“Miami,” she said.
“Cool place. What are you doing in Montana?”
She smiled at him. “My aunt, well, my great-aunt she left me her house, not too far from here, I think. I’m not really good with directions.”
He looked a bit surprised. “So, you came up here to take a look at the house?”
“No, I came up here to live.”
He frowned. “Without doing any research into the weather? You don’t have any winter clothing with you. Everything you packed was summer stuff. Is a moving company bringing everything else?”
She didn’t really want to explain it all. But she knew it made no sense for her to have one piece of luggage with her.
“And why were you driving around with a near empty tank? Without snow tires on your car? Why didn’t you wait until the end of winter to move up here?”
She sighed. “I didn’t know I’d inherited the house until a week or so ago and I’ve never been here before. I know I wasn’t well prepared, but I didn’t have the money to buy a whole lot of stuff.”
He looked slightly alarmed at that.
“It’s okay, apparently my aunt left a trust fund too. I just have to meet with the lawyer to pick the keys up, along with any paperwork.”
He just fed her more porridge. She swallowed. “I’m really sorry for the way I behaved just before.”
He waved that off. “I know you are, baby girl. How long did the trip from Miami to here take you?”
“Umm, about four days.”
“Four days?” He stared at her. “That’s a huge trip. You must have been traveling ten-hour days.”
“Yeah, more if you add in stops.” She blushed. “I don’t have a GPS and I got lost a few times when trying to use my phone to navigate. Like I said, I don’t have the best sense of direction.”
“That wasn’t a smart idea, little girl. No wonder you were sleeping so much. You were exhausted! You could have fallen asleep at the wheel, had an accident and killed yourself or someone else.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But I didn’t have much choice. I left home with just a few hundred dollars and I spent most of that on gas. I couldn’t afford too many nights in motels along the way. So, I drove as much as I could. I thought I had enough gas to make it to my aunt’s house. I’ve never driven in snow and when I came around that corner to find the tree in the path, well, I instinctively slammed on the brakes.”
She shrugged. “Rest is history, right?”
“No, it is not history. Had you been mine, I can tell you that I would not want you driving halfway across the country alone. And if there was no other choice but for that to happen, you’d be restricted to driving for only six hours each day, I’d be mapping out your route, deciding on places for you to stay, and I’d be in constant touch.”
It probably should have sounded controlling. Instead, she could only wonder what it would be like to have someone worry about her that much.
“So, you want to tell me who the hell is supposed to be looking after you and failed their job?”
“I-I don’t have anyone. Do you think I would have agreed to…to what we’re doing if I had a boyfriend?”
“No. I know you don’t have a boyfriend. You told me you hadn’t had one since high school.”
Oh, that’s right. Jesus, why had she told him that?
“But what about your parents? Didn’t they care? Siblings? Family?”
“I don’t have any family left. Not anymore,” she said sadly.
“Oh, baby. What happened? Did your parents die?”
“I thought they were going to, but it turns out they were just lying to
me all along.” She looked up and saw his confused look. “This is a really pathetic story; believe me, you don’t want to know.”