Page 123 of Play of Love
“Baby, I’m not lying.”
“Okay, so who’s the lucky woman now? Who’s Scott’s girl?” She looked like she was humoring me. Scott’s girl?... I like that.” I took my eyes off the road and ran my gaze over the perfect woman who sat next to me. The answer to that was simple.
“Who is it then? Was she amongst the groupies this morning?”
“Yeah, she was. I mean, she was there, alright, but not among the groupies as such.”
“Where was she?”
“She was standing on the balcony just ahead of me, looking on. You can’t miss her. Her beauty makes her stand out in a crowd, just like an angel. That’s Scott’s girl.” I smiled again at the slightly stunned look on her face as she realized I was talking about her.
I didn’t know why I just said that, but I was glad I did because it seemed to lighten the mood a little. It broke down the wall Abi had placed up earlier when she was barely talking to me.
“Oh,” was all she said, on the edge of a thoughtful breath. Then she looked ahead, out to the open road. I stole another moment to watch her and take in the perfection of her body. She glanced across at me, knowing I was checking her out, but she didn’t protest like she had earlier.
She shuffled next to me as it had started to rain, and I closed the windows.
“Do you think we’ll get there in that time?” she asked glancing over to the GPS on my dashboard. It said that Phoenix was still seven and a half hours away.
“Hopefully. It’ll be after nightfall, though, and that’s if we make it through traffic.”
She smoothed her hair to the side so she could run her fingers through its silky ends. I watched her twirl it around her thumb and then take out her phone.
“I’m going to call Margo and see how she’s doing.”
“Cool.” I glanced over at her and then back to the road ahead to see the traffic building. I just barely saw a hazard sign flash above us in bright yellow lights, stating that the road ahead was closed due to a massive collision. “Oh, shit!” I swerved over to the other lane, following the car ahead of us . We’d just gotten out before we got stuck with the other cars that had sped into the traffic.
“The road’s closed.” Abi winced, raising her chin as she looked up at the sign too.
I reached forward and tapped the map on the GPS, trying to see where this route would lead them.
“Dammit,” I grimaced. The whole area came up red with traffic, and the road I was hoping to take was closed, too, with the same collision warning. The collision had backed up the traffic and closed roads on the other routes.
“What do we do?” Abi asked.
“I don’t know. Just hang tight. Let’s see where we get to from this road.” I could already see what was going on, and it didn’t look good. Instead of heading down to where we wanted, we were now en-route to Nevada. The route from Nevada to Phoenix would be a long one, longer than I anticipated.
I drove along until we hit the country roads. The cars ahead diverged off in the direction of more traffic, but I stayed on the country road, now driving without a plan.
“Call Margo, Abi. I think she’s going to be waiting for a while.”
* * *
Abi
* * *
“Margo, I don’t know when I’ll get to you. I’m with Scott.”
“You’re both coming?” Despite the news of having to wait longer, I detected a note of excitement in my friend’s voice at the mention of Scott and me.
“Yes. He’s driving. Are you okay? Are you safe?” I couldn’t help but ask after what happened to me earlier. I was still shaken up by it, but the feeling of terror was beginning to fade. I looked over at Scott and saw how worried he appeared to be.
“I’m okay, just eager,” Margo replied.
“Can you find a decent place to wait at the bus station?” I had been concerned enough as it was that it was going to be late when we got to Margo. Now I knew it was going to be later than the time I originally worried about. I also noticed a few missed calls from Cole.
“I think so. I don’t have anything left to steal, so I guess I’m okay in that respect, unless I fall asleep and wake up in Colombia, captured by some drug lords who want to use me as a mule!” Margo chuckled, but there was an edge of worry in the laugh.
