Megs whirled and walked up to a middle-aged man who’d just stepped out of the car. “Hey, are you by chance heading into Sugar Creek?”
“I’m on my way to Charlotte.”
Megs grinned. “Would you be willing to give us a ride to the Sugar Creek train depot since it’s on your way? The train broke down and I have an appointment to get to.”
The man looked skeptical, so Megs pulled off her pack and dug around for her wallet. “I can give you a ten for gas?”
He drew a deep breath, then finally nodded. “Both sit in the back if that’s all right.”
Megs nodded and handed him the bill. It wasn’t until that moment that her nerves kicked in. What was she doing? Riding with two strangers in one day? Somehow, having Gideon with her made it feel less dangerous, but she logically knew that wasn’t the case. What was Gideon going to do if this guy tried anything funny? Lecture him to death? She was instantly envisioning both of their bodies lifeless, sprawled at unnatural angles in the bottom of a ditch.
Gideon walked over, and Megs motioned for him to follow her to the opposite side of the car. “Will you wait a second while I try the door?” she whispered.
Gideon’s brow furrowed, but he nodded. Megs got into the back seat and closed it, then opened it again. She motioned for Gideon to scoot in next to her.
“What was that all about?” he asked when the door was shut again.
Megs scrunched her nose at the smell of old air freshener mixed with stale cigarette smoke. “I had to make sure the child lock wasn’t on.”
“Child lock?”
“Yeah, it’s a little button you can press on the inside of the door that makes it so people can’t open the door from the inside.”
Gideon nodded slowly. “You were making sure we weren’t being kidnapped.”
“Exactly. It’s the responsible thing to do.”
“When hitchhiking with strangers.”
Megs pursed her lips. “This was your idea, if you remember?”
The driver’s door opened. “I’m Mike. Thought we ought to know each other’s names if we’re going to spend twenty minutes in the car together.”
“I’m Megs.” Should she have given a fake name? They should’ve made up characters and backstories in their thirty seconds alone in the backseat. What a missed opportunity.
“Gideon.”
They clicked in their seatbelts as Mike pulled away from the pump and turned left to Sugar Creek. This time there was a full seat between them, which made it easier to avoid thinking about Gideon’s chest . . . or hands.
Megs pulled up the map on her GPS, just in case Mike took a wrong turn, they could open the door and dive onto the shoulder of the road. Tumbling through gravel shards had to be better than ending up in some crazy person’s panic room.
Gideon nudged her thigh with his. “You okay?”
Megs leaned in a little closer and nodded.
“What kind of appointment do you have this evening?” Mike asked.
“It’s a class, actually. I’m graduating tonight.” She grinned smugly at Gideon.
“Graduation. From College?”
Megs shook her head. “No, just a certification course.”
“Not ‘just’ a certification course.” He shot her a look.
“Well, good. Those colleges these days . . . ” Mike didn’t finish his sentence, but based on past experience with customers in Green Mountain Grinds, any conversation that followed a statement like that was either bound to be fascinating or horribly offensive.
Megs couldn’t help herself. “What about them?”
