I squeezed back. “What?”
“Are you fans of Wren’s?” he asked, glancing over at me with a little smirk.
“Payton is. I do enjoy his music, but I wouldn’t call myself a fan. Why?”
“I’ll tell you soon.” Once the song wound down, he glanced in the rearview mirror while I turned the radio down again. “Payton? Do you know where Wren Paxton is from?”
Payton frowned. “Colorado, right?”
“Yep.” Crew’s expression was pure mischief. “He’s my big brother Bodhi’s best friend from childhood.”
Payton’s jaw dropped, but hell, so did mine.
I blinked at Crew. “What?”
“Yeah. He grew up on the property that’s on the north side of ours.”
That set Payton off, and for the next half an hour, Crew told us stories and answered Payton’s questions.
We sang along to some other music, played a couple of car games. Payton’s favorite was car spotting.
“Tell me again what the rules are?” Crew asked.
“We gotta see five white cars, four gray cars, three black cars, two red cars, and one that’s not one of those,” Payton recited in a serious tone. “And gray and silver are the same color for this game.”
I grinned as I got us drinks from the small cooler. I had said the latter sentence numerous times, and now he was teaching Crew.
“Can they be parked?” Crew knew the answer, because I’d already explained it, but Payton didn’t mind telling him again.
“No! Only driving, so it’s not too easy.”
“Okay, let’s do this.”
I handed Payton a juice box and opened a bottle of water for Crew, then waited for him to drink and took it back before opening one for myself.
We played the car game until we were about twenty minutes out from our destination.
“So, Payton, do you want to tell Crew where we’re going?”
“Oh yay!” Payton shimmied in his seat again. “We’re going to the Red Rocks!”
“Oh, that’s great.” Crew’s tone was genuine and his smile was happy. “I haven’t been in years. What do we do there?” He squeezed my fingers, having taken my hand again at some point.
“We’re going to do the… the trail?”
“The Trading Post Trail,” I reminded him.
“Yes! That one. We’re gonna have a picnic and then we’re gonna go look at the cow!”
Firstly, I loved the fact that the other kids at the daycare had rubbed off on Payton enough to have my son use the word “gonna” instead of “going to” like he’d done only weeks ago. Secondly, I chuckled at the mention of “the cow.”
“Don’t we have cows at home?” Crew asked, clearly wanting to know what it was about but also teasing Payton.
“Noooo, this is a painted cow!”
“There’s a restaurant with a cow sculpture in front. I thought we could get ice cream there on our way back.”
“Oh, makes sense.” Crew grinned. Then he said, “Look Payton!”
