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“We’re from Salt Lake. Ever been there?” Payton chirped.
“Actually, I have. My sister lives in Twin Falls, Idaho, and we’ve traveled through several times. Beautiful city. We’re from Waco, Texas. Been on the road for about a week now. Third year in a row we’ve toured Mexico. It’s beautiful and everyone is so darned friendly. How about yourselves? What brings you two here?”
“Cruz and I are on our way to Puerto Vallarta.” She paused, a crazy but intriguing notion entering her head.
She shouldn’t do it. She really shouldn’t.
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But a little devil inside her screamed at her to run with it. Have some fun. It might make this detour a little more interesting. It would be a lie, but it seemed harmless. It wasn’t like they were ever going to see these people again after they reached Tequila.
And the bonus was seeing how Cruz would react.
“We’re getting married, isn’t that right, sweetie?” She turned to him, smiling as he slowly turned to stare at her like she’d sprouted snakes from her head. His arms remained folded across his chest, but she noticed his fingers tapping against one arm. Other than that, he remained silent.
She tilted her head to rest on his shoulder and fluttered her eyelids at him for a moment.
Then she saw the oddest thing.
He almost smiled.
Cruz could not believe the gall of the woman. Lying. Plain as day. And looking like the devil as she played to the crowd. But he knew her well. He knew that this game was targeted at him.
She was playing with him.
And Lord help him, it actually gave him the slightest thrill. There was a sense of familiarity returning to their usual roles of antagonists rather than their new friendly truce. But it was a little different. Almost…flirty.
“Last week we were at a hockey game—we just adore hockey,” she added, he was sure, for his benefit. “Well, right there in the middle of the game, Cruz turned to me and before I knew it, he was sliding down on one knee and holding a box in front of him. I almost fainted dead away, right then.”
The occupants on the bus were all riveted and he heard oohs and ahs escape from a few of the women as Payton warmed to her story. “And then, what do you know, he pointed to the big screen in the center of the whole place and there were the words flashing across the screen. ‘Payton, will you marry me.’ And the crowd almost collectively held their breath, waiting for my response. I just looked into Cruz’s eyes, so dark. Hypnotic. Filled with love,” she smiled back up at him, a mischievous sparkle in those green, glimmering eyes. “And I knew he was the only one for me. Well, of course I cried yes and he pulled me into one of those swoony lip locks that had the whole place going crazy.”
The women were beaming, looking like they might eat them both up, they were that adorable. He managed not to roll his eyes.
“That is the cutest story I ever heard,” Bev said, actually looking a little misty-eyed. “So why did you two decide to come down here?”
The questions weren’t even posed to him anymore, not that he’d know how to respond. It was her lie, not his.
Payton didn’t hesitate a beat. “Cruz has some family down here and we thought, why not make a trip of it? Surprise them. Then our flight almost crashed near Laredo and with spring break upon us, the only way we could get out to Mexico was by car. And Cruz was such a sweetie, assuring me that driving here, just the two of us, would be a wonderful adventure we could tell our kids about in the years to come. Believe me. It has been that. And this latest detour will certainly be something to remember.”
This time the gazes returned to him. He shrugged his shoulders, resigned to their new facade of soon to be newlyweds. Fortunately, no one minded his stoic silence and the next few minutes passed as the women regaled them with stories of their own nuptials.
Glancing around the bus, he was certain none of the occupants—save for him and Payton—were under age fifty. All of them seemed to be part of a couple. The men, like him, sat mostly silent as the women shared, looking like they’d heard the stories many times before.
A few minutes later, they reached the little town of Tequila, which wasn’t the quiet, peaceful town he’d been hoping for. Instead, it was teeming with tourists in jeans and shorts walking in the same direction they were headed. He prayed there was a garage still open and he could persevere in getting the car fixed that evening.
“It should be somewhere down this way, if I remember right,” Lenny said. Sure enough, a moment later, several stacked tires near the front of a garage told them they’d arrived. In the lingering late afternoon sunlight, the facade looked muted, almost vintage. And open, if the sign in the window was any indication.
Lenny parked the bus in front and turned around to address Cruz. “Why don’t you go see what they can do for you? With the festival, they might be closing shop early. We’ll stick around. Your fiancée’s welcome to wait here.”
“I’ll just be a moment,” he said to Payton, who nodded and waved him off as a couple of the older ladies continued to bend her ear, already enchanted with their new guest. Something he could relate to.
Ten minutes later, Cruz was back on the bus. Payton’s smile looked a little more strained. “He’s going to tow it now. He won’t know more until it’s back. But…” He took a seat next to her, watching her eyes widen in uncertainty. She wasn’t going to like this. “…By the time he gets it back here and can take a look, even assuming it is an easy fix, it’s going to be pushing sunset. And this next stretch of road? We’re going to want all the light we can get. It’s pretty dangerous.”
“You’re saying we’re not going to make it into Puerto Vallarta tonight, aren’t you?” Her voice was remarkably calm, but he could see by the way her hands squeezed tight together she was stressed.
“Yeah. I’m afraid so. Which means, we’re going to need to find somewhere to stay for the night.” He chose not to add that the prospects weren’t very promising based on their timing in the middle of the festivities.
“I think we have just the place for you, if you’re interested,” Lenny said after conferring with his wife for a minute. “Glen and Mags had to bow out of the tour at the last minute on account of Mags breaking her hip. But their room is already paid for and there’s no sense in letting it go to waste. Especially since we’re likely the reason for your current predicament.”
