Moe Rivas has spent her whole life waiting for the perfect storybook romance, but as she approaches her senior year of college -- single, and incredibly disappointed with the male species -- she decides she's sick of daydreaming. Turning her back on...
"And just because you have us trapped in the car for eight hours doesn't mean you get to torment us with your invasive inquiries." I saw him holding back a smile in the side-view mirror and scowled. "It's really not that funny."
"It's a little funny." He glanced at Theo. "I'm glad she found you when she did, though. We all thought she was a lesbian until a few months ago."
I gasped and punched the back of his headrest. "Who's we?"
He masked his laughter with a wet, throaty cough. "Hey, I'm just saying our chauffer must be pretty special if my anxiety-ridden niece was able to drop everything and leave work on such short notice. That's not like her." He swiveled in his seat to look at me. "Remember when we tried taking you to Disneyland when you were a kid? You cried for three days because you were going to miss class for a week and needed to play catch-up. Totally inconsolable, even at the fucking happiest place on earth."
I folded my arms and slumped against the leather cushions. It was true that Theo's proposal had initially invoked a flurry of panicked preparation, but after we'd settled on a destination and booked the hotel room, I'd felt an odd sense of ease come over me. Theo was just...reliable, and stable, and if we encountered turbulent waters, I knew he'd drag me to shore.
Probably gruffly and without grace, but he'd get me there alive.
Carl didn't have space in my head when the barista was around. Theo always pushed the anxious creature to the distant corners of my brain—out of sight, out of earshot. And it was nice, being able to enjoy spontaneity for once. I liked not seeing where the trail led when it was Theo holding my hand and guiding the way. His presence made it easier to focus on the rocks and bulging tree roots right in front of me; at his side, I didn't have to worry so much about our destination.
"We're friends, Jay," I insisted. "Don't be weird."
Jay wiggled his bald eyebrows and went back to eating his sandwich, but I caught a glimpse of Theo's fond, private smile, and I felt my own lips curl with begrudging mirth.
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We sped down the Loneliest Road in America, and I had to admit; I was not expecting to ooh and ahh at almost every unique landscape we passed. The first feature to catch my eye was the mobile Sand Mountain and its mysterious shape-shifting. Then the vast and open valleys between ranges, all so much greener than I expected. Tufts of grass grew within a sea of mint-colored sagebrush, like seaweed infesting an endless coral reef, and I found myself gaping at the random oases sprinkled throughout the canyons. Finally, we approached the Toiyabe Range, with its massive spine jutting out of the ground, its foothills covered in sagebrush and speckled with trees, and its rocky peaks still encased in snow.
Odd, how a state so seemingly monotonous could be so beautifully diverse.
We stopped for gas at one of the small rural towns peppering the map, and I fished my camera out of my bag to snap a few photos. Theo smirked at me from the pump, but I ignored him as I zoomed in on the shadowy blue hills to the south.
