And I decide that as much as I love sarcastic Wilder and falling-in-love-with-me Wilder, I love this version of him the most. The road-tripping Wilder. The version of him that doesn’t seemtrapped. We’re not worried about running into Archibald or Fertile Felicia.
It’s… nice.
“What’s going through your head?” Wilder asks.
“I was just thinking how nice this is,” I say with a long sigh.
“How nice what is?”
“Just being together,” I tell him, my voice soft. “It’s nice to exist in a new place just as we are—and not how everyone sees us.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Have you ever…” I trail off, biting my lip.
I’m not sure I’m ready to bare my soul in a soda shop on route 66 in the middle of Oklahoma.
He looks at me like I’m the only person in here. “Have I ever what?”
I shrug. “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to start over somewhere new?” I ask. “You know, just the two of us?”
Wilder swallows hard. Too hard.
Red flag.
I know that’s a red flag.
But then he says, “I think about it all the time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” he admits, his voice rough. “We have the same wound, Blondie, but we also have the same chip on our shoulder. We carry more thanwe’re supposed to. Me with my mom and… and you with your parents.”
I don’t know what to say.
“I know Isla has been a lot,” Wilder continues.
“She’s the worst,” I say weakly.
“You would move?” he asks.
I nod slowly. “I think so.”
His eyebrows knit together. “A new city?”
“Would you?” I counter. “Would you want to leave your grandparents?”
Wilder sucks in a harsh breath. “I would only go if you went with me, Ingrid. But what about school? Neither of us can afford anything but community college.”
I consider it. The no money thing. I’ve never been big on student loans. I know they work for Isla, but I see the strain it’s put on Jason and Jill. I would never ask them to do that for me.
And because I’ve seen my parents struggle financially, I don’t think I would want to accumulate a ton of debt.
Wilder and I have that in common.
“If I couldn’t afford school,” I say, exhaling, “I think I’d just work. Maybe do online classes. Pay as I go.”
His face hardens. “Yeah.”
