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Chapter Twenty
Bear
“WE HAVE FIVE HOURS before we hit your driveway.”
Greta reached for a can of Pringles and added it to her basket of snacks. “Okay.”
“You really thing you’re going to be able to eat all of that in five hours?”
She scoffed and brushed past me. “Of course not.” She strutted to the cash register and started unloading her basket. “I figure we’ll stop for dinner when we hit the border.”
I shook my head and pulled out my wallet. “That’s two and a half hours from here, mama.”
The cashier rang everything up, and I forked over a fifty.
“Two dollars and fourteen cents is your change.”
Greta beamed proudly and grabbed the three bags of snacks. “Have a good day,” she called.
The cashier handed me my change and I shoved it in my pocket. “Stay in school, kid, and get a good job. Women are expensive.”
“My dad says they are worth it, though.”
They were, but sometimes, they just did not make sense.
I followed Greta out to the truck and opened the door for her. “If you wouldn’t have bought half of the store, you would have been able to open the door.”
She beamed up at me. “But now you get to be a gentleman and open it for me.”
“I’m always a gentleman,” I argued.
She reached up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “You are, but you’re a little grumpy. Should we pull over for a quicky?”
The old man at the pump next to us coughed and leaned to the side to get a better view of me and Greta.
“I think I can manage to wait until we get home,” I growled. Greta had said numerous times before that she didn’t have a filter, and that was completely true.
“What about a little road head?” she suggested.
The man’s eyes bugged out, and he stepped back right into his car. His foot cranked to the side, and he went down like a load of bricks.
“Harold!” the woman in the car called through the closed window. “What are you doing?”
The man struggled to stand and leaned heavily against his car when he was on two feet again.
“Get in the truck,” I growled to Greta. If she said one more word about a quicky or road head, I was afraid the old guy was either going to have a heart attack or fall on his ass again.
Greta shrugged and tossed the bags on to the seat. She put her hand on my shoulder and hoisted herself onto the seat. “Whatever you want, lumberjack.”
I shut her door and rounded the front of the truck.
“Lucky bastard,” the old guy called to me.
“She’s slightly crazy,” I replied.
He chuckled and shook his head. “The best ones always are.”
I climbed into the Bronco and headed in the direction of Rockton.
“Pringle?” Greta asked. She waved the can in my face and the smell of sour cream wafted around me.
“I’m good right now.”
She shrugged and sat back in her seat. “Your loss.” She dropped the can in the cupholder and rummaged around in the bags. “What about a cake?”
“You bought a cake?” I spat.
She laughed and nodded. She pulled out one of those packed cakes that had a squiggle on the top.
My absolute favorite. I easily went through a box of them when I was working.
“They are nowhere as good as what Meg or Bristol can bake, but they’re good in their own right.”
I grabbed the cake and ripped it open with my teeth.
“Well, then,” she laughed. “I figured out what your favorite road trip snack is.”
I ripped off half of the cupcake with my teeth and chewed. “They’re good,” I argued.
She held up her hands. “Never said they weren’t, lumberjack.” She popped a Pringle in her mouth and tucked her legs under her. “I’ve got another one in here if you behave.”
I shoved the rest into my mouth and handed her the wrapper. “I’m good for a bit.”
She grabbed the wrapper and dropped it into one of the bags. “About as good as the guy who fell when I offered to give you road head?” she laughed.
“I wondered if you saw that or if you were in your own world.” I merged back onto the highway and set the cruise.
She sighed and rested her head on the headrest. “I noticed. It was pretty hard to miss. I wished I could have been in the car when he tried to explain to his wife why he had wiped out.”
I chuckled and reached for her hand. She laced her fingers through mine, and I raised her hand to press a kiss to the back. “I will say that I have driven all over this country, mama, and I have never had better company than you.”
“Even though I’m driving you crazy with stopping at every cool gas station and having to pee every hour?” She batted her eyes and me and smiled wide.
“Yeah, mama. Even after all of that, I’d road trip with you anywhere.”
“Oh,” she laughed. “We could become like a crimefighting duo. You could bust the bad guys, and I could rescue dogs along the way.”
“How is you rescuing dogs fighting crime?” I asked.
“Well, it’s more like I would be fighting all the fucking assholes in the world who get animals and then give them up if they’re a little bit hard to handle.”
“Sore spot?” I asked.
She held up her pointed and thumb. “Teeny tiny bit,” she laughed.
“You got a big heart, Greta.”
She shrugged and turned to look out the window. “You’re the one who said dogs love their owners more than they love themselves, right? Someone has to be there for the dogs who get shitty owners.”
“Why don’t you have your own dog?” I asked,
She turned and smiled. “Because I know I would be that shitty owner who is never home. I don’t have the time to give a dog the attention it deserves. So the time I do have to give, I go to the shelter in Preston and play with the dogs up for adoption.”
Fucking hell, Greta had a heart made of gold. “You’re amazing, mama.”
She smiled sadly. “I do what I can.” She yawned and leaned toward me. “Wake me up when we hit the border?”
“So you can get more snacks?” I asked.
She laughed. “Yup. You can never have enough snacks.” She rested her head on my shoulder, and her eyes fluttered shut.
I didn’t stop when I got to the border, and I didn’t wake Greta until we pulled into her driveway.
All I wanted was to hold her in my arms in her house and fall asleep.
Greta was one of those people you were lucky to ever meet, and it was even rarer to have them stick around.
I knew I was a lucky bastard, and I was going to savor every second of her time she let me have.
