Page 6 of Infinite as They Come
“How could I ever get tired of that?” I murmured, putting a bunch of brushes into the basket. “I’ve got the most beautiful girl in the world all to myself, and you expect me to stop painting that?”
“Don’t.” She laughed softly, teeth biting into her bottom lip. “So, where do you wanna stop? What motel should we go to?”
“I still don’t understand your fascination with motels,” I said. “I don’t know what the hell you like about them.”
“They’re cozy,” she said with a little shrug, walking backwards as we moved through the aisle. “I like cozy.”
I smiled at that as we moved further down the aisle. They had bunch of drop cloths and I grabbed one of those, only for Holly to shake her head at me.
“What’s that for?” she asked.
“I don’t wanna make a mess in the motel.”
“Aren’t you painting outside? Like, stuff we see along the way?”
“Yeah,” I said as I moved past her, grabbing the basket from her hands. “But I’m also gonna be painting you.”
“Wait, are you serious?” She gasped, tugging at my hand. “I thought you were joking about that. You don’t want to just paint me.”
“Yeah, I do.”
She rolled her eyes and pressed her face into my arm as I paid for the stuff, and soon we were back in the truck. The sun was close to completely setting as we picked up some food for dinner and looked for a place to stay. We drove for another five minutes before I saw a big flashing sign for the Nightcap Motel. Holly was all giddy as we paid for a room for the next couple nights, her arms filled with our food and mine with our bags before we moved inside our new temporary home. It was small and cramped and relatively bare: just a queen-size bed and an old TV and a little table in the corner, but Holly’s eyes lit up like she had just walked into a five-star hotel. We ate and then showered together and I got settled on the bed, switching the TV on to see some overly excited people on a game show jumping up and down.
“Oh, I hope she wins the car,” Holly said as she joined me on the bed, pressing herself up against my chest. “Today was pretty fun, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, I’ve been loving it,” I said, pressing a hand to her back so I could keep her right to me. “Love driving you around. I’m lucky I get to keep doing that.”
She laughed softly before a happy sounding sigh escaped her. “It’s so nice to have some time off. Some time to ourselves. Especially you. You’re always on your feet. I have such a hard-working boyfriend…”
“Maybe I’ll get a cushy office job where I wear a suit and tie.”
“Gross,” she whispered. “So, where are we off to after this?”
I shrugged lazily. “I dunno, I was thinking we’d just see where the road takes us.”
“I like it better that way. You know, I’ve never been on a proper road trip before. Like, an actual one. Where you stop at a bunch of places and sleep in motels and just drive and go wherever.”
“Mm, I know you’re used to your private jet.”
“I’ve never been on a private jet, thank you very much,” she said, giggling softly. “But seriously, this is so nice. I think I really needed to get out of New York. Three years is a long time to live in a city that big. I think after all that studying I really needed this too.”
“Yeah, you worked real hard,” I said, moving my fingers gently through her hair. “You deserve some time off.”
She didn’t say anything at that. I could feel her eyes on me, though, and when I turned my head to look at her and caught her big brown eyes on me, I could have sworn I saw her cheeks go a little pink.
“What?” I asked.
A bright smile quickly spread across her face. “Nothing.”
“What is it?”
“Nothing,” she said, burying her face in my chest.
“You’re being weird.”
“It’s…” She lifted her head up slowly, still resting on my chest with all that pink there on her cheeks. “It’s just that sometimes I still can’t believe that you and me are doing this. That we fell in love and moved in together and…. Here we are, all these years later. Isn’t that crazy? Did you ever think we’d be here in this bed together not trying to murder each other?”
My brows rose, letting out a deep breath. “Speaking of, I gotta tell you something. This whole thing was a big joke and I still hate you.”
