we can get back on track soon,” Haley assumed, brightening instantly.
“Hold on a second there,” Nathan told her. “We have to fix the thing first.”
“Don’t you know how to change a tyre?”
“Yeah, I do,” he laughed. “But it’s not exactly a one minute job.”
“Oh. Well, I’ll help you. I mean, I’ve never changed a tyre before but I can try…I can hold stuff,” she offered.
“Don’t worry about it. I can manage,” he told her, putting the tyre down on the ground in front of the faulty tyre before going back to get the tools he’d seen lying on the floor of the trunk.
“Okay…” Haley stuffed her hands in her pockets and silently watched him getting ready to change the tyre before she finally blurted, “You know, I was only trying to be nice.”
Nathan stopped what he was doing to look over at her. “I know…but really, I can manage it myself. I’ve done it on my own before,” he replied honestly.
“You’re not saying that just because you think I’m too much of a something to help you change a tyre?”
A smile tugged on the corners of his lips as he repeated, “A ‘something’?”
“Well, you never did finish your sentence,” she pointed out, although she sounded considerably less petulant than when she had been asking about it a few minutes ago.
“How about we just pretend like I never said anything then?” Nathan suggested. After a pause he added, “I’m sorry.”
Haley nodded. “And, uh, I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have made such a big fuss about the map.”
He resisted the urge to say, “No, you shouldn’t have,” and instead removed his jacket so he could get started on the tyre. He placed the jacket on top of the car and squatted down in front of the offending tyre before picking up one of the tools. He had started work on it when he suddenly looked up at Haley again and asked, “Do you mind helping me keep this in? It can get slippery and fall off sometimes.”
“Sure,” Haley responded, moving to kneel down next to him.
It didn’t take Nathan long to explain the process to Haley and soon they were working together diligently. It wasn’t a fast process but it didn’t take as much time as Haley had thought it would from his comments.
“Well, that’s it then,” Nathan said when they were finally done. “Thanks for your help.”
“I think I was more of a hindrance sometimes,” she admitted.
He smiled because she had in fact gotten in the way sometimes, but she had clearly tried to help. “No you weren’t really.”
“Well, then, you’re welcome,” Haley responded with a small laugh.
“So, I guess we better get this show back on the road. Although I do feel slightly hungry now,” he admitted.
“Yeah, I feel a little thirsty.”
“We could always have some of the stuff we bought with us now and then stop for a meal at the next place we pass that looks good,” he suggested.
Haley nodded her agreement. “That sounds good with me.” She dusted her jeans and stretched her right leg which she had been sitting on, willing the pins and needles feeling to go away. By the time it did Nathan had already stood up and, she realised, was holding a hand out to help her up. Pleased with the polite gesture, she took it and thanked him.
“No problem,” he replied before opening the door to the backseat to take out their snacks. “Which of your drinks do you want?”
“Just the water bottle please.”
He handed it over to her and then had a swig of his Gatorade before he took out a pack of crackerjacks.
“Are those crackerjacks? Wow, I haven’t had those in ages.”
“Want some?”
Haley shook her head. “No, it’s okay.” When Nathan shrugged and tore the packet open she saw a little packet containing the present inside. “Oooh, what did you get?”
Nathan grabbed a handful of the stuff and began to munch on it before he tended to the present. “It’s just a plastic bracelet,” he said once he had ripped it open.
“But it’s cute,” Haley noticed when he held it up for her to see.
“You want it?” he offered.
“Oh, you don’t have to give it to me,” she began to protest.
“I’m not going to do anything with it,” he laughed. “Here,” and with that he slipped the bracelet onto her wrist before she could prevent him from doing so.
“Thanks,” she admired the colourful bracelet as they completed the rest of their refreshment break in silence.
It wasn’t long before they had everything packed away and were driving again. However, Haley decided this time they were going to have a proper conversation instead of just sulking in silence, or worse, arguing needlessly. She knew she hadn’t been making as much of an effort as she could have been and there were some things she was curious about. Now was probably as good a time as any to ask him. “Uh…can I ask you something?”
Nathan glanced at Haley before turning his attention back to the road. “I guess.”
“Why did you write your book?”
“Why?” he repeated.
“Yeah, I mean, why did you want to? Had you thought of doing something like that for a while? Or, did you suddenly realise there were a large number of…potential ‘players’ out there who had no guiding force in their life?” she wondered before she could stop herself, even making air quotes with her hands at the appropriate moment.
Nathan laughed heartily at that. “No, I didn’t think about that actually. Well, not at first. It was just kind of something to do, I suppose,” he said with a shrug.
“Oh.” Haley didn’t want to be disappointed in that answer but, somehow she’d been hoping for something a bit more substantial.
Although he was concentrating on driving, Nathan couldn’t miss the slightly strained tone of her voice. “Would you rather it had been my life-long ambition to write a player’s handbook?” he joked.
Haley smiled at the thought. Him not taking the book too seriously had to be better than if he thought you could really teach men to play women through some self-help book, didn’t it? “No, I wouldn’t,” she admitted truthfully. “I suppose I just never thought of people writing and publishing books so they had something to do. When I feel bored I go to the cinema.”
“Well, I didn’t write it just because I was bored,” he countered a little defensively. “One day I was talking with the guys - well, you know Lucas. I was talking to him and some of our friends - and someone came up with the idea of a player’s handbook. I don’t even remember who thought of it or how the conversation came up actually, but it did. And our friend Chris suggested I write one and at first I didn’t think I actually would, but I remembered that a few weeks later when I wasn’t doing anything so I sat down and wrote a little, and every now and then when I was free I’d write a little more. It was only when it was about half-way through that I started to think of it as anything more than just something for fun,” Nathan explained. “It probably wouldn’t have been published though if Lucas hadn’t found it by accident one day just before I’d almost finished.”
“You didn’t show it to him?”
“I didn’t show it to anyone. No one really thought of me as a writer - especially not myself.”
He noticed that that she seemed satisfied by that answer so he decided to indulge his own curiosity and ask, “How did you decide to write your book?”
“Oh, I always knew,” Haley said easily, a wide smile on her face.
“Since you were a kid?”
She nodded. “I was always writing stories, from when I was about seven or eight. My mum still has some of them actually; she always said she was going to keep them because if I ever became a famous author they’d be worth something one day. Although I don’t think I’d want anyone else to read them; at least not the earlier stuff.”
“Bad handwriting?”
“No, my handwriting’s okay, but those stories are terrible! The earliest one she still has was about a volcano erupting and everyone in the story died except me,” Haley admitted sheepishly. When Nathan chuckled she blushed, but couldn’t help but laugh herself.
“Well, think of it this way: at least that shows how far you’ve progressed with your work. Well,” Nathan added after a pause, “I hope you have.”
“I have!” Haley exclaimed, but when she caught sight of the teasing grin on Nathan’s face she gave him a playful poke on the shoulder.
“Hey, I don’t know; I’ve only read a few pages of your book.”
“True. I’d say you should read the rest of it if I didn’t think you probably wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.”
“I thought you said it wasn’t chick lit,” Nathan joked, recalling their initial conversation.
“It’s not!” Haley quickly defended. “Well, maybe…sort of. But not exactly the way you think.”
“And what do you think I think it is?”
“You mean other than mindless drivel?”
“Hey, I never said I thought that.”
Haley shrugged, but decided she’d rather steer the topic in a different direction. She always had been a bit over-sensitive when it came to her writing. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. But, you know, if you ended up writing almost out of accident, what are you going to do now? I mean, once the tour’s over?”
“That’s actually something I’ve been asking myself,” Nathan admitted slowly. “My last job before the book and all this was as a salesman.”
“What kind of sales?”
“Cars; my Dad owns a dealership and I was working there. I could always go back to that when this is finished but…I don’t know; I don’t really want to. I was never really much into selling stuff, it was always just…”
“Something to do?” she offered.
“Pretty much,” Nathan said with a laugh. “Plus, I think my Dad wants me to take over when he retires, which I know I don’t want so it’s probably best if I don’t go back there.”
“Do you think you’ll write another book then?”
“Maybe, but I’d have to think of something to write about first. Do you have any ideas?” he said jokingly, but Haley immediately sat up straighter and started thinking.
“Oh, I’m sure I can come up with something for you!” She pondered for a moment and then suggested, “Have you thought about a follow-up? ‘A Player’s Handbook: Take Two’? I don’t know what you’d say in it though. Or maybe a version for women?”
“I don’t know if I’d like to give dating advice to women.”
“Probably a good idea,” Haley agreed. “But there’s plenty of other things you could write about! How to seduce a women in thirty days or less? Or, ooh, you could even write a fiction about a young bachelor’s exploits. A regular modern day Playboy of the Western World,” she spouted off as ideas popped into her head, but stopped when she noticed Nathan had long since stopped keeping his eyes on the road and instead trained them on her. “What? I wasn’t trying to make fun of you!”
“I know! It’s that you were serious that worries me!” he stated sourly.
“Wh-but I…I didn’t mean to offend you,” she said meekly when she realised he really was off-put by her suggestions.
“It doesn’t matter,” he shrugged and began to properly return his focus on the road only moments before sputtering, “Playboy of the Western World? I mean, what-”.
“It’s a play,” Haley interjected.
“What?”
“‘The Playboy of the Western World’; it’s a play!” she repeated. “That’s what I was thinking of when I said that.”
“Oh. So you meant for me to write a book version of that?”
“Well, not really. For starters it’s from the 1900s and…well, it’s kind of weird. At least, I thought so. Plus, the title is kind of misleading.”
“How so?” Nathan wondered. “Is he not really a playboy or something?”
“Well, he is; all the women in the village like him but it’s sort of more about if he killed his father…although they’re all pretty sure he did at the start.” Haley shrugged before continuing, “Oh, I can’t remember, I read it a long time ago. But, you know, I wasn’t trying to suggest that was all you could write. I just don’t know what other genres you like,” she explained. “Not chick lit obviously,” she stated, gaining a chuckle from Nathan. “Um…do you like mystery stories?”
Nathan nodded. “Yeah, actually, I do. Mysteries are pretty cool.”
“Me too!” she agreed enthusiastically. “I always want to see if I can work out who the murderer is before the detective does.”
He smiled at that. “I kind of just let them figure it out for me.”
“You never try to work it out yourself?”
“Well, not actively, I guess, but sometimes I’ll know who the murderer or robber or whatever is before they reveal it at the end.”
“Oh, I don’t like the ones that are just about robberies or…” Haley thought for a moment trying to come up with an alternative, “drug smuggling or whatever. Most of them are just so dull. Murder mysteries are so much more…exhilarating!”
Nathan glanced over at her side of the car and the excited expression in her face made him pause. “You know, you scare me a little bit.”
Haley laughed, but only briefly for his own deadpan expression told her he wasn’t completely joking. “Okay,” she replied slowly.
“But, hey, since you like murder mysteries so much have you thought of writing one of them yourself?” he wondered.
Haley bit the side of her lip as she paused for a moment. Finally she admitted, “Actually, I’ve started writing one of my own.”
“Really? Well, I guess I don’t have to ask you what you’ll be doing after the tour.”
Haley laughed. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that. I started it more than a year ago now and I haven’t really made much progress. It’s just been difficult because I want it to be interesting, but…still believable, you know? Plus, I’m still figuring out what all the clues will be and then there’s the problem of how it’s actually going to be solved…”
“Sounds like a chore.”
“Oh no!” she exclaimed. “Don’t get me wrong; it’s difficult, yes, but it’s not a chore. Figuring it all out is one of the things I love so much about writing. Some people say sometimes you should try not to think about it and just let your creativity or whatever take over you and let it flow, but I can never do that; well, I can when I play but when I write I have to have everything figured out, which takes ages. It’s kind of a long, drawn out process - well, for me anyway, I always get stuck,” she added, laughing, “but I love it all the same.”
It was a feeling that shone through in her eyes and Nathan found it hard to tear himself away from looking at her and re-focus his attention on the road.
“So,” Nathan cleared his throat before continuing, “what do you play?”
“Oh!” Haley blushed, not having realised what she’d let slip. “Just the piano and the guitar,” she confessed.
“Wow. You any good?”
She chuckled, “Not really. I just play for fun. But, what about you? Do you play any instruments? Or have any hobbies or something?”
“I like playing basketball.”
“Oh yeah? You any good?” she smiled repeating his words.
His reply, “Hell, yes!” made them both laugh. “Do you play ball?” he wondered.
“Oh, no,” she shook her head vehemently. “I’m terrible at sports. I have zero co-ordination, really. In high school I almost flunked Gym because of it.”
Nathan shot her a look. “Nobody flunks Gym.”
“It’s true! I was terrible. Hey, it’s not that funny,” she pouted, poking him in the shoulder at the way he was laughing. “It was very traumatic back then when it ruined my GPA.”
“Let me guess; you had a 4.0?” he smirked.
Haley crinkled her nose in disgust as she said, “3.9 thanks to stupid Gym!”
Nathan grinned but spared her from any remark. “I haven’t thought about high school in a long time,” he noted.
“Must be your old age,” she retorted, smiling innocently when he glanced back at her.
“Very funny. You know, I bet you were quite the good little girl back then. I wonder what your teachers think about you writing sex novels, now.”
“They’re not sex novels!” Haley exclaimed.
At the look of pure shock on her face it took all he had not to burst out laughing. “Well, I can’t call it chick lit, now I can’t call it sex novel either? Although I suppose the correct term for that is erotic-” His speech was interrupted by a loud slap on his arm.
“It’s not that and you know it.”
“Not what?” he teased, glancing at her again and grinning at her flushed appearance.
“You know,” she muttered.
“Oh come on. You’re telling me you can’t say it?”
“Well, of course I can.” Nathan was about to point out she hadn’t though when Haley continued, “I suppose you just must be more comfortable talking about that kind of stuff with people you don’t really know since you’ve already written about it.”
“No, no, so not true. My book is about dating not what happens when the date is over - or before the date, you know, whenever,” he shrugged. “I don’t know if I could write an actual sex manual…or erotic novel or whatever.”
“Why not? Don’t tell me you’re shy?”
“Not shy,” he said pointedly, “Just…I don’t know,” Nathan admitted. “I guess it’s not really something I’ve thought about before, but I do prefer my porn visual rather than literary.”
Haley slapped her palm against her forehead and sighed. “How did we start talking about porn?”
Nathan shrugged. “You were the one who started the conversation so it has to be your fault. Ow!” he yelped when she pinched his forearm. “It was a joke! Will you quit abusing my arm? I am driving here. Anyway, it’s your novel that’s erotica-”
“It’s romantic fiction, that’s not the same thing as erotica, Nathan!” Haley retorted, her face still slightly red.
“Okay, okay. So I guess even jokes about you writing it are out as well?”
“Yes! Besides, it would probably be a while before I had enough authority on the subject to think about writing it,” she commented off-hand.
“What?” Nathan wondered, his eyebrows rising.
Haley blushed as she realised what she’d let slip. “Oh, I didn’t think I’d actually said that out loud,” she admitted before biting her lip.
“You don’t mean what I think you meant do you?”
“Let’s change the subject, shall we? And keep your eyes on the road!” she reminded, when he continued staring at her.
He followed her instructions but the roads were still mostly empty so he continued to glance at her every now and then, although she was staring determinedly out the window and wouldn’t meet his eyes.
His better instinct was telling him to change the subject or better yet, just shut up, but he found himself saying, “You, you have…I mean…No, of course you have,” he finished, shaking his head as if that would knock some sense into him.
There was a distinct pause before she suddenly burst out, “What did you just say?”
“Nothing…just…I mean, you’re what, 25? Of course you’ve had sex.”
Her face flushed red but Haley found she was unable to stop herself from blurting out, “So you think everyone over the age of 25 has had sex?”
“Well, not everyone,” Nathan said as if it were obvious.
“Then how did you automatically include me in that?”
“Because you’re hot,” he replied, unable to keep the “duh” expression from creeping into his voice.
Haley’s mouth formed an “O” shape as her cheeks blushed brighter. “I feel strangely humiliated and flattered at the same time.”
Nathan smirked and at first Haley smiled back but then broke from his gaze and turned to look out the window. By doing so she shortly noticed a prominent building up ahead.
“Does that look like a rest stop to you?” Haley wondered.
“Yeah, I think it is. Are you hungry?”
“Um…not really.”
“Yeah, I’m not that hungry either. But it might be better to eat here anyway. We don’t really know where the next place we can eat at will be.”
“That’s true…Oh, wait!”
Nathan almost stopped the car at her sudden exclamation but Haley simply opened her map that had been resting on the dashboard in front of her and started flicking through it.
She seemed to find what she was looking for soon because her eyes lit up and she held up the page for him to look. “This has a list of all the major rest stops on our route, see?”
“Oh, that’s useful.”
She nodded as her eyes darted across the page before she finally looked up. “Ooh, there is another one up ahead. It looks about…half an hour from here,” she worked out.
“That sounds good.”
“Then we’ll stop there instead?”
“Sure.” Nathan nodded as he drove past the stop they had seen just in front of them.
“You know…I don’t think your Google Map came with a list of all the rest stops along the way.”
Nathan bit back a smirk as he glanced over his shoulder at Haley’s triumphant smile. “No, I don’t think it did,” he admitted.
“See. I told you getting a proper map was a good idea.” When he didn’t respond she prodded, “Right?”
Nathan wondered if he should tell Haley she was on the verge of returning to downright annoying, but he gave in to her teasing and let out an, “I suppose.”
She settled back into her seat looking so smug he almost couldn’t help himself from asking her outright what he’d just been wondering. But then she grinned widely at him before flipping through the map and Nathan decided to let it slide as he forced himself to concentrate on the rest of the drive ahead.