She laughed and slugged him in the arm. It was like punching steel. She was the one who said “ow.” “You are horrible,” she added, rubbing her sore hand. “And arrogant.”
He grinned and for a moment Natalie forgot where they were and that what had happened had changed everything between them.
It felt like old times, and it was... wonderful.
She finished off the last doughnut and sipped the coffee he’d ordered for her.
“I’m afraid no almond milk,” he apologized teasingly; he thought any order other than black was ridiculous for coffee. “With the baby, I wasn’t sure whether caffeine was all right so I got decaf.”
She felt her cheeks heat. It felt strange talking about the baby with him. Strange, but also nice. “That was thoughtful. Thanks. This is perfect.”
She had been avoiding caffeine.
He nodded.
Figuring the subject might be strange for him, too, she asked, “How much longer before we arrive?”
“A few hours. We should be there by lunchtime. It wouldn’t have taken this long, but I wanted to avoid the interstates.”
Wherever “there” was, it was clear he still wasn’t going to tell her.
“You must be exhausted,” she said.
She knew he didn’t sleep much, but driving all night like that couldn’t have been easy.
“I’m fine. I’m used to it.”
She bit her lip. She should have stayed awake to keep him company. “I didn’t mean to sleep so long.”
“You needed it,” he said firmly. “And if I was in any danger of falling asleep I would have woken you up.”
“Really?”
“Really. Besides, I was able to listen to some good music.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you maligning my taste in music?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“Scott!”
He grinned unrepentantly. “The angry-chick music isn’t so bad though.”
She lifted one brow with a smirk. “I’m glad you like it as I’m sure you hear it a lot. And ‘angry-chick music’ is demeaning.”
He just laughed.
The next few hours flew by so quickly that when Scott pulled off the highway, she was shocked to realize that it was almost noon and they must be near their destination.
They’d entered Virginia a while back and had been on the highway headed toward Fredericksburg. But he’d exited before that in a town called Warrenton.
“Is this it?” she asked. It seemed to be a charming old small town, which summed up a lot of this part of the country. The Old World, colonial American quaint towns surrounded by lush, verdant countryside. It was hard to believe DC was only an hour or two away, depending on traffic.
They drove through town—which didn’t take long—and turned onto a single-lane country road that had a scattering of houses along with trees and grassy fields on each side.
As the countryside became more rural, fencing and short stone walls became the boundaries, and the space between houses started to spread out and increase indistance from the road. The houses also started to become more impressive in stature.
Eventually Scott turned left into what looked like the drive of a private estate. There was an iron gate, a gatehouse, and a stone wall with square pillars and flower beds. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see a signpost withWELCOME TO SOMETHINGBURG,HOME OF INSERT-SOME-IMPORTANT-HISTORICAL/POLITICAL-FIGURE.”
