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"We can stop before then"

"Well, we left Chicago at eight o’clock It’s just coet to Des Moines about one thirty Break for an hour We should get to Lincoln by five I’reed

I was concerned Jake was going to be exhausted constantly on this trip "I can take over driving if you want"

He surprisedhis attention back to the road Where had the one? "No worries Beck’s on my dad’s insurance He and I will alternate days"

Jake pulled over at a gas station in Davenport and we got out to see to our needs Afterwards, as Claudia and I ashing our hands in perhaps the world’s nicest gas station bathroo to Jake or this road trip is going to be beyond aard"

I grinned at her "I thought you were too busy cozying up with Beck to notice as going on in the front seat"

Shelike there’s a plate of soundproof glass between you I was hoping you could at least try to get along"

"We’ve been perfectly pleasant with one another We’re not going to whisper in each other’s ears and brush one another’s hands and press up against each other like you and Beck--all of which is questionable behavior and note that I ayour nose out of it?"

I rounded my eyes in mock innocence "What? I didn’t ask one question about you and Beck and whether thiseach other…"

Her ansas to punch me in the arm like a five-year-old and prance out on a huff I think I struck a nerve

Sas station where we bought so Claudia’s comment in mind, I atteot the show back on the road

"It was good of your dad to let you borrow his car"

"It’s safer thanof potato chips and offered the one-handed "How are they? Your fa and shot me a quizzical look "They’re fine but isn’t that the question I should be asking you?"

"I believe you’ve already asked that question"

"I did Two o"

I shot hied"

"I wouldn’t know You never told hed Apparently Jake and I couldn’t do sht quell the tense silence, I reached over to turn on the radio Unfortunately, Jake had the exact saers brushed and a frisson of electricity sparked between us We snapped our arlanced out the illing the heat coursing through me to cool

Just like that, my whole body are of him I are of every time his hands shifted on the wheel, every little sound he made, or when he’d look into the rearview mirror to answer a question frolances at hilances, little stolen snapshots of his enviously long eyelashes, of the two little freckles on his left earlobe, of his large, htly fuller lower lip that had fascinated me since ere sixteen…

I was flooded bymy hands into fists in case they reached out to involuntarily touch him, I tried to remember a time when Jake wasn’t a part of

They won and I lost But I’d gotten really good at pretending that wasn’t true

There were no words to describe how happy I was to get out of the car e reached Des Moines Beck was in the mood for lunch at IHOP, so Jake used his dad’s GPS to find us the nearest one It took us off our main route, but as soon as Beckpancakes, waffles, scralad to be leaving the world of aard silence, stifling tension, and unspoken words

The four of us slid into a booth and, after we ordered, I reether

Things had been so different back then Hard to believe it was only a little over seven rinned at Beck and Jake across the table I noted the reen eyes

"Do we have to?" I asked

"Yes, Grumpy Betsy, we do"

I snorted "Gru "Never ame all the tiahed because he’d beateninto

"Get your utter," Claudia scolded "It’s not like that The game is you choose a couple, or two friends or whatever, who are eating out together and you have a conversation for thelanced around the rooestured to a young couple who sat with their elbows on the table, leaning a little across the distance so they could speak in lowered voices "Beck"

He looked at the couple and smiled "Baby, you smell better than apple pie and taste better than erated sigh of happiness as the girl tilted her head to the side, causing her hair to fall away from her neck "It’s hed and Claudia nudged me "Your turn You and Jake"

And that’s when I understood her plan with this stupid game "I don’t know"

"Ah, c’ed He pointed across the restaurant to an elderly couple Although it was cold outside, it wasn’t freezing, but both earing layer upon layer The wo quietly, while her husband ate and tried to read the newspaper His face was bent low over the paper as he chewed

The woman looked at him over her spectacles and started to speak

I set any closer to that paper? Are there nad wo?" I filled in for her

As the man replied, Jake said, "If there were, I wouldn’t know it Last time I saw a nad woman, I’d just helped oust the Nazis fro but I a at her partner "Don’t reht back"