Page 66 of Wish Lists and Road Trips

Every time she reacted to me, my chest felt full, like my heart was beating more vigorously than it ever had, pumping blood to all the parts of my brain that remembered how to enjoy things. I was enjoying the hell out of Brit squirming against me, so eager and wanting, and a little surprised at herself.

I’d been right about her not having much experience, but it made me incredibly angry to think she’d been planning to marry someone who hadn’t even bothered to fuck her properly. If she’d give me the chance, I’d change that. I’d stay on this broken-down train as long as it took to show her exactly how good I could make her feel.

“I missed you while I was sleeping,” she whispered.

“Let’s make up for it.”

She kissed my jaw and I closed my eyes, letting the unfamiliar sensation of relaxation, that peace she gave me, warm my blood and loosen my muscles.

I’d already decided what to do about Willow’s picture. When I got to New York, I’d head to the harbor and take a picture of the horizon over the Atlantic. Alex wasn’t there yet, he had a long journey ahead of him without me, but that was where he’d end up. With that settled in my brain, all I had left to do was enjoy being away from the rest of the world. Just me and Brit.

And when we got off this train, I wasn’t letting her go. Last night while she was curled under my arm, sighing in her sleep, I’d given a long, hard thought to what she’d said about only having one life. If I didn’t take that to heart now, I’d have nothing to show for all of the shit Alex had put me through on this trip.

It was going to be hard. She lived five hours and sixteen minutes away—yeah, I’d mapped it out right after she’d told me her parents’ address—but this wasn’t something I was going to walk away from. This felt . . .shefelt like finding a piece of myself I hadn’t even known was missing. She was all of the smiles she’d accused me of holding back, all of the good things I’d been afraid to feel wrapped in this beautiful, pink-haired, amber-eyed package.

I was already thinking about driving to see Brit whenever I could, flying her out to see me. I had about ten years’ worth of vacation time I suddenly wanted to use to explore every inch of her body. I felt like a kid planning to run away from home, but I found myself drunk off the idea of it—me and her and miles.

“What’s that smile for?” she asked, grinning back at me.

“You.”

She inched backward, crawling down my body and I nearly pinched myself. Was this another dream?

Brit picked her head up and smiled at me, that mischief that usually made me nervous dancing on her face. I swallowed hard, my stomach muscles clenching as she gathered her hair on top of her head and slipped an elastic band from her wrist to tie it up.

Then there was the screech of metal on metal and the train jolted, sending her tumbling forward.

Her face bounced off of my stomach.

“Shit. Are you all right?” I tucked her hair behind her ear and swallowed a laugh.

“Ow. Yes. Your abs are ridiculous.” She rubbed her cheek. “Hey, we’re moving!”

I sat up and took stock of my equilibrium. We were definitely in motion. I knew I was supposed to be happy about that, but I couldn’t help the way my chest deflated like a day-old balloon.

Brit stretched over me and pulled the curtain aside, her face twisting in confusion.

“What’s wrong?” I pushed up to my elbows and watched the pine trees start to blur as we picked up speed.

“We’re going the wrong way.”

As soon as she said it, a commotion started outside of the door. It was loud enough that my face burned at the thought of what all of our neighbors must have heard from our room last night.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no.” Brit was already on her feet, pulling on her underwear. I reached for her wrist.

“Hey, wait up.” I glanced down at my lap. “I’ll go. I just need a minute.”

But her face drained of color. “Nick, if I don’t get home today, I won’t make the auction.”

I frantically hit redial on Meri’s number. It was barely sun-up. When it finally woke her, she was going to kill me.

The conductor told us it would take a crew the day to demolish the tree that we’d run into, and it turned out twenty-five miles up the track, a snow drift had covered the tracks overnight. Big enough that it needed to be plowed. Another engine had been sent while we were sleeping and it was hauling us back the way we came to a tiny town two hours south.

The absolute worst case scenario had come true. Right after the absolute best.

I looked at Nick as the phone rang endlessly, my bottom lip raw from worrying my teeth over it. “They’re going to help us make arrangements to stay the night,” I told him. “In the morning, we’ll get back on the train to New York.” By then it would be too late.

My brain was reeling. What if Meri didn’t answer in time? What if she couldn’t help me?

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