“From driving you? Like what? ‘Do something spontaneous’?” She scrunched her face. She didn’t want Dylan to be her spontaneous item.

He shook his head. “No, the other one.”

She frowned. Which one? She went to retrieve the list when Dylan polished off his burger, wiped his hands together, and said, “‘Make a new friend.’”

“With you?” she asked, appalled. “How do you expect me to become friends with you when you’ve been nothing but rude?”

He shrugged, holding up his hands. “Only one way to find out.”

A valid point. She had been wondering how she’d accomplish that item. Hard to make friends on the road while constantly on the move, which meant she had to make the time, or look for opportunities to make friends.

Dylan might be such an opportunity.

The waitress returned with Joy’s bill. She took away Dylan’s empty plate.

Joy patted her hair, then wiped her clammy hands along her skirt. Four and a half hours wasn’t that long, not even a quarter of a day. The road was straight and flat, so the risk of anything going wrong accident-wise, she mused with a nervous twitch of her lips, was minimal. More important, she needed to fulfill Judy’s bucket list. It was the only reason she was making this trip on this particular route. Decision made. Make a new friend would be the line item she checked off that day.

“All right,” Joy said, slapping her credit card on top of her bill, the gesture drawing his attention. “I’ll drive you to Flagstaff.”

Dylan dragged his gaze up from the bill and her card on the table and grinned at her. “Outstanding.” He extended his hand. “I’m Dylan.”

She grasped his hand, hoping he didn’t notice how dry and cool his palm was compared to her damp and sticky one. “Hi, Dylan. I’m Joy.”

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

BEFORE

Dylan

Ludlow, California, to Flagstaff, Arizona

Dylan quickly cleaned his car of fast-food trash and left a note on the windshield for the tow service company to call his dad’s attorney, Rick Keegan. Let him deal with this heap of rusting metal. Rick was the one who had forced him to take Jack’s car. The beast hadn’t been driven in over a decade. Frankly, Dylan was surprised he’d gotten this far, a whopping three hours out of LA. A miracle indeed.