He glanced at Rennie again, but she hadn’t moved. Graham’s head was on a partial swivel, going from watching his friend to the road and back again. He thought about pulling over or finding a hotel, any place where he could hold her until she was ready to tell him what happened back in Whistler. As he drove, signs for the border came into view, and he pressed the gas pedal a smidge more to increase his speed.
“I’m going to need your passport,” he told her.
Rennie rummaged through her purse, pulled out her passport, and handed it to Graham without a word. She continued to stare out the window with the angriest look he had ever seen on her face. For as long as he’d known her, she’d always been the type to brush her emotions under the rug, and if someone upset her, she sought revenge, which was why she made a damn fine lawyer.
Graham inched his car forward, waiting his turn at the border. For some reason, he was nervous, afraid they weren’t going to be allowed back into the United States. He knew it was silly to think such a thing, but the thought tickled the back of his mind. When the signal light turned green, he slowly let off the gas and pulled up to the border agent.
“Passports or enhanced IDs,” the man said gruffly. Graham handed them over. “Where do you live?”
“I live in Cape Harbor, and she lives in Seattle.”
The agent bent forward to look farther into the car. “Roll down your back windows.” Graham did as he was told. “How long were you in Canada?”
“Only a few hours.”
“What was your business there? Anything to declare?”
“I went and picked up my friend, and no.”
The agent waited for Rennie to say something.
Without looking at the agent, Rennie said, “I drove with a friend to the ski lodge in Whistler. I couldn’t stay, so Graham picked me up.”
Graham grew irritated with Rennie. She had to know she looked suspicious when she didn’t make eye contact with the guard. Graham waited, his fingers gripping the steering wheel while the agent typed on his computer. The temptation was there to ask what the screen read, in the hope of making light of the fact his passenger acted fishy and slightly rude.
After what seemed like an hour, the border agent handed Graham his ID and Rennie’s passport back and told them to have a nice night. As soon as he was away from the station, he floored it. They technically had an hour until they were home, but forty-five minutes or less if Graham had anything to say about it.
He thought about bringing up some old memories, like the time they went to prom their junior year and Rennie was so nervous she stabbed him with the pin for his boutonniere. She jabbed the needle so hard into his tuxedo jacket it went right through and poked him in the chest. His mom had to work to get the tiny bit of blood out of the white shirt, and Rennie felt so bad that she told Graham he could stab her back so they’d be even. He never took her up on her offer but would have liked to right about now.
They pulled into the marina parking lot. Graham parked and shut his car off. The only sound around them was the strong wind coming off the ocean and waves crashing against the rocks. Overhead, a lamp softly illuminated the space inside the car. He took off his seat belt and angled his body toward Rennie, only to find her asleep. He sighed, got out of the car, and made his way to the passenger side. He opened the door slowly and made sure he caught her before she fell out. Graham reached in and pushed the red button on her seat belt, untangled her, and somehow found a way to scoop her up into his arms. She whimpered.
“I’ve got you,” he said as he kicked the car door shut.
Carrying a full-size human down a single-person ramp was not easy, but he managed to do it, and when he approached his door, he did so without a clue of how to get her inside without waking her up. On the off chance he forgot to lock his door, which he did often, he used the small outside table his mother insisted he put out for decoration to prop his leg up to support Rennie’s body weight so he could safely wiggle his arm out from under her legs. He sighed again, this time in relief, when his door opened. He repositioned again and was able to carry her inside.
The stairs to his bedroom were daunting, and as much as he wanted to carry her up there, it would be impossible. He’d surely whack her head or legs, waking her up, and walking up sideways was unmanageable. The couch was the only answer, at least until she woke up, and then she could move up to his room.