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“Surprised the mayor didn’t hunt you down and give you the key to the city for saving his baby,” Archie said.
“I left the police department right after that and then took a vacation. By the time I got back, it was probably old news.”
“Anyway, you’re a hero, son.” The three raised their mugs to him in a toast.
“Uh, thanks,” Noah said.
Daisy must have sensed his uneasiness and thankfully saved him from further discussion about the robbery.
“Good to see you guys,” she said. “Love to stay and chat, but we gotta get going. Take care.”
They folded themselves back into the car, and he pulled onto the main road.
“So, where to?” he asked. She hadn’t said anything about where they were headed, and the freeway on-ramps were approaching.
“Oh, um…” She rummaged around in her ginormous purse and finally pulled out a coin. “Heads, we head north. Tails, we go west.”
He swerved to the shoulder and slammed on the brakes. “Are you kidding me? You don’t even have a destination in mind?”
“Sure I do,” she said defensively. “We’re heading to New York City. I just don’t know the exact route.”
He grunted, and she laughed, clearly having fun at his expense.
“Fine. Flip it.”
She did, and it came up tails. “Westward ho,” she said.
He got back on the road and took the ramp to US-70.It’s just a job. You’re being paid to do this. Focus on that, he thought. The tiny car wasn’t helping his mood. They drove the first hundred miles in silence. It was hard to talk with the top down anyway. She blared country music and sang along while he counted the minutes. At least it wasn’t K-pop.
She wore a short sundress and had to continually press it to her legs to keep the wind from blowing it up. He tried to ignore her long, shapely legs, but hey, he was human.
They passed a billboard advertising a hole-in-the-wall diner, and she begged him to take the exit.
“These little roadside places always have the best pie,” she reasoned.
“I’m getting lunch,” he said.
After taking pictures of her pie from every possible angle, she finally took a bite. When she wrapped her lips around the first forkful, her look of sheer delight was oddly erotic. She blissfully enjoyed her pie, stared out the window, chatted with the waitress, and waved at random strangers who came in to eat.
After scarfing down a club sandwich, he felt marginally better and finally worked up the nerve to find out what he was in for.
“So, how are you planning to take a nine-and-a-half-hour drive and turn it into ten days?” he asked.
Blue eyes stared at him from across the booth, and he had to admit, they were very pretty eyes. “Oh,” she said. “I figured we’d just meander our way north. I don’t want to tie myself down to anything rigid. I have to work along the way, which means making some videos. We should check out Mallbury Park. The place Ruby recommended.”
“Ruby?”
“Our waitress,” she said. “It’s supposed to be beautiful at sunset. We could hike up there and then camp at the park’s campground.”
“You camp?” That seemed hard to believe. She had spoiled rich kid written all over her.
“Sure. Haven’t you seen my videos?”
“I didn’t have time to study your genre, no.”
“Oh, well. My whole shtick is traveling on a budget. I avoid the touristy stuff and try to see how cheaply I can do things. I lived all over Europe for ten years but since I only started my channel recently, I spent the last seven months retracing my steps making videos. Now I’m transitioning to a domestic version.”
“Do you have camping gear?”
