He nodded and allowed a direct glance at her as he slipped the truck into reverse. Her profile was as close to sculpted as he could imagine. He cleared his throat. “What’s better about Ava than Olivia?” He pulled out of the parking lot and headed on autopilot back to Interstate 55.

“It’s easier to spell. And it’s a palindrome. What kid wouldn’t want their name to be a palindrome?” When Gabe raised an eyebrow and nodded in agreement, she added, “So, is it just Gabe, or is it short for Gabriel?”

Gabe chuckled. “Honestly, if it was, I doubt I’d own up to it.”

It was her turn to laugh. The sound of it rolled across the cab, warm and inviting. Infectious. She dragged a hand through the lower end of her hair, sweeping it all to one side, exposing her neck. “So, uh, thanks again for the ride. This is my first rescue drive, and it’s turned into a bit of a disaster.”

“What’s wrong with your car?”

“They don’t know yet. It crapped out a little way east, and I had it towed. By the time I got it here, the shop was a half hour from closing. They’ve done a few things, and they’re saying it could be the transmission, which would really suck. I was hoping to trade it in in a few months, not dump a few thousand dollars into it.”

Gabe asked a half-dozen questions about what had happened, attempting to isolate what might’ve gone wrong, and none of her answers sounded promising.

“I take it you know cars,” she said afterward.

“I come from a family of mechanics.”

“Oh. So… You’re not a driver, but you’re headed down to New Madrid to help anyway? How’d you hear about it?”

“A friend of mine. She’s joined a Facebook group of some sort. I guess a few of the animals who’ve been brought in from the floods are more roughed up than others. The organizers are looking for the help of a few vets, so I’m headed down.”

“You’re a vet?” Her voice pitched a bit at the end.

“Still feels a bit weird to say it, but yeah. I’ve been in practice since my residency this summer.”

“That’s cool. I wanted to be a vet when I was growing up, but the idea of that much studying was a turnoff. It’s not that I wasn’t engaged in school. I was, but I’m dyslexic. Which is why my sister’s name being so easy to spell was appealing.”

This level of honesty with a total stranger had Gabe unsure of how to answer. He merged onto the highway after first slowing down to let a semi in the slow lane pass.