A terrible, familiar odor filled the car, and he reached for the window crank.
“Ugh.What is that smell?” They were Allie’s first words in two hours.
Luke began rolling down the window.
“Don’t. It might be outside.”
Luke glanced back at Walter, who was sleeping through the outrageous stench. “Oh, it’s definitely not outside.”
Allie gave Walter the stink eye. “That is downright foul.”
“He’s got tummy troubles.”
“Does he have any redeeming qualities?”
“Yes, he bites animal haters.”
“I don’t hate animals—you know I was bitten as a child.” She sniffed, her chin notching upward. “Besides, I’m a volunteer at the zoo, and I do have a pet of my own.”
“What kind of pet?”
“A cat. A beautiful gray cat—Mary, Queen of Scots.”
“You named your cat after a queen?”
“She was just a stray, but her royal bearing made me feel like I should immediately genuflect. So, yes, a queen.”
A grin tugged at his mouth. That sounded just like the Allie he remembered.
A sudden downpour had Luke flipping on the wipers.
“Slow down. You’re going too fast.”
But the shower had apparently been going on in the mountains awhile. The ground was muddy, and water puddled in the low-lying parts of the road.
He slowed, taking the next curve with caution.
Allie’s phone dinged and a moment later she gave a drylaugh. “Mom says, ‘Drive carefully and slow, and for heaven’s sake don’t run out of gas on those mountain roads.’ And Dad says, ‘Don’t strip the gears.’ Clearly I haven’t told them you’re driving.”
He couldn’t miss the bitter tone. He didn’t know if it was because she was the baby of the family or because her older sister was her polar opposite, but her parents seemed to favor Olivia sometimes.
“They obviously trusted you with the car,” he said.
Which meant they were now trusting him with the car, technically. What if something went wrong? What if he wrecked the car? Allie was family—and he was not. His shoulder muscles tightened at the thought, and he eased off the accelerator.
Thunder clapped, reverberating through the mountains, as they passed a crossroads.
Luke glanced in the rearview mirror. “Weren’t we supposed to turn back there?” he asked over the song blaring from her phone.
Allie checked the GPS. “I lost cell signal. But I think you’re right.”
He slowed down at the next turnoff and headed back to the road.
“Do you know the way without the GPS?” he asked. The roads through the mountains were like a maze, but Allie had been to her grandparents’ quite a few times.
“I think so.” She lifted her chin and sniffed—to let him know that, yes, she was conversing with him, but she was still miffed. Probably even more so after her parents’ texts.
It was going to be a long trip.
