He watched Joy walk to the restroom, picturing her in her bikini, and groaned. He was going to fantasize about those triangular scraps and how she’d removed them underwater the entire drive to Saint Louis. Thank you not for the visual, Joy, he thought with a grimace of frustration. He adjusted his jeans and pocketed the twenty. He’d return the Andrew Jackson to her later, slip it into her wallet or something when she wasn’t looking. Her pride wouldn’t let her take it back outright. But she was tight on cash and he had plenty. It wasn’t part of their pact, but why let her spend money when he could easily cover her entire trip cross-country and then some?

Standing, Dylan approached the cashier and paid for their breakfast. He’d also fill up her car before they hit the road. That, of course, was part of their deal. As for sticking to the other points in their agreement, that was becoming more of a challenge.

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 23

BEFORE

Joy

Stroud, Oklahoma, to Saint Louis, Missouri, to somewhere south of Litchfield, Illinois

Joy walked to her car dazed. She’d broken off her engagement. Okay, technically she hadn’t terminated it. But she’d told Mark that she wasn’t entirely sure when he asked if she still wanted to marry him.

It was the first time she’d been truly honest with him since she set out on this road trip. She’d marry one day. She’d start a family some year. But not yet. One thing at a time. Let her get settled, she’d explained to Mark. Let her gain some traction in her new career. Let her explore these new feelings for Dylan.

She stopped midstep. She’d kept that last thought to herself. She also wouldn’t kid around that anything could come of their friendship beyond the four days they had left. Dylan had plans that would take him overseas, then back to the Golden State. As for Joy’s plans? She was questioning those, too. With every mile traveled, a career as a cosmetic chemist and a life in New York seemed less appealing than it had on the day she’d been offered the job. But she’d been mired in guilt for so many years, and in turn married to the idea that she would wed after college and immediately start a family, that it was hard to see past that and believe she was entitled to go after her own dreams. To pursue a life she wanted as opposed to the life she believed she owed Judy.

Joy felt like a scared bird deliberating its first flight. Does she take off or stick to the safety and familiarity of the nest?

“Hey!” Dylan stood beside her car, hand on the driver’s side door. He waved. “You ready?”