Page 101 of Starcrossed Colorado

Emma

“Don’t putyour feet on the dash,” Ashford grumped at me. “It’s dangerous if we get in an accident.”

“You’re such a dad.” Smiling, I took my socked feet down.

“Daddy? Can I put my head out the window like Stella?”

I turned to look in the backseat of Ashford’s truck. Stella had her paws on the door, tongue and ears blowing in the wind from the half-open window.

“Not a good idea on the highway, monkey. But maybe in the parking lot of the campsite. When we get there.”

“But she’s having so much fun,” Maisie said, kicking her legs in her booster seat.

Ashford heaved a sigh. “All right. You can stick your hand out. But that’s it.”

“Softie,” I whispered.

Shaking his head, Ashford buzzed Maisie’s window down, filling the cabin with a rush of air that had my dark locks swirling around my head. I laughed, pulling my hair into a knot, then turned up the radio.

“Oh! Our road-trip playlist.” Bending to search through my bag at my feet, I found my phone and cued it up.

“You made a playlist?” he asked.

“Ofcoursewe did. Maisie and I.”

I wassoready for this trip. It was the first Friday of August, the sun shone down from a crystal-clear blue sky, and we had about five days of camping, breathtaking scenery, and open road to look forward to. We planned to camp for three nights and then meet up with Grace for a final night at a hot spring.

“I love this song!” Maisie shouted when a new one came on. “Daddy, we all have to sing. You too.”

“Not happening.”

“Please?”

“I don’t know any of these songs.”

“What musicdoyou like?” I asked.

He shrugged, being all mysterious.

After that reporter had left town, we’d been on pins and needles for days wondering when the next might arrive. But no one had. Then the news broke that Ayla had resurfaced. She’d checked herself into a rehabilitation facility in New England for exhaustion. A media frenzy followed her there.

Ayla hadn’t returned Ashford’s call. I knew almost nothing about her, and I wished her well. I couldn’t imagine the pressure that her level of fame would put her under. But I was glad that the focus was off of Ashford and Maisie. At least for now.

As far as what would happen after we returned to Silver Ridge, what the last few weeks of the summer would bring, my plans for the fall…

Nope. Not thinking about any of that. Thinking about the future was off limits this week.

But Ihadmade it my mission to discover what kind of music Ashford liked. Whenever I asked him about different genres, whether it was alternative or country or classic rock, he claimed to have no opinion. But I refused to believe that somebody had no opinion on music.

I turned and winked at Maisie. “We put a lot of different songs on this playlist. I bet we’ll have your dad singing along by the end of this trip.”

A few hours later, we pulled into the campsite. It was a perfect spot, surrounded by tall pine trees with craggy mountains looking down on us. The nearest other campsite was barely within view. Maisie and Stella had already run off to explore.

“How long ago did you book this?” I asked.

Ashford laughed as he unloaded gear from his truck bed. “After Maisie and I took our camping trip last year. Best bang for your vacation bucks, and spots book up fast.”

“It’s gorgeous.”

---