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“What?”
“So serious.”
My annoyance flatlines with the sound of her laughter again. Christ, I’ve missed that sound.
But I can’t afford to relax. Not yet.
Maybe not ever so long as we have a target on our backs.
“How you find this so amusing, I’ll never understand,” I say.
“I’m sorry…” She tries to stop laughing but her lips twitch. “I don’t know why I’m laughing. This is all just so…”
“Surreal?” I suggest.
“Fun.”
“Fun?”
“Maybe not fun, but…” She pauses, biting her lip. “I don’t know what I mean. I guess that says something about my life, though, doesn’t it? Having a near-death experience is what it takes for me to have some fun.”
“Oh, come on. You have access to everything in the world. Any girl would kill to be in your shoes.”
Her smile fades. She falls silent and looks out the window. The setting sun casts an orange glow on her face, but I catch the darkness hiding behind her blue eyes. I look back to the road and my stomach lurches with hunger. Has it really been eight hours? I’ve forgotten how quickly time flies when all my senses are on high alert.
“You hungry?” I ask.
“Starving.”
I smile. “Okay. We’ll stop soon.”
“How much farther do we have?”
“We’re about halfway to Denver,” I answer. “We should get there around two or three in the morning—”
“Can we stop for the night?”
I shake my head. “We should continue through the night, Dani.”
“You’re exhausted, Fox.”
“I’m fine.”
“Fox…” she leans over and points at her face, “look at who you’re talking to. I’m Roxie Roberts. I know a little something about exhaustion and even more, I know what it looks like when you try to hide it. The only difference is that I have a fully-staffed cosmetic team to hide the dark circles under my eyes.” Her finger swoops around her face, drawing little ovals beneath her lashes.
I glance up at the rearview mirror. She’s right. I might not feel it now but once the buzz in my nerves wears off, I’m sure I will. “We’ll see how I feel after we eat.”
“Or you can just let me drive.”
“No.”
She laughs. “Damn, I thought that would work…”
I smile and look over at her again. She lays her head back and gazes out the window. Her lips stay locked in an upturned grin, almost like she doesn’t even realize she’s smiling. I’m scared to look away, knowing that sooner or later it’ll fade again, along with this moment.
It’s been a while since I’ve had any fun, too.
I almost didn’t recognize it myself.
