A New Hope (Thunder Point #8)(41)

“It does seem perfect. Want to go for a ride?”

“Where?”

“Up the coast a little bit. Or maybe down the coast. Just to a lookout to watch the sunset.”

“Sure. You came a long way on a bet. I might’ve been busy.”

“I know. In fact I thought you might be. I thought maybe it would go on for hours. Or maybe you’d be out with friends from the wedding or something. It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

“And if I was busy? You’d turn right around and go back?”

“I could. Or I could call Peyton and see if she’d put up with me for the night. She has mysteriously stopped lecturing me. I suspect Scott.”

With a hand at the small of her back, he directed her to the passenger side of the truck and helped her up and in. Then he got in the driver’s side and buckled up. “Do you care where we go?”

“You decide. We could just go to Cooper’s.”

“I thought after a day full of people you wouldn’t mind a little quiet.”

“Good idea,” she said. “I’m tired, that’s for sure. It was a packed week of work, sewing, trying to keep track of wedding-day details to help Grace, lots of flowers. Iris and I decorated the arch they used—it was so beautiful. And it’s such a funny place—Thunder Point. They invited a few people and everyone else heard about it or saw it and just came. Grace was ready for that,” she said with a laugh. “She and Troy ordered up enough food and drink to accommodate a huge crowd.”

“In my family, if one person has an event, there is no possible way to keep it small. If you’re invited and don’t go, you better be prepared to bring your X-rays to prove you had a broken bone. And if you’re not invited, you’re obligated to start a riot within the family. Nothing like a good feud.”

“Does that really happen?” she asked.

“You must have a very small family, if you have to ask.”

“It’s just us, mostly. The extended family is shrinking. All of Ray Anne’s immediate family have been gone a long time and she never had children. My grandparents are gone. My folks are in their sixties, my brothers almost forty...”

“All it takes is one renegade who decides to have a bunch of kids and suddenly you’re a country,” he said.

She laughed. “In the Basque culture, that’s not really a renegade, now is it?”

“My generation hasn’t been as prolific as some. Most of my brothers and sisters want a reasonable couple of kids. Except Ellie—she already has five and wants more. She started real young. Peyton wasn’t going to have any—then she met Scott and got knocked up before the wedding. But she doesn’t have time for too many. Plus, she loves that little clinic. She’s not going to trade off her medical profession for the mommy track.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Do you want children?”

“I certainly did,” he said. “But I’m a little old-fashioned. First I’m going to have to find a happy marriage. And just like you, that’s not going to happen soon. We’re stung, Ginger. We’re both still in recovery. Bad time to try to partner up with happily ever after in mind.”

“I suppose it is,” she said.

“This looks like a good spot,” he said, pulling into a wide lookout. He maneuvered the truck around and backed in.

“It’s going to be kind of hard to see like this,” she said.

“Wait, you’re going to love this.” He jumped out of the truck and ran around to her side, helping her out. He directed her to the back, lowering the tailgate to the truck bed.

Inside the bed of the truck were a couple of lounge pillows, blankets and a cooler. “Wow,” was all she could say.

“This was how my parents went to the drive-in movie. For myself, I’ve never been to a drive-in movie, but my dad explained courting in his day—couples couldn’t be alone in the backseat of a car, which is why drive-ins were invented, I think. So they got cozy in the back of a truck.”

“I’m kind of dressed up,” she said.

He smiled. “And beautifully, too. I’ve got you covered,” he said, and jumped into the truck bed. He unrolled and spread out a sleeping bag on the bottom of the bed, shook out a blanket and covered the lounge pillows, then jumped out. He laced his fingers together to assist her in getting in. “Hand on my head and up you go.”

“Is this legal?” she asked.

“What? Parking at the lookout? Why not?”

“I don’t know. Seems kind of...”

“Naughty?” he asked with a grin. “Come on, up you go.”

She climbed in, laughing as she kneeled and then, adjusting her skirt, crawled to the front of the bed where the pillows were. She couldn’t stop laughing as she sat down against the pillows, smoothed her skirt and relaxed. He sat beside her, and when she rubbed her arms because she was a little chilly, he grabbed another blanket and spread it over her, tucking it around her shoulders.

“This is genius,” she said.

He lifted the lid of the cooler. “Drink?”

“What have you got in there?” she asked, peering into the cooler.

“Water, soda, tea, a couple of juice drinks.”

“I’ll pass. After all, being a guy, you can pee out of the back of a truck. Life isn’t that simple for a girl.”