Page 60 of Revelry
“Well, I’m sorry I don’t have all the apparel and didn’t come prepared…” she trailed off as she said the last part. Then her eyes widened in understanding, her features softened. “I’m not prepared but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Trust me.”
I grunted as she brushed past me. Seriously does this woman ever go around someone? She hopped the shrubbery between our driveways and hovered outside the passenger door to my truck.
“Oh, I get to drive?” I asked, surprised.
“Of course, I didn’t think riding in Princess would be that comfortable.”
I shook my head. “Princess.” I unlocked the truck and got inside, putting on the seat warmers to ward off the chill. I rolled my window down, then back up before facing her.
“Where are we going?”
“I’ll direct you,” Gertrude said, immediately playing with the dials on the dashboard. I bit my cheek and fought back the urge to bat her hand away. I was trying to step out of my comfort zone and not control everything, baby steps were necessary. This rated pretty low on my ERP scale so I could let it slide.
I didn’t say anything as I turned the ignition and backed out of the driveway. I paused at the mouth of the cul-de-sac, waiting for instructions that didn’t come. I turned to Gertrude.
“Well?”
“Oh yeah, go left,” she giggled. “Sorry!”
I sighed. “Already off to a great start.”
“Have some faith, Tatey.” She patted my thigh, her palm leaving behind a warm imprint. I resisted the urge to tell her to leave her hand right there.
The journey was anything but smooth and I couldn’t work out if Gertrude was doing it on purpose or not. She was late to tell me to turn and there was no urgency about it, she was relaxed like she had all the time in the freaking world. She also didn’t bat an eyelid at any of the sharp turns or emergency braking I had to do due to a missed direction. She stayed calm and unflappable.
She eventually had me pull over at the side of the road. I got out, heading round to open her door and help her down, her fingers trailing over my palm and heating me in the cool air.
“Wow, it’s stunning!” she gasped, looking up at the trees around us. I followed her stare, eyes running over the swarm of trees, some bare, some still full of bright green leaves and some with rust or ochre-colored leaves that lingered from the turn of fall. The sun was peeking out and dappling through the branches, flickering over us gently but not taking the chill from the air.
Gertrude spun around and kicked her feet in the leaves, squealing with delight. I shook my head, smirking at her silliness.
“Kick the leaves, Tate!” she ordered.
Although I felt ridiculous, I didn’t want to upset the tiny dictator, so I scuffed my feet.
She tilted her head, placing her hands on her hips. “That wasn’t very good. You can do better than that.”
I rolled my eyes to the heavens before I ran through the leaves, crunching them under my boots. She squealed and ran after me and we ended up in a sort of jog-chase-circle, but she was laughing and so was I, so I didn’t care. I felt like a child again, carefree and mischievous and eventually the leaves were all out of crunch and we slowed.
Sighing wistfully, I threw my head back and drew a deep breath in, feeling my worries melt away. When I opened my eyes, she was watching me with a small smile on her lips that made my chest ache.
Grabbing our backpacks, I lifted hers onto her dainty shoulders, pulling her wild hair out of the way, the curls snaking round my fingers and attempting to lock me in place.
“This way!” she declared and marched off.
I hurried after her. “Do you have a map?”
“Nope.”
My stomach churned. “A compass?”
She waved a hand dismissively. “Compasses are for boring people.”
“Like those who don’t want to get lost?” I snorted.
“We won’t get lost. Have faith, like George Michael!” She then went into the hip wiggle from theFaithmusic video and I swallowed my laughter. She was a little ball of joy and how anyone could have treated her the way her father and ex-husband had baffled me.
We walked for a while, not saying much, just enjoying each other’s company. There was nothing like seeing the blue sky, the multicolored trees and being in nature to bring a sense of peace. I could feel myself unwinding, tension evaporating from my shoulders. I felt lighter than I had in years at being out in the wilderness with my pint-sized guide.
