SEVEN: Taryn

SEVEN

TARYN

Two hours later

Still traveling toward Spokane

Cameron

Hope you’re traveling safely. I just checked into my room at The Grace Estate. Can’t wait to see you in person & start talking life…

I’m starting to think we were always meant to be.

I wait to feel a bout of butterflies, but they never flap their wings. No matter how often I try to get excited about spending my life with Cameron, I only feel confused.

He’s also the last person I want to see when I make it to Colorado.

Ignoring his messages, I pull the blanket from over my face and realize that James and I are no longer on the highway.

We’re coasting down a long backroad where hundred-foot pine trees surround us. We’re also the only car on the road.

I squint at the dashboard.

1,480 miles

What the hell?

“James?” I pinch myself to make sure I’m still in reality.

“Yes?”

“Is there a problem with the mile counter on your dashboard?’

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Then why did it add an extra hundred miles to our trip?”

“I had to take an alternative route once we hit a slow spot,” he says. “I tried to wake you up and tell you, but you sleep like a stone.”

“I do not.”

“You also snore.” He smirks. “There was a two-hour traffic delay ahead and it’s better for us to go this way since we’ll arrive around the same time.”

“We need to make an adjustment to our stretches, then,” I say. “Should I take over now?”

“No, I’ll drive until we make up for the lost mileage,” he says, looking back at me. For a moment, he looks like he’s about to say something sweet, but then he hands me a neck pillow.

“Use this and lean back before you doze off again.”

“Thank you.”

“I did it for me ,” he says. “Your snoring is diabolical.”