There’s no way she’s getting the car fixed and driving it all the way to Pine Harbour. “I’ve got room in the truck.”
She stares at me like I just offered to perform open-heart surgery in the parking lot. “What?”
“I’ll drive you.”
Silence.
“You got someone else heading that way?”
She frowns. “No.”
“Then get in the truck.”
“But we can’t—” She’s so righteous when she’s mad. Her eyes blaze. “It’s eight hours trapped in a small space with me.”
“I’ll survive.”
“What about your ninety-minute max?”
“Get in the truck, Rory.”
She stares at me like I’m a stranger, and not the guy whohas done this exact drive with her a couple dozen times before. A whole war goes on behind her snappish eyes, and logic wins out, but she’s not happy about it.
I make room for her stuff, a familiar game of Tetris that fills the remaining space in the truck cab and pushes a lot of inconvenient déjà vu buttons.
Now it feels like a drive home for the holidays. All those wintery road trips I complained about, because I didn’t get the big deal about a time of year that had never been special for me.
But Rory loves Christmas.Lovesit.
She gets in and buckles her seatbelt. Then she pulls her toque lower and exhales like this whole ride is a bad idea.
She’s probably right.
I put the truck in gear.
She’s not looking at me, but I catch her reflection in the window. She looks tired. That deep-in-the-bone exhaustion I remember from when her call shifts used to run over. Back then, I’d have food waiting when she got home.
“I have snacks,” I offer. “Healthy ones, even.”
No response.
So I add, “You can nap if you want.”
“I’m fine.”
“Suit yourself. Eight hours ahead of us.”
“Don’t remind me,” she mutters under her breath.
“I think we’ll survive.”
“Don’t be so confident.”
“Last I checked, a little arguing hasn’t killed anyone. Besides, it’s better to get it out of our system now than have it come up while we’re trapped in the same small town for a week.”
She stiffens. “Wait—how long are you staying?”
Zero to sixty. We didn’t even get out of the parking lot. “It’s a figure of speech. I know you’ve got to be back in a couple days. I’ll head back whenever you need to. It’s not like I want to spend that much time up there, anyway.”
