Page 21 of Tell Me Why
She wondered about his relationship with Ginger, what it had been like in the beginning, if they hadeverhad a normal relationship where they weretogetherfor most of the time and action in their lives, building…somethingtogether, rather than just flitting about separately and just running into each other when it was convenient.
Whether he’d ever had anormalrelationship, or if this was what normal looked like to him.
Did she want to play house with him?
To have a place that wastheirstogether?
She couldimagineit, but she wasn’t actually sure shewantedit.
Nor that he did.
And while she still had this lingering instinct that she was letting go an important part of what a relationshipwas, Tell seemed unconcerned and Hunter was very confident that this was how it ought to be, so she was going to just be happy and enjoy what was working. She had time.
How strange.
She had time.
She curled up into the bed as, somewhere outside of a rolling train, the sun started to clear the horizon. She had a few minutes to find a spot that was going to be most comfortable before the sun incapacitated her entirely, and she heard Tell continue to work in his compartment for a while after that, then he, too, grew quiet and still.
And then it was just the periodic sound of the wheels across the rails, clicking off distance. It wasn’t obtrusive; the cars were well insulated for sound, but it was still there, like a clock, like a heartbeat.
Off to Nashville, one tick at a time.
It was hot.
Still uncomfortably hot on her skin, deeper into her body, the sunlight, thesunoverhead, through the layers of metal and insulation. The train arrived and the fountains left and Tina waited.
It wasn’t as interminable as it had used to be, but it was still just… a long wait, her mind grasping the moments of it as loosely as possible. It wasn’t sleep. Shemissedsleep. But it was less physically and mentally torturous than it had been at the beginning, and she was willing to be grateful for that.
Finally, Tell rose and went about whatever it was that he was going to do in the hours before Tina was actually comfortable being up - she didn’texpecthim to leave her, and he didn’t - and then Tina eased herself up out of bed and changed, going to use the toiletries in the soft light and finding them exactly as luxuriant as she’d anticipated. She did her hair and her makeup- less of either, now, actually, than as a human - and went out into the corridor to find Tell leaning against the wall by the passageway to the second train car.
“Porters will have the bags in the car,” he said. “You have all of your personal gear?”
Laptop bag, notebook, purse.
“Yeah,” she said, looking back. “You could go just about anywhere, like this,” she said.
“Better than the sky, if you can choose it,” he said. “Plane doesn’t like to be reinforced like this. Tends not to fly so well.”
She grinned, and he gave her a little smile, just teasing Hunter’s lifestyle, then turned to unlock the doors.
“I never asked you how to get out,” she said.
“Good thing I have an unusually low likelihood of dying in my sleep,” he answered. “I wouldn’t have told you.”
That figured.
They walked through the second train car and down the stairs beyond that, finding a pair of sedans sitting there beside the train, waiting for them.
Tell inspected them quietly, then nodded and went to hold the door to the front one for Tina.
“This isn’t Kirsten,” Tina said, and Tell shook his head.
“Traveling quietly,” he answered.
“You… don’tevertravel,” Tina said, and he smiled.
“Not in a long time.”
