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“She’s hallucinating,” I told Collin. “Run for it.”
I trotted out to the rented SUV, which looked like the Batmobile’s clone. I patted the boobless hood fondly. “I dub thee the Batmobile Two. I would crack champagne over your grille, but I think we all know how that would turn out.”
“A busted headlight?” Collin guessed. I nodded. “Well, she’s been christened in spirit, if not in spirits.”
“If that’s the quality of humor I can anticipate on this trip, it’s going to be a long drive,” I told him, climbing into the driver’s seat.
“Can we discuss your damaged knuckles?” he asked as I handed him the atlas. He bent his head over my hand to inspect the bruises. “Does this new injury have anything to do with your fiancé’s poor taste in jewelry?”
“I think it’s best to leave you wondering.”
“I would expect nothing less of my girl.”
I chuckled. “Memphis is only going to take a couple of hours. Did you want to swing around on our way back and visit somewhere else? I’m thinking Branson. It’s the Las Vegas of the Midwest.”
He frowned. “I was thinking something closer for our first stop. Someplace like your bedroom.”
“I haven’t had time to get an apartment. I was staying with my parents. I just woke up. Did you think I normally looked like that in the evening?”
He ignored that verbal land mine and chirped, “Branson it is, then.”
“It was just a suggestion. We don’t even have to go to Memphis if you don’t want to. We can just drive until we find a nice little bed-and-breakfast … or the closest available flat surface …”
“I like that last option.”
I angled my chin toward the atlas. “So which way do we go?”
He tossed the map into the backseat, where it landed in a heap. He leaned over the console, catching my mouth in a hot, sweet kiss. “You decide.”
>“Hmph,” I grumbled.
“And for the record, Ophelia’s sister was turned when she was a child. Ophelia does everything she can to make life more interesting for Georgie, including collecting very rare, very expensive toys. That teddy bear we were transporting was worth more than five hundred thousand dollars at auction. It’s one of a kind. And I only managed to track it down by threatening several of my sources with …” He spared my mother a glance. “A very harsh scolding.”
“A half-million-dollar teddy bear?”
“A very, very rare half-million-dollar teddy bear.”
I scrubbed my hand over my face. “I hate you guys. I really, really do.”
“Oh, Miranda,” Mom scolded.
“I am sorry,” he said. “I never meant to make you feel foolish. And I know I have been churlish and arrogant and—”
“Pigheaded,” I suggested.
“That seems fair,” he conceded as I stepped toward him.
“Demanding,” I added.
He slipped his hand through my hair, cradling my cheek against his palm. “I’ll accept that.”
“Dickish,” I said.
“I’m not sure that’s a word,” he protested.
“Which would be a problem if we were playing a board game, but since this is supposed to be an apology to me, I’ll say whatever I want. Mmm-kay?”
His lips twitched, even with my mom’s horrified gasp in the background. She never cared much for my way with words. “I can’t say I love you yet, but I know that I want enough time to figure it out. I’ve been alone for so long. And I was unhappy, but I couldn’t figure out why. I didn’t know what I was missing. And then you came stumbling into my life and I saw that it was you. I can live without you, but I don’t want to.” I stood motionless, gaping at him. He grimaced. “Too far?”
