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He heard something that sounded like a laugh and he smiled—his first of this miserable day. As soon as he had the towel anchored around his hips, he opened the door and stepped out.
“Gah!” The baby reached up for him, her own towel still draped over her head. She yelped as he moved past her to the back and pushed the sliding door shut.
He heard a scurrying sound and knew she was crawling after him.
“Come here!” Lucy exclaimed. “You don’t like him. He’s a jerk.”
Apparently the Demon didn’t agree because a small head butted into the door he had just closed. There was a blessed moment of silence, and then all hell broke loose.
The eruption wasn’t the pathetic whimpering of an upset baby. Instead, it was the outraged howl of a female who’d been denied her man. He whipped off his towel in frustration. Why couldn’t Sandy have given birth to a boy baby?
Nell began to moo.
Once Button had been cleaned up, she needed to be fed, then they had to wait for her stomach to settle. Nealy watched from Mabel’s window as Mat paced along the road, the soles of his shoes attacking the pavement, a deep frown of displeasure creasing his forehead. Every once in a while, he’d pick up a stone and hurl it into the river. Once he actually dropped down on the side of the road and performed a long series of push-ups. His impatience annoyed her. Why couldn’t he just enjoy the day?
As Lucy settled Button back into her car seat, Nealy opened the door and stepped out. “I think we can give it a try now.”
“It’s about time.”
“There’s no reason to be so grouchy. ”
He pushed past her—pushed past the First Lady of the United States!—and ducked into the motor home.
“Da!” Button squealed from her car seat.
He looked so ill-tempered that Nealy hurried forward. “Maybe I should drive. You’ve got road rage written all over you.”
“Maybe you should sit down and watch for signs so we can get back on a decent highway.” He squeezed behind the wheel.
“I’m bored,” Lucy said. “I want to go to a mall.”
“If I hear another word, I swear I’ll tie up all three of you, throw you in the back, and lock the door.”
Nealy looked at Lucy. Lucy looked at her. They had a moment of silent communication. Only Button was happy. She finally had her man back in sight.
They rode in silence for twenty miles, past tobacco fields, hardscrabble farms, and several tiny hamlets. They were passing through a slightly larger town not far from the interstate when Nealy heard an ominous thud coming from Mabel’s front end. Mat immediately slowed, applied the brakes, and turned the wheel to the right, only to have it fail to respond. He cursed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve lost steering.”
“I told you this thing was a pile of junk,” Lucy offered unnecessarily from the back.
Mat maneuvered the vehicle off onto the shoulder at the very edge of the parking lot for an ancient drive-in restaurant called Hush Pups.
“Cool. Can I get a Slurpee?”
“Hush, Lucy. What do you think is wrong, Mat?”
“You know that engine pinging that was bothering me?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think this is it.”
“Oh.”
He didn’t move, just stared through the windshield. “Busted tie rod. Something like that.”
