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Paige, however, seemed oblivious to her attractiveness. He wasn’t surprised at all that the college kid had copped a feel – he was only surprised that the guy had been brave enough to try a second time. He'd wanted to beat the kid into a pulp.
And that was bad. Hecould notget into a fight. And he knew,he knew, he wasn’t Paige’s boyfriend. He wasn’t anything to her, just a friend. She'd never acted like he was anything more. And she could clearly take care of herself.
But he still didn’t like other guys hitting on her in front of him.
And that’s why he didn’t stop other girls from hitting on him. He knew it drove Paige nuts. If she wasn’t busy doing something on her own, she was pretty possessive of his attention, but that was all, just his attention. And sometimes it was nice to feel like someone wanted him. The girl he was spending all his time with clearly didn’t.
Which lead him to wonder why he was doing all this. He had somewhere he was supposed to be – there'd been many angry phone calls in the last couple days. Hell, there'd been angry phone calls over three weeks ago, when he'd first left Connecticut. “Why aren’t you here? We need you.” But he just couldn’t go there yet, and now that Paige was in the picture, he wasn’t sure when he would go.
There were times he thought about telling her the ride was over. Times when looking at her almost hurt, she was so beautiful. Laying next to each other on a picnic table at a rest stop, her looking at the stars, him looking at her. Sitting in an old drive-in theatre in Tennessee, her laughing at the movie, him obsessed with her. It wasn’t healthy – she never seemed to notice. She'd commented once that he didn’t seem to notice she was a girl – well, she certainly didn’t seem to notice he was a boy. He didn’t need this right now in his life, a girl messing with his head. And she could probably use a friend who didn’t think about her in a more-than-friendly way all the time.
But that was just it – there was something raw and bruised about her that he felt like needed healing, and he couldn’t stand the thought of someone else doing that for her. It was fate that brought them together, it had to be. Parker had never picked up a hitchhiker till her, Paige had never stayed with any person for very long until him. So he'd convinced himself they were meant to be, in a weird, backwards, "just friends", kinda way.
She still didn’t talk about her family, it very much seemed to be a sore spot – the source of her rawness. But she'd spoken more about growing up and school and things like that, which was all fine with Parker, he wasn’t ready to talk about his family. Not with his emotions all over the place in regards to her. He would start talking about something difficult and then probably just blab everything – and he didn't think Paige would take it too well if he suddenly told her he was perilously close to falling for her.
He rolled onto his side and faced her bed. She was laying on her back and she did have the blankets pushed up over her knees. Her head was turned so she was facing him, her ponytail draped across her chin. Her snoring had stopped for the moment and she looked as peaceful as he'd ever seen her. Certainly a change from earlier.
Parker almost laughed out loud at the memory of her girl-fight. Her temper was no joke, and while he thought she had definitely over reacted to the situation, he couldn’t judge her. He had a similar problem with his temper sometimes. It made him wonder again about where her anger really stemmed from, and if she would ever feel comfortable talking about it one day. If she ever did feel like spilling her secrets, Parker hoped he was still around to hear them – if things went on the way they were for much longer, he was either going to go insane and go home, or he was going to tell her exactly how he felt, and then she'd probably go home.
Maybe there was hope. The fight that night had looked suspiciously like jealousy. While Paige was usually quick to correct anyone who assumed Parker and she were an item, she hadn’t corrected the blonde girl that evening. If anything, she'd tried to lead the blonde to believing Parkerwasher boyfriend. It had seemed almost like she was claiming her territory.
Parker stared at her face. Let his eyes wander over her eyelashes, follow the straight line of her nose, around the cupids bow of her lips, down to her shoulder. She was so striking. How did a schmuck like him get lucky enough to pick up the most beautiful hitchhiker, ever? And how was he going to keep her?
She suddenly snorted and rolled her head away.
Eh, not a chance.
*
PAIGE DIDN’T REALLYfeel hungover the next day, but still decided to sleep in as late as check-out time would allow. Parker stayed outside on his phone forever. When she finally did get up, she slowly shuffled around the motel room, shoving her clothing into bags. She was a little embarrassed over her actions from the night before – not only because of the fight, but also because she'd gotten jealous enough of some girl to make a fool of herself.
She groaned as she zipped her bag shut. She'd never thought of Parker as her boyfriend, but she'd been so angry that women just automatically assumed he wasn’t; Blondie had been the straw to break the camel's back. He'd been sitting with her! Paige figured it would be a long time before that chick hit on a guy who was already sitting with another girl. She was chuckling out loud to herself over the thought when the front door burst open. Sunlight spilled in, blinding her.
“Are you ready for Texas!?” Parker boomed. Paige groaned and held up a hand to shield her eyes.
“Are we really going this time? Or will another excuse pop up?” she said snarkily. He raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, someone is especially lovely this morning. A little hungover? Or embarrassed? Bad decisions taste worst the day after,” he pointed out. She threw a pillow at him.
“Shut up. Are we going or not?” she snapped, picking up her backpack and the new duffle bag she'd bought. He grinned and leaned close to her.
“You know, this is really no way to treat yourboyfriend,” he teased, his voice soft in her ear. She shivered and punched him in the chest.
“Shut up. You saw what I’m capable of – I’ll kick your ass. Besides, to quote you, it didn’t seem like the right time to stop her and explain our relationship. I was too busy trying to figure out different ways to stuff her head up her own ass,” Paige said quickly, shoving past him and walking outside.
“Charming. You are an utterly charming woman, Paige Davis,” he commented, following her into the car. She wrestled with her duffle bag for a moment before finally shoving it into the back seat.
“Yeah, yeah, so I’ve been told,” she grumbled before facing forward and putting her sunglasses on, staring straight ahead.
Leaving Oklahoma and entering Texas wasn’t a very big deal, just looked like more of the same country. Paige’s bad attitude slowly washed away as they drove. She let Parker’s humming lull her into a sleepy state, her leg hanging out the window. She loved driving through southern states, they tended to have good weather for longer amounts of time. Sometimes the heat and the humidity was a bit much, but considering her love of wearing only shorts, it worked out well. She leaned almost sideways, towards Parker, the soft leather of the bench seat feeling comfortable and familiar.
After the first two hours of silent driving, she fell asleep without even realizing it – Parker gently shaking her shoulder woke her up. She was laying on her back, the top of her head pressed against his thigh. They were stopped. She took off her sunglasses and blinked up at him.
“How long have I been like this?” she asked. He smiled down at her and her heart skipped a beat.
“Two hours or so. We’re in Vernon, about two hours from Fort Worth. C’mon, I’m starving, and maybe, if you ask really nicely, I’ll let you drive the rest of the way to Fort Worth,” he offered. She rolled her eyes and sat up.
“You trust me with your precious Beast?” she joked, stretching her arms out. He shook his head.
