Page 62 of Run Away With Me

‘It’s pretty good,’ I said.

Brooke rolled her eyes.

Despite the unfamiliar food, the restaurant was fairly busy, so we didn’t linger after we finished eating. As we walked back to the car, it occurred to me that we might have actually gotten away with what we’d done in the hotel. We hadn’t been tracked down by police with sniffer dogs, or a SWAT team, or a man in aviator sunglasses flashing a badge at us before slapping handcuffs on our wrists.

I probably watched too many cop shows.

‘I still can’t believe you got this thing going,’ Meredith said, running her hand over the hood of the car.

‘Did you see it before she fixed it up?’ I asked her.

Meredith snorted with laughter. ‘It was my dad who found it in the first place. He had to tow it back to the garage. Couldn’t even get the engine running.’

‘It runs now,’ Brooke said sweetly.

Meredith pulled Brooke into a tight hug, and surprised me by hugging me too. I hugged her back, grateful for the moment of almost normalcy she’d given us.

‘Take care of yourselves, okay? And call me if you need anything.’

‘We will,’ Brooke promised.

She didn’t bother opening the door to get in the car, she just hopped over the top. I wasn’t sure I had theupper-body strength to do the same, and I knew she’d laugh at me if I fucked it up. But I did it anyway.

It was kind of wild, throwing myself into the car like that, even if my landing wasn’t the most elegant.

‘Nice,’ Brooke said, and tipped her sunglasses down.

Meredith watched us as Brooke pulled out of her parking space and into the flow of traffic. Brooke wasn’t watching the rearview mirror, but I was as Meredith lifted her hand in a wave.

Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone.

11

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road– Elton John

We left Denver on a high.

I felt like Brooke had slowly, methodically and completely unpicked everything I knew about myself and the world, and reshaped it. I’d been hiding behind Mouse for years, because other people seemed to know exactly who Mouse was, and I could fit that expectation. It was the easy way out. But Brooke had shoved Mouse to the side, leaving me raw, exposed and completely free. I couldn’t decide if that was exhilarating or terrifying or both.

Watching Brooke pass out at the sight of a huge needle had definitely made her feel more real, and her sulk afterward when Meredith had teased her about it just made me fall for her even harder. She was cute when she was grouchy.

The old Brooke was easy to have a crush on. This Brooke was easy to fall in love with.

Her attitude soured as we navigated out of the city and onto the highway that took us to the state border and cutthrough the wide-open Kansas landscape, and it amused me that I didn’t care about her wild moods anymore. Brooke perked up when we were in cities, among crowds, or just talking to other people. She brightened, almost visibly, and it was like I could see her pulling energy from those around us.

I, on the other hand, still loved these endless stretches of nothing. Just me and Brooke, and the Mustang, and the landscape, and the wildlife, and the sky. If I could have this forever and nothing else, I’d take it.

The cassette deck clicked, and I automatically reached for the glove box for the next one.

‘Any requests for the DJ?’ I asked.

‘Something fun,’ Brooke replied.

I pulled out a handful of boxes and set them on my lap so I could go through our choices. I had picked my favorites from the collection Brooke had amassed, and we spent enough time in the car that we had cycled through them all regularly.

‘Jessie,’ Brooke whined, while I took my time picking the next album.

‘Hang on.’

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