“Well, now I do,” I say, already walking. “Thanks for the unsolicited update.”
I don’t wait for a response. The screen door creaks behind me as I march outside and straight into the weekend Iactuallywant.
Hunter’s truck is idling by the curb. He looks good—arm draped casually over the wheel, sunglasses on, jaw tense until he sees me. Then it softens, just a little.
Daphne’s in the back, sipping iced coffee like she’s the Queen of Chill. “Ooh, she brought the cute overnight bag. This trip just got sexier.”
Hunter smirks. “Hop in. We’ve got a few hours on the road.”
“Where are your other friends?”
“They had to bail, unfortunately.”
Once I’m settled in the passenger seat, he hands me his phone. “You’re on music.”
“Bold move,” I say, unlocking it.
“I trust you.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Do you?”
He glances over. “No, but I like seeing what you’ll do when given power.”
I laugh and cue up Chris Stapleton. The first few chords of “Midnight Train to Memphis” roll through the speakers. Hunter nods with approval. Daphne leans forward between the seats.
“Okay, Faith. If you’re the DJ, we need road trip rules.”
“Hit me.”
“No skipping songs unless they’re truly offensive, you have to sing the chorus at least once per song, and whoever sees a cow first gets to ask a personal question thatmustbe answered.”
Hunter groans. “You made that rule up just now.”
“I know,” Daphne says. “And I’m very proud of myself.”
We’re about an hour out of town, the highway slicing through farmland and pine groves, when Daphne wins the cow game.
“There!” she shouts, pointing out the window like she spotted Bigfoot. “Brown cow. My turn.”
I brace myself.
Daphne grins like she’s been waiting her whole life for this. “Faith, have you ever been in love?”
The truck hums beneath us. Hunter doesn’t say a word, but I feel him shift slightly in his seat, like he’s listening closer than he wants me to know.
“Wow. Going right for the jugular.”
“It’s the rules,” Daphne says sweetly.
I glance out the window, watching fence posts blur into one another. “I thought I was. Once. But now I think I was just trying to prove something. To my parents. To myself. To… him.”
Hunter’s jaw tenses just slightly.
I shrug. “It doesn’t really count if you had to shrink yourself to stay.”
Daphne whistles. “Okay, damn. That was poeticandtragic.”
Hunter clears his throat. “Cow,” he says suddenly, pointing to the other side of the road.
