‘And what constitutes a “real road trip experience” in your mind?’ Cooper asked sceptically.
‘Uh, well...snacks, obviously. And music. You need a soundtrack.’ She looked dubiously at the ancient radio the Caddy boasted. Cooper suspected that if it picked up anything it would be radio waves beamed straight from the fifties, giving them a steady diet of Elvis and Buddy Holly. The car’s engine and working parts had all been updated enough that he trusted the Caddy to make the distance he needed, but the interior and aesthetics were most definitely of its time—radio included.
‘What else?’ he pressed.
‘Stopping to eat in diners—like, proper, authentic American ones, with pancakes and burgers and stuff.’
‘Are you hungry, by any chance?’ Cooper asked. ‘Because that’s the second food item on your essentials list so far. And you’ve only come up with three things.’
‘Kooky roadside attractions!’ Dawn shouted. ‘That’s what a road trip needs! I mean, that’s what I’ve always imagined for my dream road trip.’
That she’d clearly come up with five minutes ago as a way of convincing him she was going through with this. Right. ‘Roadside attractions,’ he repeated dubiously.
‘Yeah, you know—like the world’s biggest ball of twine. That sort of thing.’
‘The world’s largest ball of twine is in Kansas,’ Cooper replied automatically, and regretted it almost instantly. ‘We’re not going through Kansas.’
Dawn stared at him. He tried to pretend he hadn’t noticed. ‘How do you even know that?’
He shrugged. ‘I know things.’ Such as the world’s largest ball of twine made by one person was in Minnesota, which they also weren’t going through. But he wasn’t telling her that.
‘You like kooky roadside attractions too!’ Dawn declared. ‘Well, this is perfect, then. We can bond over them on our road trip.’
She sounded so pleased with herself for figuring out something about him that Cooper had to pour cold water on her optimism.
‘Not much point in bonding though, really, is there?’ he pointed out. ‘Not when you’ll be out of my life, and my brother’s life, the moment you get your passport back. Right?’
Because that was the deal here. He wasn’t helping her win Justin back. He was making sure she never even had the chance to try.
And, the sooner she accepted that, the better.
* * *
‘Right.’ Dawn dropped her feet from the dashboard and shoved them back into the stupid, uncomfortable wedding shoes her sister had insisted she buy.
For a moment there, she’d let herself get carried away with the trip. With the escape. Running away was so appealing right now...but she wasn’t. She was running towards something.
Justin.
Not to win him back, exactly, whatever Cooper thought. But to figure out the truth.
She had to remember what she was in this for: closure. Not kooky roadside attractions.
Well, maybe one or two. They did have to take breaks, after all.
Speaking of which...
‘Do you think we could stop somewhere soon?’ she asked. ‘Not to turn around or go back or anything. But you were right. I am hungry.’
Breakfast and mimosas had been hours and hours ago, and she hadn’t been able to stomach lunch, when the ceremony was supposed to start at two. All she’d had since Justin’s non-appearance was half a bottle of Prosecco, a couple of canapés and a breath mint—all courtesy of Ruby.
Cooper made an impatient noise in the back of his throat. ‘We can stop when we get to Sacramento.’
‘Sacramento?’ Dawn didn’t want to admit that she had no idea where that was but...she really had no idea where that was.
‘It’s only another hour or so from here,’ Cooper told her.
Dawn wondered if her stomach might start to eat itself before then.
‘So, you know this route pretty well, then?’ she asked, more to distract herself from her growling stomach than anything else.
‘It’s mostly one road,’ Cooper answered. ‘Just follow the I-80 to New Jersey, and from there I’m practically home.’
‘Right. You live in New York.’ Too far to consider flying over to meet his brother’s girlfriend in California, of course.
‘When I’m in the country.’ And too busy to bother anyway. Even if he worked for the same family company as Justin, somehow Cooper managed to make it more all-consuming.
What was it Justin had always said about his brother? ‘He doesn’t need love, he has work. It’s basically the same thing for him.’
How sad that must be. Sure, Dawn was all for job satisfaction—that was what had brought her out to the States in the first place. Her company had needed someone to take over the marketing of one of their products on this side of the Atlantic, and they wanted someone who understood the true Britishness of it, as well as how to sell it to the locals. With her American mother and very British father, Dawn had been perfectly positioned for the job.
But a job wasn’t a life. It was something to do in between the more meaningful parts—the parts of a life that involved other people. Relationships, family, friendships, love.
The part of her life that had used to be all about Justin until that afternoon.
Suddenly her job was looking a lot more appealing.
‘So, what is it you love so much about your job?’ she asked. Maybe she could learn something from Cooper. Such as how to forget all about the more painful aspects of her existence for a while.
‘You mean apart from the money?’ Cooper asked drily.
Dawn raised her eyebrows as she looked at him. ‘Given it’s your family business, I’m pretty sure you’d still have plenty of money even if you didn’t work yourself half to death.’ The Edwards family had made the rich list every year for the last hundred, after all.
‘Who says I work myself that hard?’
‘Your brother.’
A muscle jumped in his jaw at her statement, but he didn’t respond.
‘So I figure, if you’re working that hard it has to be for more that money. So is it love of the job? The challenge of it all? Or...?’ Another option occurred to her. One far more fitting to her own situation. ‘Or is it an escape?’
Because that would explain it. But what was he trying to escape from?
‘You know, it’s funny. My brother never told me all that much about you at all. Whirlwind romance, was it?’
Dawn looked away at his obvious attempt to turn the questioning round on her. ‘I wouldn’t say “whirlwind”.’
They’d been together over three months before Justin had proposed. That wasn’t whirlwind, was it?
‘And a short engagement too.’ He glanced away from the road to raise an eyebrow at her.
‘Well, my work secondment was almost over, and if I wanted to stay, well, we had to make some decisions quickly.’
‘I’m sure. Of course, I know my mother was scandalised at having to try and plan a whole wedding in so short a time.’
‘We