“Huh?” I thought the text was all I’d get. He worked full-time, he had Sam, and there was night school, too. It was a wonder he ever slept at all; I didn’t expect him to get up to see me off.
“Give me some credit,” he said softly.
I wore a goofy smile as I said, “Okay.”
Then he bent to kiss me goodbye. Wrapping my arms around him, I made it count, tasting him until we were both breathing fast. Ty leaned his forehead against mine.
“It’s only four days. And then another month until our next weekend. We can hold out, right?” He sounded like he was living for those two days, as if they were twinkling lights in an ocean of darkness.
“Yep. Since we’ll be on break, there’s no coursework, no reading, no projects.”
“I have something special planned, so you’ll need to pack warm clothes, pretty much the best winter gear you have. Bear that in mind.”
My eyes widened. “So we’re not staying in this time?”
“It’s a surprise. Now you should get going before Lauren comes down and catches us making out.”
“Would that be such a bad thing?” I asked, surprised. My impression was Sam couldn’t know about us, but I didn’t realize we were a dirty secret otherwise.
“Not for me. I didn’t know if you told her about...us.” His hesitation said he wasn’t sure how to categorize what we had, the whole FWB situation.
“Yeah. She calls you Hot Ginger, by the way. For the life of me, I cannot get her to use your name.”
A sexy, surprised smile curved his mouth, and I suppressed the urge to kiss him. “I can live with that. But since I don’t know her, it’s more respectful to refer to me as Mr. Hot Ginger.”
“Noted,” Lauren said, standing at the bottom of the stairs with my bag.
“Morning.” Ty seemed unfazed, but close-up, a hot flush raced across his cheekbones.
“You got my phone and my purse?” I asked.
“Yep, we’re ready to roll. I even brought your shoes.”
I grinned. “You know me so well, it’s scary.”
Quickly, I kissed Ty one last time and then jogged over to cram my boots on. I shrugged into the coat Lauren offered and wrapped up in a scarf while Ty watched. Since I expected him to retreat any minute, I was surprised when he watched us leave. We went out into the predawn gloom on a burst of frosty wind, and only as the door closed behind us did Ty vanish into his apartment. Lauren grabbed on to me, shaking my arm.
“Dear God. Why didn’t you tell me Mr. Hot Ginger looks like that with no shirt on? I feel like you’ve violated, like, ten articles of the girl code.”
“You’re insane,” I mumbled, opening the trunk so we could pack it.
“Don’t change the subject. He’s f**king gorgeous. Some guys look better with their clothes on, you know? And when you finally get them naked, you’re like, Oh, God, he’s a bear rug! And you’re pretty sure the night ends with you picking fur out of your teeth.”
Shuddering, I said, “I have no words. It’s too early for this.”
I was shivering by the time I got the key in the door. The Toyota was old enough that it didn’t have a remote, and the heater was janky. We had been driving for fifteen minutes before it truly kicked in. Thankfully, Lauren had shut up about Ty.
“Can we eat at a truck stop? My mom says they have the best breakfasts, and you can always tell if the food’s good by the number of semis in the parking lot.”
Since I’d planned to eat a granola bar and drive for two hours, I sighed inaudibly. “You’re too perky for 6:00 a.m., you know that?”
“I’m also hungry. Starving, even. Food might make me sleepy and docile. Otherwise, I might talk about Mr. Hot Ginger. For hours.”
“For crap’s sake, yes, we’ll stop.” I pulled off where Lauren told me to, and we devoured a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs, biscuits, hash browns and sausage, priced right at $4.99.
True to her word, Lauren snuggled down in her coat and fell asleep once her stomach was full. I drove for longer than two hours on I-80 West, but she seemed to be napping so well, I didn’t have the heart to wake her. But before we switched from interstate to a smaller highway, I pulled off at a rest stop to stretch my legs and use the bathroom.
Nudging Lauren awake, I pointed at the restroom. “Need to go?”
“Huh? Yeah. Is it my turn to take over?”
“More than, actually. Not that I’m complaining.”
She poked me. “Saying you’re not is the same thing as bitching about it because you’re bringing it up.”
“Whatever.” I took the keys out of the ignition, locked up and hurried through the wintry air toward the brick building.
This was a decent rest stop, clean, and I didn’t mind using it. At the vending machine hut, we bought drinks and snacks, so we could keep moving. Lauren took over driving, and I went to sleep. She let me drowse for three hours to make up for the longer shift, and then we switched somewhere along highway 51. Next it was 275, then a string of smaller roads as we headed toward Nebraska. It was an excruciating day, and I was f**king exhausted when we entered the home stretch. It had been dark for a long time, and my back was sore, shoulders stiff, knee hurting.
But it would be worth it to see my family.
When we passed the town limits sign, Lauren bounced in her seat beside me. “Damn, I thought this drive would never end.”
“And we have to do it again on Sunday.”
She shuddered. “Don’t remind me.”
“But at least we have Thursday, Friday and Saturday at home.”
“I know. It’s gonna be awesome. I wonder if anyone else will be back.”
“Maybe.” It might be cool to hear what our high school friends had been up to.
Thanks to a minuscule downtown area and nothing but fields surrounding it, a stranger would likely describe Sharon, Nebraska, as quaint. With a population just under five thousand and not much in the way of development, it could be kindly described as Podunk, which was part of the reason Mount Albion, Michigan, didn’t bother me. Though it was a small town, too, you could drive to civilization much faster from there.
I didn’t need my phone anymore for directions, so I turned it off. From memory, I drove to Lauren’s old place, a tiny two-bedroom house on the outskirts of town. Her mom already had Christmas lights up, or maybe she just didn’t take them down last year. I could picture Mrs. Barrett shrugging and going, oh well. Lauren jumped out as soon as I stopped the car.