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Arriving at the dark blue car, he placed my heavy suitcase in the trunk and added one of his. I didn’t miss the long, lingering glance he sent my way which was warmer than the August breeze and roused a flutter of dragonflies in my gut. Thankfully, the slightly smokey-scented breeze cooled my heated cheeks, as it also wafted stray pieces of my hair across my face. Pushing them off, I tried my best to be alluring. I failed, since he broke the gaze and put his remaining luggage into the backseat, along with our carryon bags.
“Do you mind if we just drive straight for a while?” He’d hopped behind the wheel and buckled in while he stared at the dash as the car came to life.
“No sightseeing stops?” I said with a cheery tone, but I was kidding of course. It was after four am, and there wasn’t much to see in the dark.
Leaning into my seat, I fought back a yawn as my body believed it was still two hours ahead, and I’d only managed to sleep a couple of hours tops in the last two days. I wasn’t sure how I was going to stay awake for most of the ride.
“I need a coffee first.” Holden punched the button on the radio and quickly lowered the volume. “Want one?”
The wordcoffeeperked me up since I desperately needed one too. “Do I ever.”
“Great. We’ll stop there.” He pulled in front of a convenience store. “Ever done a road trip?”
I shook my head and followed Holden into the brightly lit interior of the store.
“What we always used to do was a snack run before we start out. You get a max limit of let’s say ten bucks, and you load up on junk food. Whatever will get you to the next stop.”
“And you don’t worry about getting sick?” Since he was standing by the length of shelves stocked with chocolate bars upon candies upon bags of toffee, it seemed a reasonable thing to question.
“It all depends on what you grab. But you only get two minutes.” He scrolled through his phone and set a timer. “And go.”
“Are you serious?” My eyes widened.
“You have to be at the checkout in one minute fifty-two seconds.” Holden was already over in the chips and salty needs aisle, scanning for an item or two to add to his supplies.
Feeling the time crunch, I dashed over to the cooler and grabbed a small carton of chocolate milk, ran to the coffee station. I needed to be practical, and caffeine was a must.
“One minute twenty-eight seconds.”
“Okay, okay.” I imagined the seconds ticking by as I pushed the button for a sugar loaded French vanilla beverage which took forever to dispense into the extra-large size cup.
“Fifty-three seconds,” Holden called out somewhere behind me.
A coffee and a chocolate milk weren’t going to be enough, as I had no idea if we’d be stopping for a breakfast or driving straight until our next fill up, so I quickly scanned around. What my body needed was nourishment. I spied a basket of yellow-green bananas and yanked one out.
“Twenty-six seconds.”
The clock was ticking, and as I raced to the counter first, I added a Mars bar, and if my math was correct, I still had at least two dollars remaining.
Holden arrived with his hot drink and an arm full of snacks, almost as if a child had been set loose. He dropped his two chocolate bars, a bag of blue gummy fish, a small packet of pringles, a snack size Skittles and his extra-large cup beside mine.
I laughed at the lunacy of his choices, but had to admit, it was fun.
He stared at my choices. “Really? Where I could let the chocolate milk slide because it has chocolate in its name, the banana is not really junk food worthy.”
“It’s a treat for me,” I said with a wink. “Oh, and I’m paying for this.”
“No way.”
I grabbed some cash.
He pushed my hand to my wallet, holding it there for a heartbeat longer than necessary.
I thrust the money at the cashier, loving the lopsided smirk peeking from between Holden’s lips. “I insist. You paid for the rental, let me get the extras that go with it.”
The cashier bagged our order and handed the bag to us, which Holden snapped up in an instant.
“Are you going to be this bossy the whole ride?”
