Between her ponytail and Lani's braids, the wind made a stream of wildly fluttering dark brown hair as they picked up speed on the highway.
"You want it closed?" she shouted.
"I'm good!" he called back—though he did tuck his hair down behind the seat to reduce some of the strain.
"I've never been to Seattle!" She merged them into the fast lane and picked up speed. They were already over the speed limit, but she kept gunning it. Lani laughed aloud at the sheer speed. "I gotta say, it's way too crowded!"
"Yeah!" The rest of the highway was packed, but they were in an express carpool lane, passing hundreds of cars every minute. "It gets better as soon as you get off I-5."
"That's gonna be hard," she said as they slowed down. They'd finally caught up to the traffic in their own lane, and it wasn't moving that much faster than the rest of the highway. "Ugh."
"We got way further than I expected," he pointed out. "We're already in Tacoma."
"Really?" She glanced around. "I wasn't really looking at the signs."
"Yeah. Don't worry, we're staying on the highway all the way til Olympia."
"Cool." She tapped the center console idly with one hand. "All right, pick some tunes. Whatever you want."
"My phone doesn't have any music on it," he said uncomfortably.
"What about streaming?"
"It's a work phone, they're really touchy about installing stuff on it." Aderholt would probably kill me if I tried to bypass it, too...
She laughed. "Well, here's where my career pays off again. I always keep my phone stacked up." She dug it out of her bag and unlocked it. "Pick anything you like."
Lani fiddled with the console until he got the phone connected. He scrolled through her music—and to his delight, she shared a lot of bands with his own collection. He picked out an indie band that seemed perfect for the occasion.
"Oh, shit, tell me you didn't just pick that at random."
Lani laughed. "Nope. I love this."
"I didn't think anyone had even heard of them!"
"They're actually from Seattle. I saw them play back in April."
She shot a playful glare at him. "No way."
"Yeah. The bar was packed tight. They're gonna get big, I can feel it."
They cruised like that for an hour, bobbing along to the music together. At one point, she started singing along. She didn't really have the voice for it, but she was plenty enthusiastic. After a couple songs, Lani couldn't help but join in.
She elbowed him as he got way too into one of the songs, laughing maniacally. "Okay, calm down Freddy." She leaned over to turn the music down.
Lani laughed. "I can't help it. It's just too perfect. A song about going into the woods on a crazy adventure with someone you just met, it's practically about us."
"Yeah, but she's supposed to be beautiful. And he's supposed to be a great singer," she added, smirking.
"Well, at least they got you right."
She hesitated. Her face got a little red, and she focused on the highway.
"I uhh..." Lani started. He'd felt so in the moment, the words had just tumbled out of his mouth.
She shook her head, her ponytail waving about as she did. "It's cool. I'm really not used to getting compliments. I mostly hang out with trees and birds, remember?" She laughed, and it eased the thick tension in the jeep down to an easy, lighthearted air again. "Thanks."
"Let's just hope we don't end up like the song," he joked.
"I dunno. I think it's super romantic."
"You want to die together jumping off a cliff?"
"As long as it's a good-looking cliff," she grinned. "Better that than dying in some smelly, crowded city, right?"
"Yeah." Lani reached over to turn the music back up a bit. His shoulder spiked with pain again, and she noticed it in the mirror.
"You good?"
"I'll be okay. I just can't use it much. Still healing."
"Mind if I ask what happened?"
"...I got shot."
She jerked the wheel so hard that they drifted into the shoulder for a second before she corrected. "You what?"
Crap. "Just an occupational hazard," he said, trying to play it off as a joke, but it didn't really come out right.
"...Okay." She nodded to herself. "I hear ya."
"Huh?"
"If you need any help out there, you tell me right away, all right?" She glanced over at him, quite serious. "That forest isn't the easiest hike around, and I'm already in better shape than you are even without a bullet in my shoulder."
"They took it out," he pointed out.
"Either way. Don't try to play the hero. We're gonna have to switch up the roles in that song. I'll carry you if I have to."
He smiled. "That works for me. You aren't really a good singer either."
She elbowed him again, and they both laughed.