Who was she and where had she come from? He had so many questions and when he went to ask them, he realized that he’d zoned out for a moment but she was still listing junk food.
“Red Vines. Powdered Donut Holes. Fudge Striped Mini Cookies. And Snickers.”
She looked back up at him and he could tell that she expected him to speak, but at the moment he found himself speechless.
“What’s your pleasure?”
Pleasure.He knew that she wasn’t using the word in a sexual context, well his brain knew that. Other organs had other ideas.
“Um, that’s a lot to choose from,” he stalled.
“It’s a long road trip, so I had to have supplies.”
“I’ll take the jerky,” that was the first thing she’d listed and the only one he remembered.
Her face twitched and he immediately recognized that that was probably what she’d wanted to eat, which was why she’d listed it first.
“Or the Snickers?” he said going with the last thing she’d said.
She handed him the candy and they ate in comfortable silence. He didn’t know about her, but he was still reeling a little bit from the events that had unfolded. From the moment he’d pulled over on the side of the road he felt like he’d been strapped into a roller coaster.
Grace handed him a bottle of water and he drank it washing down the candy bar. When he finished its contents, he noticed that she flattened and folded the jerky wrapper and his snickers wrapper before discarding them in a plastic bag she pulled out of the console.
“So…” She shifted in the seat turning toward him. “What in your life are you most grateful for?”
This moment.
That was the first answer that came to his mind. Luckily, he had enough sense not to say that out loud. “That’s, um, quite a question.”
“I don’t like small talk,” she explained.
“Fair enough.” He grinned, loving that he’d learned something else about her. “My family.”
The smile that lifted on her face told him she approved of his answer as she asked, “Do you have a big family?”
“I have three brothers, what about you?”
Her eyes widened slightly, and she let out a little gasp. “I have three sisters, are you the oldest?”
“Second oldest. There’s Evan, me, Everett and then my baby brother Eli.”
“Oh.” She almost looked disappointed as she said, “I’m the oldest.”
He’d assumed that was the case when she’d asked him if he was the oldest.
“There’s me, Ava, Vivien, and Audrey. Are you close with your brothers?”
“Yes,” Easton replied with the answer he gave every time he was asked about his brothers. But then he clarified, “We were really close growing up.”
“Did you drift apart when you got older?”
“Not really. We just don’t see each other that often. I’ve lived overseas basically since I turned eighteen.”
“Were you in the military or was it for work…?” her voice trailed off.
“Both. I enlisted in the Marines when I was eighteen, but I was only in for six years.” As much as Easton wanted to tell this woman everything about himself, something held him back. Women responded strangely to his lifestyle, and he just didn’t want anything to ruin this moment between them. “What about you? Are you and your sisters close?”
“Yes.” The look in her eyes was tinged with sadness as she explained, “I sort of raised them.”