Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“She’s gonna be alright, man,” he said, making my gaze slide over to him, finding him watching me. “Can see the worry all over you when you look at her. But she’s gonna be okay. It’s just gonna take time.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, nodding. I believed that. I did. I was just impatient, I guess, to see less sadness and fear in her eyes.
“And I figure it’s probably a good sign that she’s so comfortable with you. She’s always making sure you’re right there with her.”
“I don’t know if it is a good thing to have a… comfort person.”
“Why not?”
“Off the top of my head, because I live on the road.”
“So Slash sends someone else on the road with me for a while,” he said. “Besides, we planned to be in Shady Valley for a while this time anyway.”
There were times over the years when one of us had to sit out on a trip. If we were hurt or sick. And someone else would go with us. But that was rare. And neither of us were a fan of the disruption of what had become safe and comfortable for us.
Eventually, though, we were going to need to slow down or hand over this job to others. No one wanted to live on the road forever.
And the more I saw the brothers starting to settle down, find love, and start families, the more I wondered if that could be in the cards for me too.
Admittedly, Raff probably had a few years of dogging around in him, but I was starting to crave stability and a constant place to lay my head and call home.
“Besides, the fuck are you borrowing tomorrow’s worries for?” Raff asked, shrugging. “We’re in a chill town, lots of snow that we never get to see, that girl in there is warm and in love with her books. Shit is good today.”
I always envied Raff’s ability to put shit into perspective like that. To just… shut down the worries.
It wasn’t something I’d lucked out with.
But as I went back into the room, finding Vienna curled up, lips curved up at whatever she was reading as she picked at a snack bag of animal crackers, I had to agree he was right.
Shit was good today.
CHAPTER TEN
Vienna
I was actually kind of sad when, a day and a half later, I was sitting in the backseat of the car in my new jacket, covered up in blankets, holding onto Vernon, so he didn’t try to escape out of the doors as Riff and Raff stocked the car.
There was just something so charming about this town. And, in a way, it had begun to feel, I don’t know, safe. Or as safe as anywhere could feel to me, that is.
I had a bag full of my books in the footwells, a stock of snacks, and hot coffee in my new travel mug, though, so I wasn’t exactly upset about the rest of the road trip.
“Next stop… Utah,” Raff declared as he climbed in and opened his map on his lap.
“You have everything you need?” Riff asked as he shrugged out of his coat and pressed it onto the center console between the seats.
“Yes,” I said, waiting for his attention to turn to the road, then stealing his jacket and pulling it back with me.
I didn’t need it.
I had the blankets and wearable blanket Raff had bought me the first day as well as a new blanket with a bison print that matched my jacket that Riff had picked up for me because he knew how much I loved the jacket.
But, I don’t know, it was warm from his skin and it had his comforting woodsy scent clinging to it.
I was kind of sad that I didn’t smell like that anymore after Raff bought me my own bath supplies. And I thought they might find it weird if I kept using Riff’s soap when I didn’t need to, so I had to settle for smelling it on his coat as we started the next leg of our drive.
I was halfway into my third book of this journey when we stopped again for the night, this time in an actual hotel instead of a motel, so we’d needed to stash poor Vernon in one of Raff’s bags to sneak him in with us.
“This is nice,” I declared as we moved into the room, and I let Vernon out of the bag.
It was definitely a step—or five—up from the motels with the modern style and new carpet and drapes. And the bathroom was all marble and squeaky clean.
“Yeah. We generally stay in the motels because we like being close to our car in case we want to leave in a rush,” Riff admitted, reminding me what he said about them being in a less-than-legal business. “But I gotta admit, this shit is nice,” he said, falling backward onto the bed nearest the door, bouncing a bit on the mattress.