“Do you know how to get there?” he asked, curious to know if she’d thought any of this out.
A laugh burst from her and she covered her mouth with her hand. “No,” she mumbled. “I know we go north. That’s about it.”
He pulled out his phone and loaded their destination into the GPS. “All set.”
They got coffee and bagels at a shop down the street, and without any other detours, they headed for the highway.
“We should probably shop for clothes and supplies when we get to Salt Lake,” Luke suggested. “We’ll probably have to stop before that, though.”
“Okay.”
“So are we camping tonight, or staying in a hotel?”
Cordelia stared at him for such a long moment, he almost reminded her to watch the road. Brows knitted behind her designer glasses, and she turned her attention back to driving. “Camping?” she asked, as though it wasn’t a word she knew.
“Yes. Tent. Campfire. ‘Kumbaya.’ Marshmallows.”
“And we’d sleep in sleeping bags?”
“Yup.”
“In . . . one tent?” she asked.
He paused, wondering if she was flirting. “Or two, if you’d prefer.”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “What if there’s a bear?”
“I could set up bear bells around your tent.”
The corners of her eyes creased, but she didn’t look over at him. She made a sound of amusement. “I’d be kind of useless at camping though. I don’t know how to set a tent up, and we don’t have anything like that with us.”
“I can buy gear and set it up.”
She shook her head, like he was crazy, but she didn’t know h
im well enough to say so. “How about we decide when we get to Salt Lake City?”
“Sure, princess.” A girl like her? She’d probably never gone camping in her life. Even sleeping over at a friend’s place probably meant getting her own bed. It would be like “The Princess and the Pea” story. Probably a bad idea. But if they were going to Glacier, it meant she wanted to get closer to nature, right? Maybe it would help her get past the mess she seemed to be in.
“Princess?” she scoffed. “Are you going to sit me on your lap and tell me a bedtime story too?”
You can sit on my lap anytime. He banished the thought as soon as it popped into his head, but the visual lingered. She had a spectacular ass, and the idea of her parking it on his lap . . .
For the first couple of hours they talked about trivial things like the scenery and weather. He’d admitted to doing a lot of traveling for work but had never visited Montana. The places she’d vacationed were more exotic and outlandish than rustic national parks. Luke hadn’t been out of the country, but they’d both been to Miami and bonded slightly over a love of Cuban food.
After they stopped to use the bathroom, Luke took over driving. Light conversation fell away, but he couldn’t take the silence for long. “So what’s with the name?” he asked her finally. He had to get the name Cordelia out of his head soon, before he accidentally called her that out loud.
“Oh, my mom saw a production of Hamlet right before I was born, so she ran with the ball. I’m just glad she called me Ophelia rather than Gertrude. At the same time, sometimes I feel like I live under the shadow of that decision every day.”
Ah. Ophelia. That was it. “What do you mean?”
“Have you read it?” Her mouth twisted.
“Yes. I think I was a junior in high school at the time, though.”
“So let’s see . . . The man she loves seems to have no respect for her, she kills herself. Yup. Great life to look forward to. Why couldn’t she have named me something badass, or at least hot?” She snorted, and the sound surprised him. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had guys make the ‘Ophelia, I’ll feel ya’ joke to me? How did she not think of that?”
He frowned, annoyed for her. “So why not change it if you hate it?”