Page 25 of The Scenic Route
“No.”
Glancing back at him, she raised an eyebrow. “No?”
“We’re not sleeping in our cars,” he said, opening the passenger door of his SUV for her. “We’re sleeping inmycar.”
“We’re squashing two full-grown adults into one vehicle?” she asked, sinking into the seat with a low groan as her musclesprotested, although it was a relief to get off her sore ankle. “Why not use both? We’ll have to move my car out of here anyway. I have a feeling Ms. Crabby Pants will be out here with a can of paint, tagging it with creative swears, if we leave it here.”
Bennett looked over at her car. From his sigh and the way he held out his hand, he knew Felicity was right. “Keys.”
She dug them out and handed them over, too tired to do anything except follow direct commands. Good thing she’d promoted him to captain.
The thought almost made her giggle as he strode over to her car. She watched from her perch on his passenger seat as he moved the car out of the lot and parked it on the street close to the coffee shop. He walked the block back, and her gaze stayed on him. Apparently she was exhausted enough that all her willpower was completely gone. She couldn’t resist the urge to watch him—or think about him as someone more than just her stalker.
By the time he climbed into the driver’s seat of his SUV, she was half-asleep. He didn’t say anything. He just started the engine and eased the SUV out of the lot. Feeling strangely secure and cared for, she allowed herself to doze until the vehicle rocked to a stop and Bennett cut the engine.
“Where are we?” she asked without opening her eyes. In fact, she wasn’t sure if it was possible to open them at that moment. Her eyes—and the rest of her—were done for the day.
“Trailhead parking lot.”
With a yawn, she opened her eyes a crack with extreme effort. “Aren’t those usually closed for the night?”
“Not this one.”
She squinted, glancing around, and saw a handful of other vehicles, although the others appeared empty and dark. There was a single sodium light at the back of the lot, but the darkness was thick everywhere the light didn’t touch.
“Stay there,” he ordered, getting out of the SUV.
Although her eyebrows shot up at his high-handedness, she was honestly too exhausted to move, so she decided to wait until morning to remind him that he wasn’t the boss of her. Turning her head to the side, she watched idly, too tired even for curiosity, as he rummaged through a duffel in the back.
Once he’d apparently found what he was looking for, he returned to the driver’s seat. “Let me see your ankle.”
With a yawn, she rotated until she was sitting sideways, her knees on the center console and her feet in his lap. Gently, he removed her shoe and sock before pushing up her pant leg a little. Almost not wanting to see how bad it was, she forced herself to look at her ankle.
“Oh!” she said, surprised and relieved. “It’s not swollen as badly as I thought it’d be.”
He made a displeased grumble as he began wrapping her ankle with the ACE bandage. “Bad enough,” he muttered.
Warmth flowed from where his careful hands touched her foot and calf all the way up to her face, making her blush. Mentally thanking the universe for the dim lighting, she rested her temple against the seat back and ignored the fact that she was being ridiculous. She just enjoyed the contact and attention as her weighted eyelids fought to close.
Once he finished putting her sock and shoe back on over the bandage, she forced her eyes open and yawned, reluctantly swinging her legs back to her side of the car. Her ankle felt so much better now that it was immobilized, and she gave a sleepy smile as she looked down at the neat wrapping. “Thank you.”
“Um.”
The single syllable caught her attention with its sheer discomfort, and Felicity turned her tired eyes to Bennett, who was staring hard through the windshield. “What?” she asked, her curiosity pushing back her exhaustion.
“The best way to…” He cleared his throat, darted a quick glance her way, and then continued glaring through the windshield as if he were still driving. “There’s only the one…”
Fully intrigued and a little amused now, Felicity sat up from her sleepy slump. “Just say it. I promise not to be offended. After all, I grew up with Norah. You don’t have to be tactful with me.”
“It’s just that we only have one blanket.” He stopped again, but at least he managed to get a full sentence out.
At first Felicity wasn’t sure why he was so uncomfortable. But then she shivered as the chill from the mountain night air started to invade the interior of the SUV, and she understood. “Oh. One blanket means we have to share.”
He made a strangled-sounding grunt that sounded like an affirmative, and Felicity grinned. He was just so adorably awkward that any discomfort she might have felt melted away, replaced by humor. Turning around in her seat, she grabbed the blanket off the back seat of the SUV. When she unfolded it, she saw what wasmaking Bennett so uncomfortable—the blanket was small, much too narrow to stretch between the two front seats.
Looking at the back of the SUV again, she absently bundled the blanket into her lap as she thought. The back bench seat wouldn’t fit two sleeping people, especially with as squirrelly as Bennett seemed to be with the idea of sharing a blanket with her. “I know it won’t be as comfortable,” she finally concluded, “but I think folding the seat down and sleeping on the floor is our best bet.”
His only response was another wordless grunt, but when he got out and opened the back passenger door, Felicity concluded he agreed with her plan. Bennett had the seat folded down in seconds, and her tiredness started to overtake her again. Crawling into the back, she settled onto her side, spreading half of the blanket over her and using her arm as a pillow. Bennett locked the doors but then hovered as far as he could get from her.
