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Playing it safe was smart. Comfortable. Easy. But in this case it would also mean failure.
Convincing him to go along with her plan had been a long shot.
Now she had to follow through, even if the idea of heading off into the unknown was giving her Texas-sized butterflies in her stomach. Daniel would keep her safe. All she had to do was keep her emotions in line.
Stephanie was casually filing her nails when Daniel strode through the open door. She nearly grinned at his slightly disgruntled frown when he spotted her. Victory.
“Have you been waiting long?” he asked. “Nobody will notice your manicure in Alto.”
“Multitasking.” She waved a hand. “You know how I hate to waste time.”
He studied her face, and Stephanie tried to fight the warm flush headed straight to her cheeks. Daniel had always been good at calling her bluff.
“Or maybe you aren’t as excited about this trip now that you’ve had some time to think on it.” He paused, one hand over the handle of her suitcase.
He was giving her another chance to back out, which made pretending she didn’t want to twice as hard, but she was committed. “Nope. I’m all in.” Petrified, but committed.
When he didn’t even grunt or grimace at the strain of carrying a bag that she’d dragged, with two rest stops, to the lobby, Stephanie decided that living in the Andes had built up his muscles. Watching them flex in his arms as he tossed the bag in the back of the pickup truck confirmed this suspicion. Also, it was fun.
“I haven’t been down here for long, but I wouldn’t dare keep you waiting,” she said as she slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door. After efficiently buckling her seatbelt, she cleared her throat. “I remember how well you wait. And we both know you would’ve grabbed the first chance to leave me behind, like you left your sister and me at home that time we insisted on going to the movies with you.”
This time he grunted as he stuck the key in the ignition and started the truck. “How long does it take to put on a pair of jeans?”
“For teenage girls? Eternity. Not any pair will do.” Stephanie studied her cargo pants. She should have spent more time on her own wardrobe.
The windshield was already covered with enough insects to be bulletproof, but the interior of the truck was spotless. Just as she’d expect. Determined to be so quiet Daniel wouldn’t even know she was there, she watched the beaches whiz by as they sped down the highway. She didn’t remark on how the mountains ended so abruptly at rocky beaches and crashing waves or the guy riding a ten-speed down the side of the highway or the men selling fruit out of the trunks of cars or the boxes lining the hillside that were obviously homes. And she definitely didn’t ask what the speed limit was. That took real courage. When she noticed how white her knuckles were, she painfully unwrapped her hand from the door and stretched her fingers.
Finally Daniel pulled over at a gas station and turned off the engine. “Better go in and stock up on all the necessities. From here we turn off the paved road. No gas stations. Restrooms are harder to come by. Next stop is about forty miles.”
Thinking that wouldn’t take long at the speed of light or whatever the speed limit was, she answered, “I can wait.”
He shook his head. “No. Go. Now. That forty miles could take the rest of the afternoon. Besides, I warned you about the restrooms. They’re less reliable until we reach Alto.”
Deciding he’d be difficult to live with if she ignored his instructions and he was right—and realizing she’d be crazy to turn her back on time to shop—she slid out of the truck, watched him unload a few gas cans and headed for the station.
“Hola,” she called out as the bells jangled on the slamming door. The young woman behind the counter waved. Stephanie thought about asking where the restrooms were in Spanish, one of the few phrases she remembered, but the sign was hard to miss. And it was in English.
She made use of the facilities and then decided to get a drink for the road. Instead of an overwhelming supply of choices she didn’t recognize, her favorite red-and-white can made for an easy decision. With three cold bottles in the basket she found by the door, Stephanie added what seemed to be plain potato chips and a big bag of individually wrapped chocolates. Chocolate was always a good idea. Frowning as she considered what might happen in the sunshine, she added another bag of hard candy. Too much candy was never a problem.
“Playing it safe already?” Daniel asked as he pulled open the glass door and pulled out two bottles filled with some kind of yellow drink.
“I thought those were your orders. We’re turning off the paved road, leaving the world as I know it behind, so I should cling to the familiar while I can.” She tightened her grip on the basket. “Besides, I like Coke and chips.”
He tapped a bottle. “You’ll like this, too. Inca Kola. It’s like Peruvian Coke.”
“But I already have Peruvian Coke. I mean, it’s actually Coke.” She trailed behind him on the way to the cash register and watched him discuss what she thought was the weather with the woman behind the counter while he unloaded her basket. Everything was easy for him, even making casual conversation in Spanish, and she was reminded again how much distance and time was between them now. The Daniel she’d loved like a brother and then crushed on like an idiot was different. His life here was so far from the cozy confines of Holly Heights.
To keep this trip on the right track, she needed to cling to the first Daniel, the one who’d seen countless pimples and the horrifyingly bad perm she’d had at sixteen. She would explain to everyone that he was a good friend, nothing more, and then she’d find a new and exotic man in romantic Paris.
Convincing herself that he was only a good friend might make all the difference back in Holly Heights, too. Maybe she’d take the men who sat across from her on dinner dates more seriously.
In a flash they were rung up, checked out and back in the car. “You know, for a guy who’s trying to raise money, you haven’t pushed your luck. Shouldn’t I be bankrolling my own junk food habit?”
She opened the bag of chips and offered it to him.
He took a handful of chips out, started the truck and said, “Don’t worry. I’m putting it all on your tab.”
The truck lurched as Daniel made the turn on to the dusty gravel road, and she gripped the handle above the door again. He laughed and glanced her way, so she pasted on a confident expression. “Oh, I’m not worried. Thanks to the Big Star lotto, I can cover the tab.” A hard jounce shook her across the seat, and she grabbed the bag of chips before it could sail on to the floorboard. The bumps in the road and the crackle of gravel under the tires were loud so Stephanie shut up and held on.
“This more like what you expected?” Daniel asked as he slowed to pass a woman walking beside a donkey. The woman raised a hand to her straw hat.
“It’s still pretty flat. That’s not what I pictured.” She glanced in the side mirror to see the dust cloud fall between the truck and the woman, dimming the bright colors in her wrap.
Daniel pointed over the steering wheel. “Not for long. We’re going up.” They drove quickly past a small town that seemed nothing more than deserted strips of small homes made of concrete-block walls and tin roofs, crossed a trickle of water that might be a stream on some days, and started winding their way up the mountain. At the first insane hill, Daniel flipped off the air conditioner and rolled down the windows. “This is when the khaki might come in handy. If the dust gets too much...”
What? Let me know? Too bad for you? She wanted to know how that sentence ended but she was too busy biting her lips to ask.
Stephanie was doing pretty well with the whole “faking being totally okay with this speed” thing until he wedged a knee under the steering wheel to twist off the cap of a bottle of Inca Kola. “Here. Try this.”
Instead of shrieking at him to concentrate, she studied the bottle.
Calm, Stephanie. He’s watching you, waiting for you to freak out and prove him right. Proving him right this early on will make the rest of the trip impossible.
Glass bottle. Cold yellow liquid. How bad could it be?
“Put both hands on the wheel and I will.” She took the bottle and very obviously waited for him to comply. When he did, she put the bottle to her lips and took a tentative sip. “Mmm, that’s good.”
She handed it back and tried not to think about how sharing a bottle was the kind of thing a happy couple might do.
“Definitely worth taking a chance on the unknown now and then.” Daniel nodded, tilted the bottle back. For a split second Stephanie was distracted by how good he looked with those muscles, that cold drink and the satisfied sigh. Then she remembered the speed and the road.
Enough was enough. Nagging would confirm his suspicions that she should have been left in a cushy hotel in Lima. But there would be no fun in saying “I told you so” if they were both dead. “Please slow down. The medical personnel for the area is in this truck so if we crash...”
“No worries. We’d never survive the drop.” Daniel’s lips were twitching as she gasped out loud. “Come on. This is fun, right? And beautiful.”
Daniel pointed and for the first time Stephanie noticed the amazing stretch of mountains ahead of them. Also, the curving road that seemed to completely disappear. The sheer wall of mountain marked one side of the road that was just wide enough for one car with a complete lack of rail on the other side that might prevent them from taking a long drop. Like, a very long drop. Where was the bottom of that fall?
She expected Daniel to comfort her with dry statistics on how few people died by plunging over the side of the road. Brushing off her concern and the real danger took some getting used to.
A cold drink might be the only thing to save her, so she fished a Coke out of her convenience store bag. The first sweet sip was calming.
“What do we do if we meet another car?” Stephanie asked and bit back a frightened squeak as gravel spun under the truck’s tires.
“Negotiate. Very carefully. You’ll see.” His certainty didn’t reassure her.
That’s what she’d been afraid of.
Was he trying to frighten her back to Lima? One glimpse of his face convinced her that this was his normal. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself.
If he’d wanted peace and quiet for his drive to Alto, he was totally going to get it. She couldn’t have made inane conversation about sports teams and weather if her life depended on it. She was too busy swallowing back pleas to slow down and be careful. Be more careful. Please be more careful.
Then the truck lurched, headed for the wall instead of the drop and Daniel cursed. Before she could gather her breath to scream, before the movie of her life began to flash in front of her eyes, he had the truck stopped. “Flat tire.” Instead of shouting it like it might be the thing that spelled the end, his voice was flat with annoyance.
As though a flat tire while clinging to the side of a mountain was the same as a hangnail.
Here it might be.
Stephanie glanced wildly over both shoulders as if something might have changed in the two seconds she’d had her eyes squeezed shut. “Here?”
Daniel rested his chin against his chest for a second and then handed her his bottle. “They hardly ever happen on nice, level spots, especially around here.” He slid out of the truck, and she put both bottles in the cup holders before she inched her way out between the truck and the dusty mountain.
“But you know how to fix it?” Her fingers ached and she realized she’d tangled them together in a tight ball. At this second, in this place, she was as equipped to change that tire as she was to fly back to Lima. Eventually she might figure it out, but not before they were flattened into more Peruvian dust.
Daniel wrapped both hands around hers, the ones she didn’t know she was wringing like a true damsel in distress, until some of his calm and warmth seeped through her skin. He’d always been able to do that, break through her worry and give her some peace.
“Relax. This is business as usual. I can change it. Haven’t I always kept you safe? You and the other Holy Horrors have trained me well. Big brother to the rescue again.” He tilted his head to catch her stare, and they stood there for a long minute. “We’ll get the tire fixed in the next town. Everything is fine.” She matched every deep breath he took and realized that, although he was a brilliant doctor, this ability he had to convince her that everything was going to be okay made him the best.
Then she understood what he’d said. Big brother. Except he wasn’t and the way he saw their relationship hadn’t changed at all.
But she had.
Or she could if she wanted to, and this trip was her shot to show him and prove it to herself.
Starting right here, on the side of this mountain, where they both might be pulverized together if they didn’t get a move on.
“Okay. What can I do to help?” Now that she was breathing properly, she was ready to do whatever she could to get them moving again.
“Get back in the truck.” He turned away, pretty much assuming his order would be carried out quickly.
“Can’t get back in the truck. I’m helping.” Forcing her hands to her side was a strong first step. From there she could...do something.
When Daniel turned around, his impatience was impossible to miss. He raised a single eyebrow in response.
“I’m lending moral support.” She motioned at the narrow space between the truck and the mountainside. “You won’t even notice I’m here.”
Unexpectedly, his lips were twitching when he let out the long beleaguered sigh that had often been his response to their shenanigans.
“Stay there, between the truck and the mountain. If someone comes around that curve, I don’t want you out in the road.” He pulled the spare out of the back of the truck along with the jack, and once again she was reminded that now he was the sort of doctor who did heavy lifting. Obviously. Watching him work was pleasant.
“Well, since you asked so nicely...”
Then she focused on what he’d said. Someone else might be coming around that curve? She leaned over the hood to try to gauge the chances of another car making it around them. “We’re all going to die.”
His rough chuckle was easy to hear even as he worked the jack. “Nobody’s going to die. I have patients to see tomorrow.”
She thought about explaining how that made absolutely no sense, but she didn’t want to distract him. Instead she stared out over the vast space between the road they were on and the amazing mountain opposite them. Nothing but air and dirt and a tiny little ledge that cars and people were supposed to move along.
“Are you still with me?” Daniel asked. He must have had to repeat himself because he was standing next to her, wiping his hands on a towel that couldn’t have been much cleaner than his grease-covered palms.
“Ready to go?” The shrill tone didn’t please her, but maybe Daniel gave points for effort because he didn’t tease her or show any impatience. He nodded, walked around the truck and slid onto the driver’s seat.
The cold bottles were sweatier than her hands, but Stephanie took them out of the cup holders and handed him one. “Nice job, Doc.”
“I couldn’t have done it without your support.” His warm smile reminded her of other sunny days, other adventures. Everyone else thought he was so serious.
Was she the only lucky one to see this side?
They clinked the necks and Daniel started the truck. The shot of cold and sweet settled her jitters, and she was able to concentrate on how smoothly he negotiated the road.
“That didn’t even bother you, did it? Change a lot of flat tires on your Mercedes back home?”
He yanked off his cap. The wind blew through the window, ruffling his sweaty curls and Stephanie tried to remember if she’d ever seen them before. Daniel wasn’t answering her question about his former pride and joy, and she needed a distraction from her calculations on how long they could travel without meeting a car coming the other direction, so she said, “Not breaking any rules. That has nothing to do with Holly Heights Hospital or being fired, although if you’d like to talk about it, we certainly can. If you’d told me what a rotten day you were having, I would have never added to it by propositioning you.”
And she might not have to wonder if her invitation, which had bordered on a declaration, was one of the things keeping him away from Holly Heights. The poor guy might have made it home sooner if he hadn’t been afraid there’d be a lovesick fan waiting right behind his sister.
“Propositioning me? You asked me to dinner. Choose your words more carefully, English teacher.” He navigated a sharp turn in the shadow of the mountain. She watched his lips tighten and he rolled his shoulders slowly. “Flat tires are just another day around here. The first one rattled me, but I’ve learned I can handle them. That’s one good thing about this life. You find out pretty quickly you’re capable of more than you ever imagined.”
So he was going to skip over the parts he didn’t want to talk about. That made a lot of sense.
She’d already started doing more than she’d imagined. She’d had her doubts whether their friendship would be enough to get her into the truck. If she’d known about the condition of the road, Stephanie was certain she would have believed herself incapable of riding shotgun without gasping at each turn. By the time she landed in Texas again, what else would she be have mastered? “You going to teach me how to change a flat?”
He slowly shook his head. “Not until I show you how to drive on these roads, and neither one of us is up to that.” He shot a look at her death grip on the handle over the door. He was right, but she wouldn’t let him know that.
“Pretty sure I could handle it.” Just like that, she had to eat her words when they met not a car but a truck filled with people coming the other direction. Daniel immediately stopped his truck and eased it back to a dip in the mountain wall. “First rule of passing: hug the mountain.”
“Let them take the outside? Got it.” They both watched as the truck eased around them with shouts and waves from the passengers, and then Daniel pulled out of the dip and hit the gas.
Stephanie picked up the bag of chips, forced herself to let go of the handle and calmly shoved a handful in her mouth. By the power of carbs, she’d make it through this. When they rolled to a stop in the small main square of the next town, she’d managed to work her way through the bag, her Inca Kola and the Coke. And she felt better.
“Proposition, to propose something, like a date. I am good with words, Dr. Lincoln. In fact, I’d say we’ve already had our dinner date. We just shared a bag of chips and a drink. That’s almost a meal—a really cheap date with spectacular scenery.” She waved a careless hand to demonstrate how un-terrified and well-adjusted she was at this point in the trip and her life.
The fact that she’d actively plotted a way to prove her lack of injury, years after the incident, might not support her claims.
“Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll take you to the hospital for the restroom as soon as I get the tire patched.” Before she could salute smartly, Daniel was out of the truck. She glanced back in time to watch him lift the tire out of the back. He was tall and strong and didn’t seem much like the hotshot doctor she remembered. Dirty jeans and tan skin were a good look for him. The dark frown on his face was a lot more familiar. After he walked down the middle of the street and turned the corner, she checked on her suitcase, gasped in dismay over the solid coating of dust, and settled back in her seat.
“Stay here. Don’t move,” she grumbled. His voice wasn’t easy to copy but the frown was. “Big brother or dictator? It’s a fine line.”
That was when she noticed a line of schoolgirls forming on the sidewalk behind the truck. Dressed in adorable navy and gray uniforms, they watched the truck closely and giggled.
Small town Texas or mountain village in Peru, giggling eight-year-olds must have been universal.
Digging around in her bag from the convenience store, she grabbed the candy she’d picked up and then took her camera out of her backpack. One more glance showed impatient mothers joining the kids. Even better. She could ask permission to give candy and take photos.
If she could remember that much Spanish.
Maybe they knew English.
Stay here. Don’t move. Those had been his orders and she couldn’t claim she’d forgotten his second rule with a straight face. So this was going to make him mad.
