Page 30 of Shut Up and Drive
“I do not!” she argues.
“You do. But your secret is safe with me.”
She seems to accept my lame excuse, and my shoulders relax a bit. Heaven knows I’m not ready for the deep dive into my thoughts, because I’ll confess everything and scare her off. I need a distraction from all these feelings.
“I’ll start taking bags out to the car while you finish,” I say, standing.
“You’re going to make me eat alone?” Her voice has a hint of sadness in it.
I pause, hovering over my suitcase. “I just want to make sure we get to Amethyst Lake on time,” I say with a shrug.
Sera looks at her watch and does the mental math. “We have time. Sit with me. Andeat, for heaven’s sake. I know you’ve got to be hungry in there somewhere. Normally you have hollow legs and can eat anyone under the table.”
I surrender—because that’s what I have always donewhen it comes to Sera—and sit back down. After cleaning our plates, she smiles with satisfaction, which makes me feel better to know that I can make at least one of us happy. I set my tray aside and stand up.
“Pearl just said to stack our plates on the dresser and she’d get them when they cleaned the room,” I say, gathering our things.
“Okay,” Sera replies, eyeing me suspiciously.
“What? Would you stop that?”
“Stop what?” She plays innocent.
“That over-analyzing look you keep giving me. It’s making me feel like an animal at the zoo.”
Or like I’m standing in front of you in my underwear.
“I’m doing no such thing.”
“You are, and you know it.”
She quirks a skeptical eyebrow. “You’re acting… off.”
“Because you’re staring at me like a weirdo!” I insist, faking a laugh. “I’m fine! Just tired, remember?”
She purses her lips. “I don’t believe you. But whatever. Keep it to yourself, like I haven’t known you your whole life,” she says, her words dripping with passive-aggressive sarcasm. “Let’s get going. I’ll drive so you can sleep.”
Crap. That excuse backfired. Now I have to let her drive, and there’s no way I’ll be able to relax with her behind the wheel.
“Remember, there’s a huge crack in the windshield right at your eye level? I’m okay to drive. I’ll have Pearl give me a coffee to go.”
She hesitates for a moment and eyes me before relenting. “Fine. But if you get even a tiny bit tired, I want you toswitch with me, okay? We’ll figure out the windshield. Maybe I can sit on my bag to boost me up or something.”
“Deal,” I say, shaking her hand. “Now let’s strip the bloody sheets so Pearl doesn’t have to, and get out of here.”
We pack our bags back into the rental car—minus locking the keys in the trunk this time—and wave goodbye to Pearl standing on the porch.
“I’m sorry again about the bed,” Sera says sheepishly.
“Oh, that’s just fine. My handyman will have it fixed by check-in. I put him on standby after y’all checked in last night.”
Sera’s face twists with confusion, and before she can ask any more questions, I open her door and herd her into the car.
“I slipped her an extra hundred-dollar bill for the trouble,” I say quietly in Sera’s ear as she sits down in the passenger seat. I shut her door and walk to the driver’s side. “Thank you again, Pearl!” I holler, and shut my own door.
Pearl waves heartily with her arthritic hands and smiles knowingly at me. I know exactly what her wink means, although Sera misses it completely while checking her weather app.
The dead air between us in the car is louder than Grand Central Station, but I do my best to ignore it. I force away the urgency I feel and turn on our travel playlist instead. I put the car in reverse and pull toward the freeway. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Sera folds her arms across her chest and sighs. When that doesn’t work, she sighs louder, then throws her arms up.
