“Tomorrow morning. Your dad and I will pick it up and be on our way. At this rate we’ll probably arrive after you.”
“Wait, Mom. What if I picked up the car and drove it toPennsylvania?” She’d have to cancel her flights, but that was okay. On Sunday she could ride back to Copper Creek with her parents, collect her car, and drive back home.
She realized her mom hadn’t responded. Heat prickled beneath her arms. “Mom, did you hear me?”
“Oh, honey... that’s just... too much to ask. We’ll be fine.”
“But Gramps could hurt himself, and Dad can still get there in time to help if you leave today.”
“But—the Chevy is... it’s a big responsibility, honey. Driving through the mountains all by yourself. It’s just not a good idea. I don’t want to put that on you. Thank you, though. So sweet of you to offer.”
What her mother meant was, she didn’t trust Allie with the precious vehicle. Allie’s shoulders hunched in, warmth bleeding into her face. No doubt if Olivia didn’t have a husband and three kids in tow, the assignment would’ve been passed to her without a blink of an eye.
“Mom, I can do it. I’ll be careful, I promise.”
“Honey... you’ve had a lot of speeding tickets.”
“I’ve had a total of two and none in the past five years. I’ll drive the speed limit—under the speed limit. I’ll treat the car like a baby bird.”
She heard her dad talking in the background. Then her mom’s intense whisper—somewhat muffled, yet Allie heard every word.
“She offered to drive the Chevy so we could head up to my parents’ today.”
“Allie? Drive thecar?”
“What should I say?”
“Well, I don’t know. You think of something.”
“I can’t say yes!”
“Are you sure? Your dad’s set on having that heatstroke, you know.”
“It’sAllie, Bill. She couldn’t commit to a teeth-whitening strip.”
Okay, her mom hadn’t said that last part, but it was clearly implied.
“Oh, that’s right,” her mom muttered. “Allie, I don’t think you can drive the car. It has a—”
Her dad interrupted and her mom’s reply was muffled.
“Mom? Mom, of course I can drive the car. Can you just—?”
Her parents were back in negotiations.
For heaven’s sake. This was ridiculous. Allie cradled the phone on her shoulder and gathered the flowers for the next arrangement while her parents discussed whether or not their twenty-five-year-old daughter was up to the task of operating a motor vehicle.
When were they going to see she wasn’t the impetuous girl she’d been at eighteen? Sure, she was still a little impulsive, and maybe she wasn’t quite as stable as her parents might like—certainly notsettled, like Olivia.
But she paid her bills on time (usually) and held down a job, sometimes two. (Though, okay, she switched frequently. But just because she had a short attention span didn’t mean she was irresponsible.)
She’d been a volunteer at the zoo for four years running. She’d even kept a pet alive, going on two years now. Yes, Mary, Queen of Scots, was perhaps the most independent feline ever to roam the earth, but she still counted. All of the above showed commitment and responsibility, did it not?
Maybe she wasn’t married with three kids and a mortgage, but she was a capable adult. She simply needed to prove it to her parents once and for all—and this was just the opportunity she’d been looking for.
“Mom...” Allie cut into the ongoing whisperfest. “I can do this. I’ll take excellent care of Gramps’s car, I promise. You don’t want him having a heatstroke before his fiftieth anniversary, do you? Gram would never forgive us after she bought all those balloons.” Her grandmother had recently rambled for ten minutes about the perils of wrangling three dozen Mylar balloons into a Subaru.
“She says she can do it.” Her mom’s muffled whisper sounded over the phone.
