Page 20 of Wish Lists and Road Trips

I put the car in gear and headed in the direction the robotic voice told me to. The highways looked different down here. Cleaner. My dad told me that most of the roads in the Northeast used to be cattle trails, that was why they meandered and didn’t seem to have any logic like the grids in the newer metropolitan areas did. It was a bitch when he had to plan new construction, but I was used to them and they made for an interesting drive. This was just miles of pavement and trees. And Brit.

She was fooling around with the radio, doing this little shoulder shimmy dance move that made her breasts bounce under her new T-shirt. Maybe they’d gotten tired of me trying to keep my eyes off her exposed stomach and wanted to remind me they were still there.

Not that I was ogling her, but my eyes kept catching pieces of her against my will. Her calves peeking out from under her skirt, the huge knot of pinkish-purple hair on the top of her head, that soft stomach, cruise-ship tan. It was going to be a long ride of trying to keep my eyes to myself, but whatever I’d been flirting with last night at the bar, and this morning, had to be stuffed far away if we were going to finish this trip together.

I hadn’t been serious about dropping her at the train station alone. Honestly, I was going to do whatever she was going to do from the beginning. I wanted to make sure she got home safe. On the cruise ship, she could stay relatively safe and still complete whateverconquer the worldmission she seemed to be on, but driving through the night in these rural places by herself? I didn’t want to think about how dangerous that was.

And selfishly, I wanted to keep her for a little longer. I remembered how last night she’d asked if my bad mood was because I didn’t enjoy her company, and a little screw turned in my chest. I felt like a total dick after that. That was half the reason why I’d stayed at that bar with her as long as I did, my credit card groaning every time I ordered another fifteen-dollar beer. The other half was I just enjoyed listening to her. People always talk about comfortable silences, and I could admit nowadays I preferred it to making conversation, but I’d gotten used to the noise after a day and a half.

I liked how she drowned out the constant loop of worry running through my brain. Was my mom sleeping? Did Willow need me to take care of anything at the house? Brit’s peace was contagious. Last night, I’d fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow instead of tossing and turning until the sun came up.

I was glad I could help her even if she didn’t need it, and if I were being really honest, I was just glad not to be alone.

And I was glad that it was a whole hour before our first disagreement.

“No way,” I said again as I hit the scan button on the radio. I thought Brit’s head was going to pop off of her neck and start levitating in a geyser of steam.

“Nick! Is this why you insisted on paying for this car? So you could be in charge of everything?”

“No.” I’d donethatbecause she’d saved me a couple hundred in gas and hotel rooms by convincing me to take this train, and I figured I owed her. Plus, I just wanted to. I didn’t know her financial situation and I was going to have to rent it either way.

She made a high-pitched sound like a grinding gear.

“Brit, be reasonable. It’s fifteen hours.”

“I am being reasonable,Nick, but I can’t take any more acoustic emo rock. I’ll literally go into a coma.” She picked up my phone and started scrolling through my music. “Ugh! It’s all like this. How do you function?”

“I gave up listening to happy music with ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat.’ This is life, sweetheart. Messy, sad.”

“But life is happy sometimes too, Nick. And by the way, ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ is hella sad.”

“What? Why?”

“Did you ever listen to the lyrics? ‘Life is but a dream’? How depressing! Life is real and needs to be grabbed by the horns, not pittered away floating downriver. Though, I’m not surprised one bit that your warped young mind thought it was happy.”

I squinted at her, feeling a little like my worldview had been shattered. “Okay, well, country music isn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows.”

“The Chicks are technically cross-over, and we’re in Texas. I’m trying to soak up the flavor, and since you wouldn’t let us stop at that Tex-Mex stand—”

“Because we already ate and there is no way they had a proper food license for that thing.”

“Ugh! Nick, the point is authentic tacos. It’s the experience. I’ll tell you what, the first person to come up with three famous cowboys gets to pick the music. Go.”

I flicked on my blinker and passed a rust-bucket pickup going five under the speed limit. “How about driver’s choice?”

“You won’t let me drive!”

I bit back a laugh. The slightest provocation sent Brit’s drama meter soaring and it was entertaining.

She swiped my screen, brow furrowed. “Even your workout playlist is depressing. I’m going to add some songs.”

“No, thanks.”

“Too late.” She peered at me through her lashes. “Really, though. Why do you listen to this stuff?”

I shrugged. My playlists did tend to be a little melancholy, but they weren’t depressing. “I’ve never really thought about it as sad. It’s more that I like to listen to music that’s about something real. I guess I just don’t like shallow.”

She tipped her head, eyeing me. “Okay, I get that. But it’s okay to like things just because they’re fun. I’m spicing up your music library before this trip is over.”

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