She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and fished the bottle of maximum strength pain relievers from a plastic bag.
“Your head?” I asked.
She nodded before taking the final sip of her water to wash the pills down. “How much farther is it?”
“An hour, but we’ll need to stop and buy some stuff. Like food and clothes.”
Or she could wear no clothes the whole time. I’d be okay with that. If I had my way, she’d probably never wear pants.
It was a crime to hide those legs.
“Where are we going?”
“My brother owns a cabin near Tomahawk, Wisconsin.”
“Is he okay with us coming?”
“He won’t be there, and he doesn’t need to know about us.” The statement hung awkwardly.Us. I quickly added, “He shutters the place for the winter.”
“Oh.” She looked like she meant,Oh, shit.Three days in a secluded cabin, just the two of us. She realized how dangerous that might be.
“In case we come across anyone, I don’t want you to use your real name. You should pick something similar, like Lisa or Linda.”
“Okay.” She fell silent for a while. “Are you and your brother close?”
“No, not really. Other than our parents, we have hardly anything in common.”
“Older or younger? Any other siblings?”
“Shawn’s three years older, and no.”
She probably didn’t like my short answers, but I wasn’t quite prepared to get into everything. It would happen soon enough, and I wanted to avoid it as long as possible. Every mile that brought us closer to the cabin brought me closer to the conversation I rarely had.
Not even Bill knew.
“Why are you making me feel like I’m interrogating you?”
“I’m not trying to. I don’t really like talking about family stuff.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s complicated.” It came out forceful and she bristled at my tone.
“Families usually are,” she said, turning her gaze out the window.
She hadnoidea.
24
LAUREL
When we pulledinto the parking lot of a big box store, Jason handed me a few hundred-dollar bills and said it’d be faster if we shopped separately.
I found several tops in my size before heading to buy some underwear and socks. At first, I breezed right past the sexier stuff and picked up a pack of simple cotton underwear, but when a pair of pink lace panties in a clearance bin caught my eye, I tossed them in my basket.
I shopped for toiletries next and hesitated when I passed the condoms.
Earlier, I hadn’t wanted to go any further with Jason, at least not in the front seat of a crappy car in broad daylight. Plus, I didn’t usually sleep with someone on the first date, and we certainly hadn’t had one of those.
