“I thought so. But do you know what? My sister and I were related by blood. We shared a room. We were raised in the same house, had the same parents. But I never had that problem. Because I wasn’t her. Just like you’re not your mom. Even if you’re scared you might be.”
I sucked in a breath, wondering if everything I feared was written across my face for everyone to read.
Her gaze held mine in a trance for a long moment before she clasped my arm with her frail hand. “The point is, reward takes risk. Life is messy. People are messy. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, but oftentimes, it can be even better than perfect.”
“Well, hell’s bells! It's a summer miracle!”
Bart's exuberant shouting caused me to jump, breaking me out of my trance. We both looked over to see Bart and Duke striding in from the back door. My heart stopped for a moment, seeing what I had missed earlier. If you looked past the wrinkles, the white hair, and the frail body, Duke was the spitting image of his grandpa. It was the teasing expression and a sweet, almost earnest look in both of their faces. Now, I was suddenly curious to see if he could also pull off overalls and a plaid button-down shirt. The baseball hat I already knew he could pull off just fine.
“We got Duke’s truck running!” Bart clapped his grinning grandson on his back.
“Yeah. Apparently it makes a big difference to haveallthe truck parts inside the truck when you try to start it,” Duke said, looking at me in amusement.
After “one morequickgame of rummy” that turned into four morequickgames of rummy, aquicksnack of Birdie’s homemade banana bread she defrosted realquickfrom the freezer, a promise to call and update them on the website, and a mountain of hugs from the two charming and lonely rascals that I wished I could call my own, Duke and I climbed in his truck and began driving south.
We started the trip laughing over funny things his grandparents had said, but eventually, we grew quiet, both of us lost in thought.
“Idaho looks good on you,” Duke finally said, as we eased onto the freeway.
“It felt good,” I admitted, wondering if he was mourning the end of our time here as well.
“Which parts?” he asked, his dark eyes watching me under his baseball hat.
“Every single bit of it,” I told him honestly.
I felt him consider me, but I kept my eyes locked on the road in front of us.
“It doesn’t have to end, you know,” his soft voice ventured between us, almost hesitantly.
“Do you worry we were just in a bubble here?”
He said nothing, but I watched the veins in his arm move as he flexed his hands on the wheel.
He cleared his throat. “Are you talking about when you made a move on me in the pond?”
A smile escaped me even as I tried to hold it in. “Yup. When you forced me to do the lift and then I proceeded to—“ I stopped, suddenly realizing we probably didn’t need a play by play. At least I didn’t. I had re-lived every kiss and touch between us like a movie in my head before falling asleep last night.
“Don’t stop there. What did you do to me?”
I reached out to give him a light push on his arm. In retaliation, he grabbed my hand and pulled, barely giving me time to unbuckle my seatbelt before he forced me to scoot next to him on the bench seat. I mean…I put up a really big fuss.
My new seat had significantly less leg room with the gear stick in the middle, which meant my left leg was pressed quite firmly against Duke’s leg, which meant I felt his movement every time he pressed on the gas or the brake.
We had just pulled onto the freeway when his hand dropped lightly on my knee. I threw him a questioning glance, but he only grinned. “It’s just easier this way, for when I need to shift.”
We drove for a while in the quiet, his hand on my knee and my heart on my sleeve.
“What was it you were worried about?” Duke asked, his hat slung low across his forehead. “Something about being in a bubble?”
That word brought me back to earth. Bubble. Yes. Boundaries. All things usually so second-nature to me finally reawakened and began edging their way past Duke’s warm hand palming my knee. I forced myself to think of words to say.
I swallowed. “You’re my boss,” I said, in case he had forgotten. “And I’m not sure what we do with this.” I motioned to my being practically in his lap and his hand now moving upward a few inches on my leg. “I need to focus these next few weeks on my project. I just…” My voice trailed off as Birdie’s words began to make mine sound shallow to my ears. “You just got out of a big relationship, and I need to figure out my life and job stuff,” I said, as excuses began pouring off my lips. “I’m a mess, Duke. You don’t really want a mess. You shouldn’t even be thinking about…and maybe you’re not. And that’s fine. Great, even. I just…”
My words trailed off as Duke pressed on the brake and pulled to a stop on the shoulder of the freeway. I whipped around, looking for the reason we were stopping. Maybe there was a lookout? But I saw nothing, except theWelcometoUtahsign sitting directly in front of us.
“What are you doing?”
He parked the truck and unbuckled his seatbelt before reaching across me to do the same with mine. Before I knew what was happening, he was pulling me from the truck, his hand in mine, and walking me to the other side, out of the immediate view of traffic. He pressed me lightly back against the passenger side door.
