Page 45 of The Roads We Follow

Her gaze drops to her blue-painted toenails. “You guessed right the other day at the bathhouse. Tav wants me to give us another chance.”

Despite myself, I feel my competitive edge surge. A full five seconds go by before I’m chill enough to ask, “And what do you want?”

“To stay friends, which is why I haven’t given him an answer yet.”

“But you’re working on his lyrics.”

She bristles at my flat tone. “As I told you before, I’ve been helping Tav with songwriting for ages. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“To you or to him?”

She opens her mouth, and then her lips twist as she points at my chest. “Ah,see? There you go again with your therapist tricks.” She tips her head to the side. “How about this: I’ll answer more questions about my ex when you’re ready to tell me the story behind how you came to be unemployed. Deal?”

“Deal.” I can’t help but smile at her cheekiness. “Don’t look now, but your mom and sisters are headed our way.”

A gate lowers over her expression then, and I don’t have to wonder where her mind has gone.The tell-all.“Are you sure you shouldn’t at least pull your mom aside and tell her about—”

“No.” The warning in her eyes and the fear in her tone cause me to stand down.

I nod. Understood. I also understand something else in that moment: Raegan’s pattern for delaying conflict.

“I’m gonna grab a few snacks from inside.” She hitches her thumb toward the mini-mart. “You want me to get that energy drink you like? The purple one?” Her hair blows off her shoulder as she steps into the sunshine, and for what feels like the hundredth time today, I’m struck by her beauty.

Before she can take another step away, I reach for her wrist and gently tug her to a stop. Her look of surprise quickens my pulse as I imagine what I’d do in this moment if she were mine. But instead, I simply say, “I never want you to feel tricked by me. Not ever. You only share what you feel safe enough to share with me and nothing more. Deal?”

She blinks twice, then swallows. “Deal.”

I release her wrist, and it takes several seconds before she moves again.

Ten minutes later, once everyone has settled into their seats with their carefully selected road-trip goods, Raegan climbs in beside me and sets my favorite energy drink in the cup holder. I thank her and then note the small plastic bag on her lap as she buckles up.

As soon as I twist the key in the ignition and check my mirrors, she’s cupping something between her palms. “I have something for you. Wanna guess?”

I make a show of examining every angle of her hold. “If it’s hush money, you should know I only accept crisp hundreds.”

She rolls her eyes. “Try again.”

“Unless you’ve hidden a pearl inside that hand clamshell, I’m out of guesses.”

She opens her palms, and inside is a white wrapper with the wordsGoo Goo Clusterstamped on top. Her favorite candy.

“Now you can see for yourself how amazing they are,” she says.

“You’re pretty confident about this.”

“What can I say, I have high standards when it comes to my chocolate.”

On my first bite, I confirm she isn’t wrong. This might be the best treat to ever come out of a gas-station convenience store. On my second bite, I ask her where I can find a matching pair of Goo Goo Cluster pajamas.

12

Raegan

Mama’s up to something; I can feel it.

First, it was the weird way she insisted all of us girls purchase coordinating outfits and boots on our outing this morning for whatever she has up her sleeve for us tonight, and second, she’s been unusually giddy all day. I tried to get whatever secret she’s hiding out of Micah by bribing him with a second Goo Goo Cluster, but he swears he doesn’t know anything more than I do. All she told us is that after dinner we’re going to an old ballroom called Carter’s that she and Lynn sang at back in the day, along with a verbal caution to“prepare our hearts and our dancing feet for a good time!”

Perhaps one of us girls might have pressed Mama for more if we hadn’t been so enamored with checking in to the fancy Tulsa hotel Micah pulled up to in midtown. The idea of showering in a non-mobile bathroom where shaving my legs doesn’t involve advanced-level acrobatic training was all I needed to skip out of that bus with a huge smile on my face. Even Micah looked ready for a break fromthe road, and he’s the diehard among us. I can only imagine how nice it will be for him to stretch his long legs out on a real mattress.

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