“Did she give you clues? There must be some reason you’ve picked this guy to travel so far for?”

  Tessa sits for a moment and stares down at where her legs are crossed. “Well… she said he comes from a loving family and this particular guy was going home to visit his family for the holidays. Around Thanksgiving, my ex asked if I would join him for Christmas, but I declined for… reasons. And she said he helps a lot of people, and he works in IT, and he’s always complaining about people and how it’s the simplest fix. She said he had dark hair, which this guy does.”

  “So, she told you he has a close family, he helps people, and he has dark hair?” Mags sounds skeptical. I have to admit those aren’t exactly concrete details you could add to a missing person’s poster to identify someone.

  “He’s the last person I dated, and all those things are true of him. It has to be him.”

  Mags nods. “Well, I wish you luck. You clearly believe in fate, unlike this guy.” She nods toward me. “Try to rub off on him for the rest of the trip.”

  Tessa laughs. “Believe me, he has opportunities everywhere we go. You’re the first woman I’ve seen him flirt with though.” She winks.

  Mags laughs.

  “Can we stop talking about me like I’m not here? I’m not interested in a relationship right now.”

  Both women look at me but say nothing.

  Dr. John comes in then, and again, he looks in Tessa’s direction first. “Let’s get these stitches in and get you guys back on the road, shall we?”

  Mags is Dr. John’s assistant, handing him tools as he needs them, and Tessa sits down, scrolling through her phone. I can’t help but wonder if she’s texting the guy in question, telling him she’s on her way. Maybe I shouldn’t have said no to the impromptu stops.

  Then I remember I have enough on my damn plate. I don’t need someone like Tessa to worry about—a woman who embarked on a trip with no money in her pocket, no backup plan, all because of a psychic reading.

  Chapter Eleven

  Tessa

  Tre’s all stitched up, and I’m ready to get back on the road, but Mags comes into the room, pushing another bed with blankets and pillows stacked high on top of it.

  “Now, I’m a mother, and I don’t want to hear no for an answer. You two are staying here and getting a good night’s sleep.” She maneuvers the bed beside the one Tre is on as though she moves furniture for a living when she’s not nursing.

  “We’re already way behind for the day. Thank you for the kind offer, but we need to get going.” Tre grabs his jacket to put on.

  Mags continues to make the beds, putting multiple blankets over them both. They’re only spaced about six inches apart because of the size of the room. Does she really expect me to sleep only six inches away from him?

  “I told you I’m not taking no. I have your information and know who your emergency contact is. Don’t make me call your mother, Abner.”

  I laugh at her referring to him by his legal name.

  He stops mid motion, looks at her, then me. “HIPAA is a real thing, Mags.”

  “In any other hospital, I wouldn’t be offering to let the two of you sleep here. Things here run a little differently.” Mags puts her hands on her hips.

  Tre puts his fingers through his hair and pulls at his neck.

  “I already have a lot to worry about at night. Do you want me to add you two driving on dark, snow-covered highways to my list?”

  “You’re really giving me mom guilt?” Tre asks.

  Kenzie complains about her mom a lot. Is that mom guilt? I don’t think so. Whatever this is, I never had the pleasure of receiving it.

  He’s definitely going to cave, so I don’t bother with my jacket but decide to sit on the bed because I really am tired.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes for you two to stay here. I work the night shift anyway. I just have to get you out by eight.” Mags leaves the room.

  Tre glances at me, question in his eyes.

  “I am kind of tired. The airport wasn’t comfortable, and I’m fairly sure there are no cockroaches here.” I look at the floor to make sure.

  “Fine, but we’re leaving at five. I’ll be back. I have to call my parents and fill them in.”

  He leaves the room, and I figure it’s time I call the one person in the world who might be worried about me. I pull out my phone and pull up Kenzie’s number. It rings twice, and I realize it’s kind of late there.

  “Hello,” she says groggily. Maybe I should have waited until tomorrow. “Tess?”

  “I’m sorry for calling a little late.”

  “Are you in Portland?” she asks. “You were supposed to call me, and I tried you a few times, but it went straight to voice mail.”

  “I haven’t had the best reception, and no, I’m not in Portland.” I cross my legs and sit on the bed, worried about receiving her wrath.

  “Okay, you’re being vague. What did you do? Cash in your ticket and go to the Caribbean? I don’t blame you. I’m going to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Carter.”

  “Kenz! I’m still on my way to see Carter.”

  “Damn, sorry, I always open my mouth too soon.”

  “It’s okay as long as you don’t lose it when I tell you where I am.” I bite my nails. Not having a mom, Kenzie is the closest thing.

  “Where are you? And stop biting your nails.” She’s fully awake now.

  I hear Andrew grumbling.

  “Just go to sleep, honey. I’ll be right back. Hold on.” I hear sheets rustle, then a door shut. “Okay, where are you?”

  “I’m in South Dakota.”

  “Okay… why?”

  “A woman went into labor on the plane, so it had to land in Minnesota, then there was a snowstorm that closed the airport, so I went down to rent a car, but they only had one left… and there was me and another guy who wanted it.”

  “Okkaayy…”

  “His driver’s license had expired and my credit card declined, so we kind of rented the car…”

  “Together? You’re traveling with a stranger across the country?” she shouts at me, and I pull the phone away from my ear. “You could be murdered on the side of the road right now.”

  “He’s a soldier in the military, it’s fine.”

  “So his hands are probably lethal weapons?”

  Huh, I hadn’t thought about that.

  “How much money do you have?”

  Shit, she always asks questions that get me in trouble. “He’s agreed to pay for the entire trip.”

  Silence. Total silence.

  “I’m taking a breath.” I hear it through the receiver. “Okay, Tessa…” She takes another breath. “So, you’ve agreed to go cross country with a stranger who is in the military. Licensed to kill. And he’s going to pay for you with no expectation of you paying him back.”

  “Well, obviously I’m going to.” I fiddle with the blanket underneath me.

  “But he’s not expecting another kind of repayment?”

  “Oh my god. No!” I screech. “He’s not like that. We actually kind of hate one another. We get on each other’s nerves.”

  “So, you don’t like one another. That makes it better how?”

  My shoulders slump and I stare at the other bed where he’s going to sleep next to me all night. I haven’t even told her how hot he is, how attractive I find him even though he annoys me half the time.

  “Just… you can trust me. I can make good decisions.” Even if recent history is no indicator of this.

  More silence. Maybe I should remind her that her first date with Andrew, she showed up in an elf costume. Sometimes our decisions are questionable, but I would never put myself in harm’s way.

  Tre walks in and I bite the inside of my cheek since I’m still talking to her.

  “And you’re in South Dakota right now. What, in a hotel?”

  “A hospital,” I whisper, knowing what’s coming.

  “A hospital? Why?”

  “There was an accident.”

  Tre’s eyebrows raise and he smirks. It’s the kind of smirk I can see him giving if he were hovering over me and about to slide inside. It is so damn hot.

  “Meaning?” Kenzie asks.

  “He stopped to go to the bathroom, I opened my door, and he tumbled down an embankment, cut himself, and we’re here so he could get stitches.”

  I mouth sorry to Tre, but he waves me off.

  “Let me talk to him,” she says.

  “No.”

  “Yes. He’s there, I can tell. You’re being quieter, so hand the phone over.”

  “No way.”

  “Tessa…”

  If I don’t hand him the phone now, she’s going to probably call every hospital in South Dakota. Rarely does she let things go. I put her on mute. “My friend wants to talk to you. She thinks you could kill me with your bare hands because they’re probably registered as weapons or something.”

  He chuckles and puts his hand out for the phone, surprising me. He unmutes it. “Kenzie, this is Tre.” How the hell did he know her name? But then I realize it’s on the screen. It bothers me that I can’t hear what they’re saying. “Army Ranger… long enough… no, I don’t carry weapons with me… No, my hands aren’t registered… I could if I wanted to… yes, she’s only eaten sugar so far today…”

  The conversation must be changing tone because he’s laughing at whatever she’s saying.

  “Oh really?… She didn’t tell me that… I get it… Of course… Sounds good…”

  I’m thankful it sounds like the conversation is wrapping up.

  “Red, huh?… I’ll have to remember that… thanks for the tip… oh, I have no doubt… awesome… talk to you later… bye.” He ends the call and hands me my phone.

  “Do I even want to know what the red comment was about?”

  “She said your favorite lingerie color is red.” He sits in the chair, unties his boots, slips out of them, and tucks them under the chair.

  I look at my boots that I tossed haphazardly below me. “She did not!”

  “Nope. She said you love licorice and that you like to eat when you drive.” He smiles as his fingers go to his belt.

  I put up my hand, eyes wide. “What are you doing?”

  “Come on, I know there’s a sense of humor in there somewhere.” He walks toward the bathroom and shuts the door.

  “Did they give you happy drugs when they did the stitches?” I call.

  Mags comes in.

  “Did you give him some happy drugs?”

  She smiles. “No.” She puts a few supplies into the cabinet in the room. “That psychic didn’t say anything about a sense of humor, huh?”

  “I know you think I’m delusional.”

  Mags puts up her hand. “I think it’s romantic. I think few people take the chance you’re taking to find love. Own it, Tessa. It’s admirable to be so forthcoming with what you want in life.”

  My cheeks heat a bit. “Thanks.”

  Tre comes out of the bathroom wearing just pajama pants. Mags stops and stares at him and for good reason. He could be in a fitness magazine.

  “Good night,” she says.

  “Good night,” he returns.

  Once we’re in bed, I look at the frame of his body. He’s on his back with one arm tucked under his head.

  “Why did you give in so easily?” I whisper.

  “Because she reminds me of my mom. I’ve put her through hell all these years I’ve been gone. So if having me here makes her remember what it’s like to care for her boy, then I’ll do it.”

  “Huh. You’re really sweet under that tough exterior.”

  For a moment, he doesn’t say anything. “I’m not that tough. Believe me.”

  And then neither of us speaks again and eventually sleep comes because it’s been one long day.

  I stretch my arms and legs like in a movie. I don’t remember the last time I slept that well. I didn’t wake up to go to the bathroom or from some weird dream or anything. I look to my left to see if Tre is already awake. Except Tre isn’t there and his bed is made.

  Shut up. He left me.

  I bolt upright in bed and throw off the covers, realizing my shirt became skewed at some point, so I straighten that, grab my shoes, and search for my purse and belongings.

  Here I thought we were starting to trust each other. I didn’t think he’d leave me stranded in South Dakota. What kind of soldier does that?

  I open the door and look out into the hallway. The hospital must have a busy morning. There are more doctors and more nursing staff around than last night. I spot some Santas on stretchers outside rooms, Mrs. Clauses by their sides telling them to be quiet.

  Before I can look down the hallway in the other direction, two hands push me back into the room.

  “What the hell?” I say.

  The door shuts, and it’s Tre. I don’t want to examine why I feel an immense amount of relief.

  “We don’t want to get Mags in trouble, so we need to get out of here quietly.” He tosses whatever was in his hand on the table and sits down, putting on his boots.

  “What’s going on out there?” I whisper, shoving on my coat.

  “From what I overheard, there was some Santa and Mrs. Claus contest at a bar in the neighboring town last night, and things got out of hand and turned into a Santa brawl.” He shrugs on his jacket. “Alcohol always brings out the worst in people.”

  “I thought you left,” I admit for reasons I’m not sure.

  He stops and looks at me, hurt flashing in his eyes. “Mags brought us black coffee, but I went to get some cream and sugar for you.”

  I stand with my jaw open and, if I’m honest, my heart open too. He remembered how I take my coffee.

  “The only thing I didn’t know is whether you really take two sugars or if you just added that second one yesterday to stick it to me over the whole sugar comment.” He raises one eyebrow, and I laugh quietly.

  “You can read people way too well, do you know that?”

  He shrugs. “Kind of comes with the job. I have to make some quick decisions.”

  I’m curious to know, but I don’t ask him what his first thought of me was. I have to remind myself that just because he remembers how I take my coffee doesn’t mean anything. Any good barista can remember that too.

  Chapter Twelve

  Tre

  After a quick goodbye to Mags, we leave the hospital. I drive for a while until we pull off the highway to get gas, food, and to stretch our legs.

  “What do you think? Should we try to go all the way?” I ask while I gather all the trash in the car to throw out in the gas station garbage.

  She’s just returning from the bathroom. “I can take the shift, but the GPS said it’s almost another sixteen hours.”

  “Hard to believe we left yesterday, and we’ve only gotten eleven hours into the drive, huh?” I toss the trash and finish refueling.

  “Well, we did sleep somewhere last night.” She looks at the diner beside the gas station. “I’m going to be honest with you, I cannot eat diner food again.”

  Unfortunately, most of the exits are a local diner or fast food with not much in between.

  “How do you know? They might be famous for their apple pie or something?”

  She narrows her eyes, but there’s a playfulness that isn’t always there. “I really want a big juicy burger.”

  A car pulls up to the pump next to ours and a family files out. “Quick bathroom break, you guys. I told you to go before we left so you didn’t have to before we got to the Eggnog Festival.”

  Tessa’s head turns as fast as a cat who spotted a mouse.

  Fuck, I’ve done so well keeping her on task even after we passed the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, where she pleaded that admission was free, then the Dinosaur Park and the Reptile Gardens. And then she went on and on and told me that I’m not a true American when I refused to go off course to see Mount Rushmore. Truthfully, I almost caved on that one because it is something I want to see, but the weather is only getting colder, and I don’t want us to get stranded anywhere. Not much has gone our way.

  “Did you say Eggnog Festival?” Tessa steps over the edge of our pump and asks the mom.

  Damn it, she’s going to whine about this one too. Surely the words fate and kismet are going to come again.

  “Yeah, it’s an annual festival, only today and tomorrow, but tonight is when everyone brings their eggnog to try to win the ribbon.” The woman opens up the back of her conversion van, and I briefly wonder if they even make those anymore. She pulls out two jugs, holding them out as if she’s already won. “These are ours.”

  “Interesting. So, you just go taste eggnog?”

  “Oh no, there’s a whole festival. Great big barrels filled with huge fires to stay warm, live music, face painting, crafts for the kids. There’s a Santa and his elves, a lot of tasting booths and the competition. A whole Christmas market.” She smiles widely as though she can’t wait to get there.

  “Don’t forget the chugging competition,” her husband chimes in, filling his tank with about four times what we bought. “Always at the end of today. It all used to be held on Christmas Eve since that’s National Eggnog Day, but too many people would miss celebrating the holidays with their families, so they moved it to the weekend before.”

  “You two should go. It’s once-in-a-lifetime fun,” the wife says.

  Their kids barrel out of the gas station, running into the van screaming eggnog over and over.

  Tessa shoots me a look. One that says we need to go. This is a sign that we ran into these people.

  Damn it all to hell. I should’ve insisted she stay in the car to stay warm when she was done using the bathroom.

  “Tell you what? Here are two tickets. Since we run a booth and enter the contest, we get in for free, but we’re given two tickets to give to whoever. Usually we just pick two people outside before they buy tickets, but you seem really excited.” The dad holds them out.