After, as we lay in bed, me with an arm slung across my face, Lucy staring up at the ceiling, she laughs.
“Keep that up, and I’m going to get a complex.”
“I highly doubt that.” She pats my sweat-slick chest playfully. “You’re far too confident to let a little thing like someone else’s opinion weigh you down.”
True, but I’m curious.
Quick as lightning, I capture her wrist and pull her on top of me. “What’s so funny?”
She smirks. It’s a good look for her. “You really didn’t notice?”
“Notice what?”
She lifts her eyes skyward. “There are mirrors on the ceiling.”
I’ll be damned. How the hell did I miss them before?
“Give me twenty minutes, and we’ll put them to good use.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Miles
Two days to Santa Monica
“Hey, Luce.”
She turns the radio down but continues humming along to “Next Level.” I might be offended if it weren’t so damn funny. Any concerns I had about Lucy’s commitment to a no-strings fling have effectively been squashed. Although we’ve been screwing our brains out for the last three days, nothing has changed in terms of this road trip or our bet.
“Did you see the sign?” I ask, hooking a thumb over my shoulder.
Ten to one, she didn’t read it.
She nods slowly. “Yeah.”
Bullshit.
“So, you know there won’t be another gas station for the next sixty miles?”
She checks the fuel gauge, which has slipped below a quarter tank. “We’re good.”
The fuck we are.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stop? Maybe use the restroom and fuel up while we’re at it? You drank a lot of coffee this morning.”
It’ll be a miracle if she can make it sixty miles without a bathroom break, let alone fuel.
“Don’t you have work to do?” She glances pointedly at the open laptop balanced on my knees.
Yes. Yes, I do. But there’s no way I’ll be able to concentrate now. Not when we’re heading into the Mojave Desert on hope and a prayer.
“I really think we should go back and—”
“Would you relax?” She grabs a handful of Sour Patch Kids from the bag in the center console. “I know my own freaking car.”
Unbelievable.
I scoff. It won’t help my case, but clearly my case is already beyond help. “You’ve only had the Jeep for what? Like three seconds?”
