“The car looks great.” He smiled genuinely. “Will it ride as smoothly as it did in the ’60s?”
Exasperated, she glanced behind her. His duffel bag used up more than the available space, pushing his seat slightly forward. And giving McKenna a view of his profile.
“Parker, get out. Go away. I don’t need you.”
“I’m going with you,” he stated as if it was a foregone conclusion.
“No, you’re not.”
“I promised Lydia I’d take care of you. Now, you have two choices.”
“Which are?”
“I weigh about 180. You can try to hoist me out of here and drive off alone.” He dropped his chin and looked at her with a doubting-Thomas expression. “I doubt you can do that, even with all the ingenuity Lydia tells me you have. Or you can back out of this garage and head for LA with me. Your choice.”
“Parker, we agreed yesterday that you were not coming with me.”
“No, yesterday I decided not to argue the point. It wasn’t going to make a difference, so why go through the effort.”
“That’s exactly why I don’t want you with me.”
“Because I don’t argue?”
“Yes, and because you’re not a companion. You’re just someone taking up a seat.”
For a long moment he said nothing. McKenna thought she’d gone too far. She didn’t usually insult people. It wouldn’t be good for business. And it wasn’t her personality.
Finally he spoke, repeating, “You have two choices.”
“I have one more choice,” she said, pulling the key out of the ignition. “I can stay here.”
He nodded. “That, too. But if you think you’re going to wait me out, I’ve already thought of that. I’ll park my SUV right in front of your garage. You can’t get this baby...” He looked approvingly at the upholstery. “Out of the garage without me knowing it. So you might be able to outsmart me and leave some other way, but it won’t be in this car.” Again he looked at the Corvette, checking the back over his shoulder. “She is a beaut. If she drives as well as she looks, I take my hat off to you. Lydia told me you built it from the ground up.”
“I’m not here to listen to your compliments.” McKenna sighed and propped her elbow on the open window, resting her chin in her hand.
“What’s it going to be? The road or breakfast? I’m hungry.”
McKenna got out of the car and went through the laundry room door into the house. Rage surged through her, giving her an instant headache. This is not how she had planned to begin her trip. Excitement had soared through her system last night. It was difficult to fall asleep. Details of her impromptu plan had run through her mind like a relay team handing off a baton, one runner after another. When she did sleep her dreams were peppered with images of Parker and Marshall. And now here Parker was, in the flesh, making her crazy.
She stood in her kitchen feeling useless. What was she going to do? She could try waiting him out. He had to get tired of blocking her driveway soon. But the determination with which he’d said he was going told her he was serious. She could call the police and report him as a trespasser. She wasn’t without friends on the force, but then Parker also had his contingent of buddies, too. One of the drawbacks of living in a small town.
She was going, she told herself decisively. This was her life and she wasn’t going to let him spoil it. Turning quickly, she walked back to the garage. Parker was sitting where she’d left him, tapping away on a laptop computer. He’d apparently adjusted his duffel bag, since the seat now sat flush with the back of the car. His apparent nonchalance angered her further. He really was a stick in the mud and a stubborn one at that.
“All right,” she said, holding back none of the venom from her voice. “You can go.”
He didn’t look up from his work.
“But there are rules.”
“Rules?” He continued to focus on the screen.
“This is my trip and we go with my decisions. You don’t question them and you don’t try to overrule me. This is not a vacation and we’re not a couple.”
He nodded, still not looking at her. McKenna wanted to grab the computer from him and snap it closed. He was not going to spoil her plan, she told herself. She’d spent years building this car. She was ready. Every detail had been planned up to this day. From here to the end, it was life as it came. She hated to admit it, but Parker had now become part of the life as it came scheme.
Opening the door to the car, McKenna slid into her seat. Parker closed the laptop and turned to her. “I have some rules, too,” he stated.
Surprised, she opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, he continued. “First, you will afford me the same respect that you would give to Lydia. You will talk to me with the same tone of voice that you would if she were here instead of me. I’m not going to go 2,400 miles fighting all the way. And don’t...” He stopped her when she was again about to say something. “Don’t tell me to stay here, because that’s a decision that has already been made.”
McKenna was taken aback. She’d never heard Parker speak with such force. Deep down it excited her to know he had a backbone somewhere. She’d always thought of him as weak and quiet, interested in nothing but being a dull college professor. Yet he really lived too well for that. At least, too well to subsist on a professor’s salary.
His home was huge and he drove a late-model SUV with custom appointments. He also had a sleek sports car that he roared along the highway in. McKenna had seen him once when she was on her way out of town.
“All right,” she conceded. She had been rude to him and that wasn’t like her.
He smiled. The moment held for a second longer than necessary. Then Parker quit it when he turned back in his seat and opened his computer.
“There’s one more thing,” McKenna said. She couldn’t believe she was about to say this, especially to a man she didn’t even like. “If we’re going to be together for most of the hours of the day, you can’t just sit there like a silent rock.”
“You want me to talk to you?” he asked, looking at her.
“Not especially. But if you’re going to go with me, I don’t want to be the driver and you the professor critiquing me the entire way.” She shifted in her seat. “Parker, this is the trip of a lifetime. It’s a chance to see a part of the world in a way we haven’t seen it before. It isn’t about driving. It’s about the landscape, the countryside, talking to people, enjoying what God gave us.” And learning about ourselves. The last she kept to herself.
“You’re asking a lot of a restored car and an old road. Are you sure that’s the real reason?”
McKenna hesitated and then decided to tell him the truth. “It’s not the entire reason. It’s about me, too. Who I am.”
He frowned.
“I’m not going into any further explanation. It’s personal, but I want to find something in myself that I’ve lost. Can you understand that? Don’t just let the scenery go by without giving it a look.”
After a minute, he nodded. She felt as if he was going to reach out and touch her. But he didn’t.
For a moment she was both grateful and disappointed. It had been three years since a man had touched her. Except for bumping into Parker a few days ago and finding his arms holding her, she’d hadn’t been close to a man. That small incident had reminded her that she missed it.
“Well, McKenna Wellington, it’s time to start your