Finally got my password reset for this site! This story was originally posted on AO3, but I had always meant to have it on both.
Another intersection. That makes the fourth, if her count is right. Hailey bites the inside of her cheek to keep her laughter in. Her and Jay had been tasked with delivering a witness to a small town about an hour and a half west of the city. It was a nice drive. A lot of farms. She liked the green. It was a nice break from the brick and concrete the city offered. The only downside was that it looked like a storm was coming. Giant clouds of varying shades of gray covered the sun and any hope of blue skies.
Right now though, they are lost. Well, not according to Jay. But Hailey knows that if they had just taken the same route home, they'd be hitting the exit ramp right about now. Instead, Jay's brilliant idea of taking some backroads home, led to them here. At an intersection, debating whether or not to go left, yet again.
"How is there no service? I thought the whole 'can you hear me now' thing resolved that issue." Jay jabs at the display console, trying to get the navigation system to update.
"Maybe if you hit it a little harder." The laugh she had been suppressing finally breaks free and the glare Jay sends her way only increases the fit.
"Maybe you'd like to give it a go?" He gestures to the steering wheel. His unimpressed look suggests now is not the time for laughter.
"Oh no. Your truck, your decision. But probably don't choose left again. It seems to only take us to north/south intersections." Still trying to rein in her laugh, she reaches over to lay her hand on his arm. "Could be worse, right? Could be stuck with some beat cop named Larry, who smokes and chews gum like a cow."
He does laugh at that. Getting lost with Hailey isn't really all that bad. Except, he made reservations for them at this new restaurant and if they don't make it into the city in the next hour, they're gonna miss it.
"Right it is, then." Jay starts the truck in the opposite direction his gut is telling him to go, hoping that this way will at the very least provide a place to stop and ask for directions. And gas. They'll need gas soon if this keeps up.
"Good choice. Plus, at least it isn't raining..." Her words trail off as a massive boom of thunder practically shakes the truck.
"Of course. What's a little storm on top of us being lost?" Jay flicks on the wipers as the first drops of rain begin to fall.
"Ha, so you admit it! We are lost." She turns in her seat, tucking one leg under herself. It feels like a win hearing him say that.
"Keep it up, Upton. I'll roll your window down then lock it." He's only kidding, but it works. He will never live this down.
The right turn they took turns into miles of a straightaway that switches into a dirt road, with no turn offs or other roads that either can see. Jay has the wipers on top speed, but the rain is coming down so fast and hard that it's barely helping.
"Can you see? Cause um...it would really suck to wreck out here. In the middle of nowhere…" They should probably just pull over. Try and wait out the storm.
As if he read her mind, Jay slows the truck, pulling over on the dirt road as far as he can without hitting the drain ditches.
"I'm sorry, Hailey." He says it like he's disappointed in himself.
It's not that big of a deal, honestly. So it takes double the time to get back home, why does he seem so upset?
"I'm not mad, Jay. Your little detour might have gotten us stuck out here, but it's not the end of the world." She unbuckles, sliding as close to him as the center console allows.
"I know. It's just, I uh, I made reservations at that new place you wanted to try. Six months, today." Six months since they crossed the line from partners to this. Six months of being the kind of happy he never thought he'd find.
"Jay Halstead, a closet sentimentalist. Who knew?" She's grinning when her lips touch his. This man never stops surprising her. It's one of the many things she loves about him. "And, you of all people, should know that I don't really care either way about fancy things. Just you and me, right?" She kisses him again, lingering a little longer. It isn't until her stomach rumbles loudly that she leans back from him.
"Ugh, and now I'm hungry."
"At least we won't starve. Want me to get you some corn?" Jay points to the field to the right of the truck, laughing at his own humor. He'd brave the storm if she asked him to.
"Joke's on you. That's field corn." She's pretty sure it is anyway. Almost all the corn fields they had passed thus far had been.
"So...what's the difference?" Corn is corn. Or at least he thought it was.
"That's what they feed the animals, Jay."
"I'm scared to ask why you know that." As far as he knows, she never grew up in a farming town.
Hailey smiles over at him just as her stomach rumbles again, causing her cheeks to turn pink with embarrassment. There's no way he can hear it over the rain pouring down, but she can.
"Um...perks of insomnia, I guess." It's probably something she picked up during a really bad bout of her sporadic insomnia. After a while, she stops picking the shows, just watches whatever is on.
"Good thing I came prepared." Jay taps the center console compartment, smiling when Hailey happily hums her appreciation at what she finds inside. "That's the real deal right there. Handmade, none of that processed, mass market crap you claim to love."
"Tastes sooo good." She doesn't even care that she mumbles around the bite she took. This chocolate bar, with it's creamy nougat, buttery caramel, and salty peanuts, beats her corner store candy bar by a mile.
"You like it, huh?" Jay had found the tiny old German woman who makes the chocolates, completely by accident. A happy accident, though. Hilde, the chocolatier, chatted with Jay for nearly an hour after he wandered into her store. It was like something straight out of Willy Wonka. Just chocolate and mini pieces of colorfully wrapped candies everywhere.
"Want some?" She smiles brightly over at him, rolling her eyes when he crinkles his nose and shakes his head.
"I got this one to try." He's not overly fond of sweets. The chocolate bar he picked up is a Special Reserve Dark Chocolate one. It's his turn to hum out his approval after popping a piece into his mouth. There's almost no sweetness to it. It's like the strongest chocolate flavor he's ever tasted.
"Can you ever eat chocolate without making a mess?" He can't help but grin when she hurries to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Jerk."
"Hey?" Jay reaches over, sliding his hand to the back of her neck, pulling her towards him. His tongue darts out, tracing the seam of her lips before she opens her mouth to let out a breath of surprise. "Missed a spot." She tastes like the chocolate bar and something else. Something that's all her.
Seconds pass, or maybe minutes. It's so easy to lose himself when they are like this, but suddenly she's crawling over the middle console. Her knees rest on the outside of his thighs and he swallows her laugh when he captures her lips once again while shifting the seat back. They could never do this back in the city. Too many people and chances of getting caught. But out here, in the middle of nowhere? He's all for it, and if the way she's pulling at the buttons of his shirt tell him anything, she is too.
It's fast and a little frantic, with equal amounts of laughs and sighs. Neither care that the storm is raging outside or that they are lost and stuck here for the moment. All that matters is this, right here. In the front of Jay's truck, both taking what they want from the other.
"Shit." Jay exhales slowly, ending on a groan of displeasure as Hailey lifts herself off him and returns back to her seat.
Once Hailey shimmies back into her pants, she pulls on her shirt, still trying to catch her breath. She isn't sure what is beating harder, her heart or the rain pounding on the roof of the truck. Sex with Jay is explosive at times. She feels like she just got a full workout in, the best kind.
"Can I tell you something?" Hailey presses her head back against the back of the seat, looking at him. "I have wanted to do that forever." Back before they were even a thing, she would often think about what it would like to be with him. More often than not, her little sex dreams about her partner involved his truck. The man was just too good looking behind the wheel.
"Me too. I've never enjoyed getting lost so much."
"I um...wouldn't be opposed to getting lost again. Maybe try out the bed of this thing." She laughs at the way his eyes darken with want once again.
"Hey, look. Storms behind us now." Both buckle back in before Jay starts the truck and begins to drive.
"Oh my God. Do you see that?" Not even a quarter of a mile after pulling back onto the road, Jay spots a small sign that has route 64 on it. It's the next left, which he points out to her that he had been correct in choosing left turns. They'd been so close when they pulled off the road.
"Should we stay straight? Take another backroad?" She can't help but tease him.
"Haha." Yep. He'd been right. She will never let him live this down.
They end up getting back into the city almost three full hours later than they should have. They missed the reservation, but Jay called ahead and put an order in for pizza. Picking up a six-pack as well before finally making their way to Hailey's place.
After taking the keys from the ignition, Jay turns to face her, preparing to apologize again for making a bit of a mess of this day, but Hailey beats him.
"This was the best six month anniversary ever." Because she can, she leans closer, closing her eyes when his left hand pushes the hair from the right side of her face before settling there.
Jay kisses her, deepening the kiss for a moment before touching his forehead to hers.
His breath is warm against her lips as she slowly smiles, staring into his eyes.
"I love you, Jay." The words come easier now, no fear or hesitation when she gives them to him.
"I love you too." More than anything.
They reluctantly leave the cab of his truck, making their way to her front door.
"So," Jay starts, "Pizza, beer, bed?"
"I was thinking you, pizza and beer, then," The pizza box hits the counter a second before she pulls her shirt up over her head, "then, you in the shower...maybe in the bed too."
Jay follows the sound of her laughter into the living room where he finds her well on her way to being naked. She wasn't wrong.
This was the best anniversary he's ever had.
