I was happy enough sipping on a cup of hot tea that burned my hands in a good way, buying a few postcards, and taking advantage of the facilities. By the time I was ready to head back to the bus, I was warm enough—and embarrassed enough—that I didn’t seek Noah out. I tugged my jacket tighter around me, braced myself for the cold, and stepped outside, racing for the bus.
I was lucky that Joey was watching and waiting for me. When the door opened with a mechanical hiss, I leapt inside and immediately began stomping my feet to get the snow off. There were clumps of it wedged under my poor sandals. At this rate, I’d be lucky to make it through this tour without losing any toes.
Before turning to march down the aisle, I met Joey’s eyes, registering in that brief second that I was the first one back from the visitor’s center. And because I seemed to have lost the ability to filter myself, I asked the question I’d had since Tay first introduced him. “Have you really been driving tour busses over these mountains for three years?”
His eyes widened, and then darted around, both of his hands fidgeting on the steering wheel.
“Tay’s still inside,” I reassured him.
His expression turned sheepish as he leaned toward me. “I’ve been with the company for three years,” he answered. But that wasn’t what I asked.
“You’ve been driving these buses over these mountains for three years?” I used the big sister-slash-mom voice I’d learned from Ashley over the years, the do not even try to bullshit me right now voice. Considering how rarely I had cause to practice it, it was surprisingly effective against our prepubescent bus driver.
“Not…exactly.” His voice was so quiet I almost missed it.
“So…you aren’t really familiar with these roads?”
He just shrugged, offering a half-smile that unsettled my nerves. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Joey,” I pressed, crossing my arms. “What kind of experience do you have exactly?” Why was I asking this? Did I really want to know?
His shoulders sagged. “I just got my CDL,” he said finally. “Up until now, I’ve been doing airport transfers, mostly.”
I blinked. “Driving buses?”
He made a face, his lips twisting in mild discomfort. “Vans?” he admitted. “But I’ve never even gotten a ticket. And…it only took me three tries to pass the skills test!”
Sweet baby carrots.
“I’ve gotten us this far, haven’t I?” he added, his voice only squeaking a little at the tail end.
“Well, yeah.” I couldn’t exactly argue with that. Besides, what was I going to do—drive the bus myself? In this weather? I doubted anyone else on this tour could do any better.
Then he lowered his voice and leaned in. “You won’t tell them, will you?”
Just then, a few more passengers showed up at the door, so before scootching down the aisle, I made a zipping motion across my lips.
He was, after all, our only way off this mountain.
A few minutes later, Babs strolled down the aisle toward me, brushing snow out of her hair. “You sure made a run for it, Luna dear.”
I shifted aside so she could slip into the window seat.
“I was going to ask if you were enjoying the snow,” she went on, settling in, “but then I saw you making a beeline for the bus like your skirt was on fire. You’re going to ruin those darling sandals, you know.” She nodded toward my poor, pink, frozen feet. “Why didn’t you let the good doctor carry you back again?”
“Why would I do that?” I didn’t meet her eyes, but stared down at my toes, wiggling them in a futile attempt to warm them up.
“Oh, I don’t know.” When I glanced over, there was a mischievous sparkle in her eyes that I was slowly becoming more and more familiar with. “Maybe because he’s big and strong…and willing? Not to mention a beefcake—a hunk. You do know what a hunk is, don’t you?”
“I know what a hunk is.” I chuckled, shaking my head and keeping my voice low. “But I am perfectly capable of walking.”
Babs grinned. “And running.”
“And running,” I reluctantly agreed.
“And yet, you didn’t walk or run earlier,” Babs pointed out, a sly smile tugging at her lips. I glanced around, grateful that none of the other passengers who’d already made their way back onto the bus seemed to be listening.
“He didn’t give me much choice,” I informed her. Except he had.
