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He felt he knew her a little better after watching the videos. And that maybe she wasn’t as frivolous as he’d imagined. At every turn, she surprised him.
She gobbled up her eggs and eyed his pancakes.
“I thought you weren’t hungry,” he said.
“I’m not. But they look delicious.” She picked up her fork. “Do you mind?”
He wasn’t accustomed to sharing food, didn’t particularly like sharing food, but one bite couldn’t hurt. “I suppose.” He pushed the plate to the middle of the table.
He was unprepared for what he felt when she put a piece in her mouth and syrup stuck to her lips. Her tongue flickered out to catch the syrup, and he dropped his fork. “Okay. That’s it.” He pulled the plate back. She looked up with wide eyes, oblivious to the effect she was having on him.
“So, Noah. Where are you from?”
“West Virginia. Lewisburg.”
“What? Why didn’t you say anything?” She sat up straight. “We’re going right by there. Well, wecouldgo right by there. You wanna stop and see your family?”
“No. That’s not necessary.”
“You don’t like your family?”
“I love my family.”
“Great, then it’s settled. We’ll stop.”
“And you think I’m bossy.”
“Ah. Another intersection on our Venn diagram.”
“Tall, stubborn, and bossy,” he muttered. “What could go wrong?”
It wasn’t settled, and they wouldn’t be stopping, but as long as he kept driving, she’d never know. He hadn’t been completely honest about his hometown. White Sulphur Springs was such a small dot on the map that he’d taken to citing the bigger, well-known Lewisburg as home. That way, he avoided the follow-up questions that inevitably came when he claimed the tiny town he was actually from.
“You done?” At her nod, he excused himself to use the restroom and pay the bill. When he returned, she got up to take a turn using the bathroom. He grabbed his hat and noticed the crossword puzzle he’d been working on was complete. She’d filled in all the hard ones. He double-checked her work, and sure enough, she’d solved all the clues he hadn’t been able to.
“You finished my puzzle?” he asked in disbelief when she returned.
“Don’t look so surprised. You did leave all the easy ones.” She winked, and he couldn’t help but laugh. Damn, this woman was an enigma.
Daisy asked around the diner for a hike recommendation and got a consensus on one not too far away. They found the trailhead, and two hours later, had huffed and puffed their way to the lookout point.
She hadn’t taken his advice about covering her legs, and after he tripped over several roots, staring at them instead of the ground, he finally told her he was taking the lead. Things went much smoother after that.
“Noah, look,” she whispered, pointing to a spot in the sky. An eagle flew over the ridge with a fish in its mouth. “How awesome is that?”
“Aren’t you going to take a picture?” he asked. That seemed to be her answer to everything.
“No,” she said, watching the eagle soar around a tree before landing in it. “Sometimes, you just gotta live in the now.”
Not five minutes later, she asked him to hold her phone while she made a video, telling everyone about the hike and the eagle.
He stopped her once when she said the name of the highway they were on. Then stopped her again when she mentioned the town they were in.
“Noah, I can’t really do any editing out here, so I need to get this in one take. If you keep interrupting, it’ll take me all night. I already said I’d wait to post. That’s my concession.”
They’d finally gotten a take they were both happy with. In the video, she’d made an over-the-top pitch for some granola bar, which they split afterward.
“How much you get for plugging this?” He held up his half of the granola bar.
