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Kelly just laughed in reply and trained her eyes ahead. Raina pushed her chair further back as they entered the highway and relaxed.
“By my calculations, we’ll be in Paramount by noon, time enough to have a light lunch and then my surprise follows,” Kelly said.
“How exciting!” Raina exclaimed, feeling giddy at the day ahead.
She felt like a little kid out on an adventure and she laughed aloud at herself. The scenery outside had changed from cityscape to coastline.
Once on the highway, she felt a little anxious at the cars zooming past but worse were the trucks. She pushed her chair to an upright position and grabbed the seat to curb her nervousness.
She hadn’t thought about the accident in a long time and now the memories of Mira and Byron hit her full force.
They had been on a trip just like this one, when their lives had been cut short. For all Raina knew, there was a drunk man out there, behind the wheel of a truck and driving over the speed limit. She inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself.
“Slow down will you?” she said to Kelly.
“What are you talking about? I’m doing the speed limit,” Kelly said, her tone indignant.
Raina glanced at the speed gauge and saw that her friend was right. Relax, Raina. She tried to recall the statistics for highway accidents and comforted herself that the percentage was actually quite small. She didn’t want to think
further than that, like what would happen to the children if something happened to her. She really needed to plan for their future as soon as she could.
“I don’t know how you do it, Raina,” Kelly said, making Raina realize that she had missed part of her sentence.
“Do what?”
“You weren’t listening, I’m talking about the B&B. It’s damn hard work.”
“It is,” Raina admitted, and then she sighed. “I’ll be honest, there are some days when I miss the Del Mar terribly. I miss knowing what my job is, and having it be predictable day to day. With the B&B I’m needed everywhere. Sometimes I feel as though am being pulled in ten different directions.”
“How about employing someone else, like a kitchen manager or an assistant?” Kelly said.
Raina had thought of that and had dismissed it just as fast. “I don’t see why I should. Martha managed alone for God knows how many years, I should too.”
“There you go being superwoman when its completely unnecessary. Can you afford to employ someone?”
“Yes, business is good. I’ll give myself another month or two, if it’s still feels like too much, I’ll do it.”
“Good girl. We all need you to be healthy you know. You’re losing too much weight.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Raina teased.
“Nope, not when you weren’t fat to begin with. You have curves in all the right places, girl. You need to keep ‘em!”
They fell into companionable silence after that and Raina let her mind wander. Kelly resolutely drove on, not even glancing outside which aroused Raina’s curiosity even more.
“What kind of road trip is this, where we don’t even get to stop and see the sights?”
“Not to worry, this road trip has a mission. Next time we’ll take a longer one, perhaps with the kids,” Kelly said.
Raina shuddered. “Really, Kelly? Try a ten-minute journey with them and tell me if you still want to go with them.”
She imagined the countless times they would need to stop to pee and the complaints from Crystal that she was bored. Chantal would be the only one composed, her hands folded neatly on her lap, patiently waiting for the journey to come to an end.
“You just need to be prepared, have stuff to keep them busy.”
“Yeah, like what, cable TV?” Raina said in a dry tone.
Kelly laughed. “You know, books and stuff.”
