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Except she was.
He quickly put his phone away. “That was my sister. Even though I’m a self-proclaimed foodie, I hate when people send me pictures of food. So she and my brother make it a point to do it as much as possible.”
“Sounds like my kind of people.”
“I’m sure you all would get along just fine,” he muttered with a throaty chuckle.
Andi really hoped this turned out to be nothing. But she’d never seen Simmy look so concerned before. Could Craig really be her father? What was the story behind that?
Maybe Simmy would share later.
Andi might not have many friends, but the ones shedidhave she was loyal to.
Andi and Duke would check on Craig. With any luck, they’d get back to the trading post in a few hours. Then early in the morning the road would open, and Andi could somehow catch a ride to Fairbanks in time to listen in on Victor’s meeting.
“You can be my navigator,” Duke said as he turned on the radio. Country music began to play some kind of song about wishing on stars.
“I’m honored.” Andi wasn’t sure why her voice had a sarcastic edge.
Maybe this guy just seemed to bring out the prickly side of her.
But ever since everything had happened with Victor and Stockton, she’d put up major walls.
It seemed like most of the men she encountered in her life were chauvinistic pigs. She hated to say it because she wanted to believe good men were still out there. But even the people she worked with in the trucking company were jerks. Almost all of them had hit on her—even the married ones.
But Andi had known when she’d gone into this business that it was a man’s world. That she was an outsider. A target even.
That knowledge had made her buckle down even more.
There was nothing easy about driving these roads. Andi was fully aware that she was putting her life on the line every time she did so. But she knew she could handle the Dalton Highway with the best of them.
She’d learned a lot of useful skills from her dad.
Besides, she wasn’t the first ice road trucker to slide off the road, and she wouldn’t be the last.
“Look . . . maybe we should call a truce,” Duke said. “Start over.”
Andi considered his words a moment before nodding. “That sounds reasonable.”
“Perfect. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. And now we’ve been thrown together . . .”
“So we might as well make the best of things. Am I right?”
“I promise, I’m not a serial killer.” He cast her an almost comical look.
“Good to know. And I’m not a man hater.”
“Also good to know.”
Some of the tension in the car seemed to dissipate.
As a few moments of silence stretched, Duke asked, “Do you know Simmy well?”
Great. Maybe Andi didn’t have to start this conversation. Duke seemed like he might be the talkative type. She assumed he would be since he was a tour guide and all.
“I stop here on all my trips,” she explained. “Sometimes Simmy is one of the few people I talk to within a day, and she’s most definitely one of the only women around to have a decent conversation with. So we’ve kind of developed a bond, I guess you could say.”
“She’s a good woman.”
