The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(79)

Eli laughed too, in a way that Kinsey hadn’t seen him do in a while. He was . . . happy, she realized. Her sister and her best friend were clearly in love, and something deep, deep, deep inside, so far in there that Kinsey hadn’t even known that corner existed, both warmed and got worried at the same time. Why were they doing this? Didn’t they know the danger? And how was it possible to be genuinely happy for two of the best people on the planet, but also at the same time to be just a little jealous? But then her heart squeezed. Because it wasn’t jealousy. She loved Eli, but she wasn’t in love with him. She wanted him to be happy. He deserved it. He deserved this.

A part of her recognized that she’d pushed away the same thing for herself, on purpose, and that she wasn’t going to get another chance. Hardening her heart, she moved to the car. “Let’s go, dammit.”

Brynn started to get behind the wheel, but Kinsey gave her hip a bump. “I’m driving,” she said. “It’ll be dark before we get there and you can’t drive at night.”

“Neither can you,” Eli pointed out.

Brynn’s mouth fell open as she stared at Kinsey. “How did I forget that? You’re as blind as I am at night.”

Kinsey shrugged. “Makes sense we’d have at least one thing in common.”

“Oh, we’ve got more than that in common,” Brynn said.

“No we don’t.”

Brynn ticked the points off on her fingers. “We both work with kids, love our unit, have the same hair—”

“Hey.” Kinsey touched her hair. “Mine’s not frizzy like yours.”

“Because you buy ridiculously expensive product for it that I can’t afford.” She grinned and hugged Kinsey tight. “Shotgun!” she yelled and dove into the passenger seat.

Eli flashed Kinsey a grin and slid in behind the wheel.

Kinsey climbed into the back, grumbling, “You’re both children.”

“Sticks and stone,” Eli said mildly. “Destination?”

Kinsey gaped at him. “You don’t know?”

“I didn’t tell him the amazing secret yet,” Brynn said. “I wanted it to be a surprise.” She turned to face Eli. “I found our dad. He’s in Bakersfield.”

Eli flicked a glance Kinsey’s way, his brows up.

“Exciting, right?” Brynn was practically bouncing in her seat. “Let’s get going. I’ll get the GPS programmed.”

With Brynn’s attention turned to the navigation system, Eli craned his neck to look right at Kinsey, a look that said: We need to talk.

No shit. “The weather app says it’s going to be a hundred and five in Bakersfield. I vote we wait for it to cool off.”

Brynn stared at her like she was a nut. “It won’t cool off until October.”

Exactly . . .

“I’m not waiting that long,” Brynn said.

Again Eli flicked a glance at Kinsey in the mirror. What else do you got? his eyes asked.

“I’m pretty hungry,” Kinsey said. “Let’s stop at a restaurant.”

“I’m too excited to eat first.”

By now they were leaving the lush, green coast and heading into the high desert landscape of the middle of the state, and Kinsey was still doing her best to ignore what was happening, which was that she and her life were both circling the drain because she had no idea how to make this little impromptu reunion not happen. “The car’s making a funny noise,” she said. “We need to try again another time.”

“I’ll buy us bus tickets if I have to,” Brynn said.

Okay, who was this ballsy, brave chick and what had she done with her sister the mouse? Fuck it. Just fuck it. “So . . . there’s some stuff I should tell you.”

“Hell no.”

“Excuse me?” Kinsey asked.

“You think I don’t know how much you don’t want to be on this trip? You’re trying to make it not happen, but it’s happening, Kinsey. Deal with it.” As she’d been speaking, Brynn had been searching for a radio station, finally settling on country music, which always made Kinsey’s teeth grind. “No one listens to the radio anymore,” she said. “If you turn it off, I’ll bring up my Spotify—”

“Road trips require the radio,” Brynn said. “It’s part of the adventure, not knowing which song is going to come on.”

“You’ve got an odd sense of adventure,” Kinsey said, having to automatically disagree with everything. It was how she was wired. Especially when secretly, deep down, she envied Brynn’s sense of ease in winging things like road trips and . . . life.

The song was some guy wailing about his tractor, his dog, and the woman who’d left him. “My ears are bleeding.”

Eli caught her gaze in the rearview mirror. “Doesn’t Deck love country music?”

“Yeah, that’s why I dumped him.”

Brynn turned to face her. “He seems really sad about the break up.”

Kinsey blinked. “When did you see him?”

“I ran into him at the clinic the other day while I was getting tested.” Brynn paused. Grimaced. “Um, so that was supposed to be a surprise.”

Kinsey stared at her for a full ten seconds before words came to her. “A surprise,” she repeated carefully.