“What are you doing?”
I opened the door, jumped out, and walked around the front of the truck. I pulled the passenger door open and handed the keys to Liza. “You drive.”
She laughed, but her smiled quickly faded. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. You drive.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to drive.”
I shrugged. “Neither do I.”
“Well, someone’s going to have to do it,” Liza said. She unbuckled and pushed me out of the way as she jumped out of the truck.
I turned and walked to the back of the truck. I pulled the tailgate down and jumped up to sit there. I could hear Liza mumbling something. I watched her as she tried to find a cell signal. After ten minutes of walking around with her phone in the air, Liza leaned against the passenger side door. I lay back in the truck bed.
“I’m not driving!” She yelled.
“Neither am I!” I yelled back.
I SAT UP when I heard a car horn. I looked at my watch. We’d been sitting on the side of the road for over an hour. Neither one of us had budged when it came to driving. Liza was sitting inside the truck when an older lady got out of her truck and approached us.
Liza got out of the truck and said, “Thank goodness you came by.”
The older lady looked at Liza and then me. “Are y’all broken down?”
I shook my head. I was a little dizzy from the sun. “No, ma’am. Just lost.”
She laughed. “I see. Well, where are you trying to get to?”
“McMurphy Ranch.” Liza and I said at the same time. We both slowly turned and looked at each other.
“McMurphy Ranch? You’re about an hour from there.”
“What?” I blurted.
“No,” Liza said. “Please don’t say that. We’ve been driving for hours. I mean, we just drove up from Texas, and my father made us head straight for the ranch. I fell asleep and we lost the GPS signal and this idiot just kept driving. Probably dreaming about Jessica.”
“Hey, you’re the one who’s always lost in thought. At least I’m not walking around pretending to be—”
“Stop. Both of you.” The older lady had her fingers on her temples. “My God. I haven’t heard this kind of arguing since my Harold died five years ago.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Liza said.
I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. We’re tired and hungry.”
“I have cabins that I rent. I’m afraid they’re all full, but I do have a room that you’re more than welcome to stay in for the night. I’ll get you on the right road in the morning.”
I closed my eyes and turned around. Great. Just fucking great.
“Oh, that would be wonderful. Thank you so very much. Walker, isn’t that nice of…”
The older woman smiled. “Mrs. Jenkins.”
“Isn’t that nice of Mrs. Jenkins, Walker? To let us stay at her place?”
I glared at Liza. “No, Liza, it isn’t wonderful. I’m supposed to be at the McMurphy Ranch, looking at horses. I’m not supposed to be here.” I kicked a rock and yelled out. “I’m not supposed to be here! Motherfucker!”
Mrs. Jenkins gave me a polite smile. “I have a phone at my place. You’re more than welcome to use it. If you’d like to head to the ranch, I can show you the way, but you’ll be getting there after sundown. You can’t really look at horses in the dark.”