Archie’s not usually the silent type.
“You alone?” I ask him.
“Yes. I’m refraining from asking for pictures.”
“I’m refraining from flipping you off.”
“Have you flipped Daphne off yet?”
“No.”
“Have you wanted to?”
“Is it possible to know her and not?”
“Where is she right now?”
“Hotel room. I’m in the parking lot. Getting my luggage. I have her phone so she can’t call Margot or anyone else.”
“Last time I was in a hotel, they still had landlines. Think she knows how to use it?”
Fuck.
Now I have a headache and indigestion, when a minute ago I merely had a pebble in my shoe.
I dump the ValuKart bags with my clothes straight into the suitcase, shut the door, grab one of the duffels from the trunk, and head for the hotel.
Then remember to lock the car.
Then double-check that I’ve locked the car.
And triple-check it.
“I’m sending—” Archie starts, but I cut him off.
“She’s staying. We made a deal. She’s…possibly…unfortunately…what I need. With me. For this part of my trip. Because…just…I’ve got this.”
“You convincing me or yourself? You haven’t been this hesitant about anything in at least three years.”
I grimace.
I don’t miss who I was before I was thrust into the head role at M2G, back when I’d second-guess everything and let other people order me around—but I don’t want to be who I am right now either.
And it’s not because the person I’m meant to be isn’t somewhere inside me.
It’s more that I’ve never had the freedom to find myself.
To find what I love enough to fight for it.
And while I haven’t been at this road trip more than twenty-four hours yet, I’m already realizing Daphne’s right.
I need help.
And she has something that I’veneverhad.
She hasfun.
“We stopped for fast food, and these sixty-year-old women had rented the place out and thought I was their birthday stripper,” I say to Archie. “One of them slapped my ass.”
