Page 77 of Runaway Road (Runaway 1)

“Dinner first. What would you like?”

“Pizza.”

“Pizza it is.” I nodded. “I’ll call Wyatt and have him bring one over for us.”

“He’s not at Moira’s tonight?”

“He is, but if I tell him you’re staying indefinitely, he’ll come with an extra-large meat supreme.”

She smiled up at me. “With the veggies.”

“With the veggies.”

“It looks so sad.” Her eyes raked over the car, the scratches and the dents. It would take considerably longer at the body shop to repair this wreck. It might even require some new parts.

“I’ll fix it,” I vowed. “Then . . .” I’d gotten so used to saying that she’d be on her way.

“Then I’ll drive it around Summers.”

“What about returning it to Karson? What about taking it to California?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Someday, I’d like to track him down. I’d like to give him this car and let him have it for a while. But maybe when that time comes, you’ll come with me.”

“I’d like that.”

“We could wait until Wyatt is in college. If we pick a time when you can be away from the garage, maybe that wish I made might actually come true.”

“You’re sure?” I put my hands on her shoulders. “You’ll wait? You’ll stay in Summers until then?”

“I’m staying. Would you come with me to California?”

“Yes.” Without a doubt. Londyn would have a hard time taking a trip across the country without me. “That’s a lot of long-term thinking for a woman who just wanted to roam America.”

Londyn laughed. “I want to roam, just not alone.”

“Turns out I haven’t had a decent vacation in sixteen years. Think I’m overdue.”

“California first. Then where?”

I let out a long breath. “Are we really talking about this? You and me?”

“I feel it.” She put her hand over her own heart this time. “Deep.”

“Then California first. We’ll decide where to go from there.”

She crashed into my arms, winding her arms around my waist. I breathed in her scent, grateful I wouldn’t have to search for it on the sheets tonight because she was here. I could hold her. Touch her.

Keep her.

We stood there, holding on to one another, until her stomach rumbled and forced us apart. “Let’s get home. We’ll eat and then call it a day.”

The police would likely have a ton of questions tomorrow. All I cared about was that they found the person who did this.

Londyn unwrapped herself from around me and stepped away, taking another crushing look at her car.

I turned too, inspecting it once more. It was a fucking mess. The paint was scratched to hell. A couple of the panels were dented. The mirror on the passenger side was barely hanging on. The bumper was loose.

“What color was the truck again?” I asked. She’d told the deputy, but I’d been so fucking furious and scared, I hadn’t absorbed the details.