With This Heart(38)

There we were, sitting at the front of a flea market in the-middle-of-nowhere, Texas, with hundreds of people shuffling around us. He was holding onto zombies and I was holding onto someone’s long-lost locket that now felt intimately mine.

Just as we were pulling away from each other with dopey grins, a grouchy old woman huffed past us. “I cannot believe the indecency displayed by youth these days,” she declared, clutching her oversized purse closer toward her chest as if we were street thugs about to mug her.

Her equally-as-old friend emphatically agreed with her as the two waddled around us with snooty glares.

Beck gave me a scolding glance. “Abby, we’re indecent ,” he muttered, unable to keep a smile from spreading wide. His eyes were alive with lust and there was a glow under his tan skin. I knew I looked the same.

“ So indecent,” I added.

“ They acted like we were having sex or something,” he added jokingly.

Without missing a beat, I declared, “I bought condoms before we left for the trip. Magnum condoms.” The announcement slipped out before I’d even thought about whether it was an appropriate response. The truth is, the condoms were burning a hole in my suitcase. I didn’t want Beck to stumble upon them and get the wrong impression. Like I was planning on having sex with so many guys that I had to purchase different sizes.

“ That’s cool. I bought deodorant and travel toothpaste,” he answered with a wicked grin. Just then, a window-shaking clap of thunder sounded from outside. The storm had finally reached us.

“ They were so you and I could have sex.”

Beck started cracking up. “They were ?”

My face blushed twenty shades past red. I was pretty sure I looked like a cherry. A big loser cherry with too many condoms. I had no way to answer that without basically giving him the green light to have sex with me.

“ Can we stop talking about sex in a flea market? I feel like those grannies are still listening or something.” Another clap of thunder punctuated the end of my request.

He let out a chuckle and tugged me up off the bench. “We should get going anyway; we’ve been here way too long. I doubt we’ll make it to the car before the rain comes.”





[page]CHAPTER FOURTEEN





Beck was right. The sky broke midway to the camper, which was still parked on the other side of the world. We started to run, shielding our purchases under our clothes, but by the time we reached the car, the rain had soaked into our every pore. He unlocked the doors as quickly as he could and then we crashed onto the leather seats, laughing hysterically and flinging drops of water off of our clothes.


Just as I started to close the passenger side door, the wind picked up and worked against me to keep the door open. Rain drops slapped against my face and I couldn’t blink fast enough to keep the water from dripping down into my eyes. Beck leaned across to help me tug it close. With both of our strength combined, the door slammed shut and we fell back onto our seats with contented sighs. My clothes stuck to me like plastic wrap and no amount of force could pry them off.

“ So you think it was the biggest in Texas?” Beck asked, buckling his seatbelt.

“ That’s what she said,” I answered, because the outdated joke was too good to pass up. Forgive me.

“ Nicely done. You can use that while you’re stuck on a desert island with Michael Scott,” he commended, sliding his gaze over to me. His dark eyelashes were stuck together from the rain and there was a slight dewiness to his skin, like he’d just slid out of the shower. I sat there giving his beautiful demeanor a moment of silence-it deserved it. His shirt was stuck to his skin, accentuating every masculine detail hidden beneath. He wasn’t bulky, he was a runner, but his arms were strong. Strong enough to pin me against the passenger door so that I wouldn’t be able to budge an inch. My eyes drifted across his skin like he was mine for the taking, as if I had the right to peruse his body.

But then he started the engine and cut off my indulgent daydreams. We weren’t going to have sex in the parking lot of the flea market. The angry grannies were probably parked directly next to us. I’d be seconds away from my first orgasm and the granny would tap onto the window with her wrinkly finger, damning Beck and I to hell for all of eternity.

“ What are you thinking about?” Beck asked as he pulled to the end of the long line trying to exit. There must have been a hundred cars in front of us and the rain wasn’t helping expedite the process.

“ Oh, nothing. Did I see a CD in that bag of yours?” I asked quickly, fumbling for a safe topic.

“ John Denver. Want to put it in?” he asked, motioning to the bag sitting in the cup holder.

“ I’ve never listened to him,” I answered, grabbing the bag and starting to peel off the plastic encasing.

“ What?” Beck exclaimed. “He’s the iconic road trip musician. I’m surprised we’ve made it this far without him guiding us.”

“ That sounds really serious.”

“ Everything about John Denver is serious.”

“ Oh, is it?” I said, spinning the CD around my finger and pretending to drop it.

Beck nodded with a smug grin. “That’s fine, Abby. Disrespect the road trip gods; watch what ends up happening to us.”



What ended up happening to us was the longest exit line that has ever existed. We sat there long enough for John Denver’s CD to repeat twice. I didn’t care about “country roads” or “jet planes”, I needed to pee. Stat.