Winter Interlude (11 page)

“I didn’t know you could afford such a sleek car
.”
Kate
’s
eyebrows rose
as she glanced around at the car’s interior
.
“Still smells new.”

“I’ve had it a few months,” Paul murmured, sensing her first comment was somehow meant as a put
-
down, but refusing to take it as one
.
He shrugged
.
“It gets me where I want to go.”

“All cars do that, but one like this does it in style
.”
Her tone held a touch of admiration and she ran a hand along the leather
.
“Who knew you had it in you
?”
She sat back, and said under her breath but loud enough for him to hear, “This might not be so bad
.
At least the
ride’ll
be smooth.”

Rather than annoy him
,
as
it
once would have, her
comment
only pleased him
.
He couldn’t figure out why, so he stayed silent, mentally agreeing with her
.
This may not be so bad
.
She likes my car
.
He slowed for a red light as his phone beeped
with an incoming
text
.
After coming to a complete stop, he checked to see if it was important.

“It’s a message from Judith,” he said,
glancing
at
Kate
.
He brought up the text screen and read the message
.
“There’s a problem with one of her projects and she’s stuck
at the work
site
.”

“You’re kidding, right
?”

He shook his head and handed her the phone
.
“I wish I was
.”
T
he light changed,
and
he drove until he spotted a place to park while she read the message.

Her face scrunched up in dismay
.
“Damn
.
What do we do now?”

He sighed
.
“Let me call her and see what’s up
.”

Judith answered right away and said, “I’m really sorry.”

“No problem
.
We can wait,” he said, glancing at
Kate
, who nodded
.
“What time do you think you’ll be done?”

“This glitch is snowballing and I may end up working the weekend.”

“The whole weekend?”

“At this point, I
can’t say
.”
She hesitated
.
“I know you were looking forward to skiing
.
No sense spoiling your plans for tomorrow
.
If I can break away
,
I will, but for now, I have no choice but to take care of business
.
Tell
Kate
I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it
.
We understand,” he said, as disappointment welled up inside hi
m
.
Her news didn’t surprise him
.
Hadn’t he expected something like this all along
?
If he waited until tomorrow, she’d probably find another excuse and the excuses were starting to get to him
.
He had no idea what she was afraid of, but until she was ready to face her demons, there was nothing he could do to change things
.
Sometimes the futility of his situation got to him
.
They said their good
-
byes amidst more of her apologies
.
He hung up with thoughts about turning around and canceling the weekend
.
But he’d already planned it and probably wouldn’t see Judith for days, judging from her phone conversation
.
At least if he were skiing, he’d be doing something that would take his mind off his anger at Judith, even if it meant spending time with
Kate
.

“Well?”
Kate
asked
.
“What’s going on?”

Paul filled her in on his conversation with Judith
,
and
ended with, “I’m still heading up to Tahoe
.
You’re welcome to come along, but I’ll understand if you’d rather not.”

“I’m here now and tomorrow does promise to be a decent day
.”
She sighed and offered a smile
.
“
I
f you’re willing to take me, I’m willing to keep going.”

He nodded and pulled
away from the curb,
making
a
U
-turn.

Neither spoke as they drove out of the
c
ity
.

Paul kept his focus on the road, but every once in a while he’d glance at
Kate
.
S
he ignored him, had dragged out her smartphone
, in fact
.
On his last peek, she was absorbed in playing a game, at which point he turned on the radio.

Twenty minutes later,
Kate
sighed heavily and stuck her phone back in her pocket
.
“Look, I hate
our
not talking.”

Paul chanced a brief glance
.
“What do you mean?”

“I mean
,
are we going to just sit here for the next three hours and not say anything
?”
She crossed her arms
.
“Shouldn’t we at least attempt to amuse ourselves with something besides listening to music or playing Angry Birds?”

His eyebrows shot up
.
“Sounds interesting
.”
He shrugged
.
“What’d you have in mind?”

“Road games.”

“Road games
?”

“Yeah, you know
.”
She nodded
.
“Like
T
ruth or
D
are.”

“Dream on,” he said in a grunt of disapproval.

Kate
grinned
.
“Okay, not into telling secrets
?
Then what about
T
wenty
Q
uestions?”

When he looked over at her, his gaze narrowing, she snorted
.
“What
?
You’ve never played
T
wenty
Q
uestions when you went on road trips while growing up?”

Smiling, he shook his head
.

“You’re kidding
?”

“We never took any road trips,” he explained, his smile widening
.
“We always flew.”

“Really
?”
Her eyes grew rounder
.
“I never knew that.”

His hand went to his chest like he was clutching his heart
.
“You mean there’s something you don’t know about Jame
s’
childhood?”

“The subject never came up
.”
She turned to regard the scenery out the passenger window,
and tried
to act as if his revelation hadn’t bothered her
.

But he could tell it had.

Finally, she faced him again
.
“I don’t know
.
Somehow, it seems un-American to never take road trips.”

“Why
?”
He gave her a curious stare
.
“Because my parents weren’t the type to drive to the Grand Canyon
?”

She cleared her throat
.
“I didn’t mean that as an insult
.”
Averting her gaze, she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear
.

He chuckled, enjoying her discomfort as well as the blush
creeping across
her cheeks
.
“I’m amused, not insulted.”

“Oh
?”
She glanced back at him with questioning eyes.

“Yeah
!
You’re assuming I missed out on something.”

“No, I’m not,” she denied too quickly, shaking her head
.
“I know you had a privileged childhood
.”
Her gaze shifted to the window again.

“Then why is flying on vacations un-American
?”
He eyed her briefly before letting his attention go back to the road
.
“Admit it
.
You think I missed something
.
I hear it in your voice.”

“Not really
.”
She sighed
.
“It’s just that I didn’t think there was anyone out there who didn’t drive somewhere on trips
.”
She broke off
.
After a long pause, she nodded
.
“Okay
,
maybe I do feel you lost out
.
Some of my best experiences with my family were on road trips.”
She uncrossed her legs and stretched them out. “Maybe it’s a
midwestern
thing. I mean, there are several cities within a five-hour drive from Chicago.
My sister and I especially loved
long
weekends
—
or three
-
day adventures
,
as my dad called them
.”