I knew that I’d mentioned him briefly before but we’d never discussed him in that much detail.
“You said that he’s nice, right? You like him?”
“He seems nice. I don’t really know him that well, to be honest. He’s a little handsy for my taste. But he makes my mom happy, and that’s all that really matters.”
“Not a big fan of PDA?”
“Not when my mom is in the equation.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cheyenne nodding. It was quiet for a minute and then she bent down and grabbed her snack bag. I grinned. I loved the fact that one of the reasons she’d always wanted to go on a road trip was because she could eat junk food without feeling guilty. When we stopped at the gas station on the way out of town, she’d told me that road trip calories don’t count.
Everything about the girl was fucking adorable.
“Do you want some?” She offered me a piece of beef jerky.
I shook my head. She took a large bite and turned up the radio. I noticed that she did that whenever she was eating, probably so I wouldn’t hear her chewing. Not that she was a particularly loud chewer, she was just that considerate.
She was always thinking of everyone else before herself.
After she snacked for a few minutes, she sealed her junk food back up and put the bag down on the floorboard by her feet. Then she took a large swig from her water bottle and yawned.
“Did you go to Farm Strong today?” I asked.
“Yep.”
That meant she’d been up since four-thirty.
“You should close your eyes for a bit.”
When we’d discussed driving through the night, she’d offered to be the one behind the wheel. When I told her I’d rather take my truck, she’d offered to take her car but I told her I’d rather take mine. There’d been a momentary standoff, but she caved while insisting that she would stay awake with me the entire drive and be my navigator.
“Nope. These suckers are staying open even if I have to tape my top lids to my forehead to do it. I’m going to keep you company,” she chirped.
Cut to an hour later.
Music blasted through the speakers and both of the windows were down, per Cheyenne’s request. The environment was supposed to help keep me awake, but it didn’t seem to be working for her.
Beside me Cheyenne was doing a great impression of a bobblehead. Her chin kept dropping down to her chest but then it would lift back up as fast as it lowered.
She’d been asleep for at least thirty minutes. She’d fought it because she didn’t want me to fall asleep at the wheel. What she didn’t know was that there was zero chance of that happening. I had too much going on in my head to sleep. And as much as I enjoyed Cheyenne’s company, a few hours of time to think things out wouldn’t be so bad.
I rolled both windows up and turned the music down. Then, with one hand on the steering wheel, I grabbed my jacket from where it was stashed behind the back of the seat. Keeping my eyes glued to the road ahead of me, I balled it up, reached around Cheyenne’s neck, and placed it between the window and her cheek to give her a soft place to rest. Instinctively, she snuggled against the comfy material.
She slept beside me and I tried not to let my mind go down the rabbit hole it had accidently fallen into. I’d thought that Billy had been the biggest obstacle that we would have. But if the nagging question in my mind turned out to be true, then there’d never be any future for Cheyenne and me.