Page 6 of Loving Hard on the Highway

“Hold up. If he’s been a cop for twenty years, he’s like forty. How old are you?”

“He’s thirty-eight and I’m twenty-four. Don’t judge. I was going through some things when we got together. I didn’t know he would be a toxic, narcissistic, controlling jerk.”

“No judgment from me,” he said. “It’s just that a girl as fine as you could have any guy. Why a cop? And an old cop at that? I hate cops.”

“Um, my dad was a cop, and an amazing one at that.” I rolled my eyes. He probably thought I had daddy issues, which I probably did. I’d heard it before.

“Sorry, my bad. I meant to say I hate bad cops.”

“Better,” I huffed, folding my arms and relaxing a little.

“Not judging, but I have to ask, why don’t you have a phone or a credit card? It’s a little odd to be making a cross-country trek with no means of communication or way to pay. I mean, you’d have to stop for gas, right?”

“I have a phone, or I had one, and a credit card, but…” I paused, feeling unsure if I wanted to get into this with someone I didn’t know. But it was better to get it out of the way.

“My ex, Rick, doesn’t know I’ve left. If he knew, he’d try to stop me. He did the last time I tried to leave. It was a total shit show. He was basically stalking me this past year. I turned off my location on my phone, but he still always seemed to know where I was. So, when I decided to try to leave again, I ditched my phone. I can’t catch a flight because I have to use my name, and he’d find out. And the same with using a credit card. I don’t want him to be able to track me down. He’s done some really messed-up stuff and uses his badge.”

“Oh, wow.” He seemed to take a moment to let it sink in. “So, when the car rental got messed up…”

“I felt completely defeated,” I sighed. “This was months of planning, and I just can’t turn back now.”

“You won’t have to.” His brow furrowed, like he was working through something he wasn’t sure he had the right to say. “We’ll take Route 14, stick to your plan, and get you home.”

“You don’t have to,” I said, turning back. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not,” he said. “Not if you think I’d just walk away from this.”

I hesitated. “It’s not about walking away. I just… I’ve had guys say things they didn’t mean. I’ve believed them.”

He leaned closer, close enough that I could see the way the sun light hit his face, soft shadows under his eyes, a muscle tensing in his jaw.

“I’m not those guys, Gabbie,” he said. “If you need me to get you to California, I can do that. Let me help you.”

I blinked, my chest tightening as if something inside me had shifted just slightly and wasn’t quite ready to shift back.

His voice softened.

“I give you my word.”

I looked at him fully. He wasn’t trying to convince me with charm, nor with empty promises. He was just being honest, steady, and real.

I wanted to trust him, his words… I just wasn’t sure if I could.

“You have my word.”

I let his words sink in for a while and quietly listened to the low music and constant whizzing of traffic. Staring out the window, I tried to believe I was actually getting away.

As we were passing a semi, Sean signaled for the driver to honk the horn. The truck driver obliged, and I chuckled at the innocent childishness of it.

“Man, I love road trips,” he said after giving the truck driver a friendly wave.

I wasn’t sure what it would be like to make this trip with a total stranger. A drop-dead gorgeous stranger. Even so, I did not know this man. And I didn’t want to do it in complete silence.

“So do I,” I admitted, and he seemed relieved.

“They are some of my favorite memories from being a kid. Mom would pack my brother and me in the car, and we’d drive all over California, sometimes to Nevada and even Texas. My dad wasn’t always the greatest. So, when she’d need a break, we would hit the road.”

“My parents did the same, but not because they needed a break from each other. I think my dad sometimes just needed a break from the job. He saw and dealt with a lot. Our road trips were special.”

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