Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
LONG DRIVES
Wasp
We left Paris in the dead of night, heading out of the bright city and into France’s dark countryside. The journey to Milan took around ten hours of solid driving.
On the wrong side of the road.
With signs I could barely read with my schoolboy French.
But the night was clear and, for the first four hours, it was one straight route that took us all the way to Lyon in the south of the country. The Autoroute du soleil. The highway of the sun? Sounded good to me.
I settled into my seat, a hot coffee, grabbed before we left the metropolis, in the holder, and a darling lass at my side.
“Let me know when you get tired and we’ll switch.” Taylor played with the buttons for the radio, finding a Europop channel and wiggling to the music though keeping it low.
“I’m used to long drives so I’ll be good for a while. Ye can sleep if ye want. Or dance. Either is good.”
Honestly? All I wanted was to get to the next port of call, find a hotel we could check into early, and take Taylor to bed. For as long as I could before Ally turned up and crashed our love-in.
“Maybe,” she replied. “Or I can pepper you with questions. You’re in the hot seat and you can’t get away.”
“I don’t want to get away,” I answered with a quick smirk. “And if you get to ask me questions, I get to ask you an equal number in return.”
She studied me. I sensed her attention even with my focus on the rear lights of the car ahead.
“Favourite colour?” she finally said,
“Seriously? You have free rein, and that’s your question?” She didn’t respond, so I shook my head and answered, “Blue. Like your eyes. Darker around the outside and with all the intensity of a summer sky.”
Taylor hummed. “Nicely put. Do you have a question for me?”
“Aye, but I want to go deep, baby. None of this surface-level shite.”
“Fine. Have at me. I’m all yours.”
Heat rolled through me. “Now all I’m thinking about is sex.”
“Because that’s our thing. It’s what we’re good at.”
“Nah.” I shook my head and tossed her another glance. “Only because of circumstance. Can I ask you more personal questions?”
“Go for it.” She didn’t move, no wrapping her arms around herself or curling in like she was wary of an intrusion, yet tension strained her voice.
“I know your parents are divorced, but do ye have any siblings?”
“Oddly, no. Dad wanted more but never had any. For a while, Mom lived with a man who had two kids, but they broke up after a few months. She’s kind of flaky. It’s where I get it from.”
“You’re not flaky.”
She’d picked up her coffee and now choked on a sip. “You think?”
The road curved gently, and I followed the arc, a good speed, the empty road, and the clear night letting us make decent headway already. “You finished your degree, right? You’re always on time and you don’t let people down.”
“How do you know that?”
My sister-in-law had once made a passing comment about Taylor’s timekeeping, and I’d carried it around, a little nugget of insight into a mysterious woman. “Ella.”
Now, Taylor’s body language changed. She gripped her knees, leaning forwards as if to peer out at the black surroundings. “After all that went down between us, I’m glad to hear that she still says nice things about me. Anyway, my question. You want deep? How’s this: Have you ever been in love?”
“I had girlfriends I was fond of, if that’s what you mean.”
“No. I mean properly in love. With all the hearts and flowers. You know, said out loud so the other person knows.”
Well, when put like that, I guess I hadn’t. “No.”
But now it was my turn again. I had such burning curiosity about what had motivated Taylor to seek an arranged marriage with her best friend’s brother. It had to be the same problem that haunted her now. The reason behind her planned engagement.
Fuck it, if I didn’t ask now, I might not get another chance. My mouth opened despite knowing I was about to be shot down in flames. “What made ye agree to marry James? Did something happen?”
Taylor stiffened further. “You could say that. A relative of mine got sick.”
“Sorry to hear that.” I stretched out and found her fingers, entwining them in mine. “The same relative whose diary you’re carrying around?”
A soft laugh reached my ears. “You don’t miss a thing, do you? Yep. Same one.”
The next logical question fell from my mouth. “Then you getting married is to help this woman?”
She fell silent for a long while. “Her name is Charity. She’s my aunt.”
The moment quivered, tension drawing out.
I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that if I pushed her now, she’d crumple and close up.
The indecision in her voice spoke volumes.
I might not know her well, but I knew enough.
I knew the difference between someone like me who had issues but a strong grounding, and someone who’d been left floating.
Taylor didn’t have strong ties, apart from to Ella.
I wanted to tie her to me.
I strengthened the grip I had on her hand. “Thank ye for telling me about her.”
As expected, Taylor said nothing, so I continued, suddenly urged to share my own demons. “Ye know earlier, in the stadium? When you met me at lunchtime?”
She sat up a little. “Sure.”
“My head…” Ah shite. I was about to make myself look weak in front of a lass I wanted to impress. I broke our hand contact to scrub my fingers through my hair, wavering in indecision. I forced out the words. “My head’s fucked.”
“What do you mean?”
The white lines in the road spat towards us and under the car like bullets. “I get thick-headed sometimes. Overwhelmed. I can’t concentrate. It can even make me dizzy.”
Taylor righted herself, bringing her full attention on me. “Is that what happened earlier? Did I cause it?”
“What? No! It’s work. Crowds. People in general.”
“Oh.”
“Never you. Not once.”
Silence reigned for a moment. A tentative question followed. “Is there a name for it? Your condition?”
I drew my eyebrows in. “Introversion, I guess. I don’t think it’s anything more than me not being able to cope.”
She shook her head. “Did you see a doctor?”
“What could they do? They can’t change the type of person I am.”
“But you just said it yourself,” she argued. “It has a physical side. You aren’t that introverted. You like company, right?”
“Just yours.” I threw her a grin, half wishing I hadn’t started this conversation now.
“What would you have told Ally if he’d not sought help for his issue?”
My twin had a real condition. Ally struggled to read, dyslexia jumbling the words in his vision. For years, as brothers, we’d covered it up as Da considered it a weakness. Then, as a teenager, long after Da had died, Ally finally got tested and received help.
Was I masking something that could be treated? Could a doctor stop the buzzing in my head and the sheer stifling need to cut myself off?
“I didn’t know Ally had told you,” I muttered. “He doesn’t often talk about it.”
Taylor drew a short breath. “I asked him once where your nickname had come from. He said it was to do with him being dyslexic but to ask you yourself next time I saw you.”
“You’ve never asked me.”
Up ahead, the red brake lights of multiple cars shone, the traffic slowing in solid lines. We came to a complete halt, and I peered up the road, trying to spot the problem.
“Do you think there’s been an accident?” Taylor’s worried gaze sought mine.
The line of cars remained stationary, and doors opened, people emerging and staring ahead.
“Maybe. Stay here and lock yourself in. I’ll go see if I can help.”
I leapt from the car, pausing for the clunk of Taylor engaging the locks, then strode up the road.
The issue became apparent at the front of the queue—a minivan had skidded across the lanes, the multiple car headlights shining on the empty wheel arch from where it had lost a tyre.
Amazingly, no one had hit it, but a multi-lingual debate was underway.
The couple, with their sleepy children in their arms, were clearly distraught and unable to understand anyone.
I dove in. At home, everyone helped everyone else. The remoteness of the Highlands meant we all pitched in when strangers needed aid. Now was no different.
With a bit of gesturing, I roped three people into a concerted effort to push the car to the side of the road. The family followed us, eyes wide and shock still apparent. I got my back into shifting the hunk of metal, and we cheered when it rolled onto the hard shoulder.
Then I ran to help a woman heft the broken tyre out of the way while another person kept the traffic from advancing until we were ready.
I was midway through a quick sweep of the now empty lanes when Taylor appeared, crossing the beam from a headlight.
“You are so amazing!” she squeaked. “I just sat and watched you do all of that. You calmed the upset family and you got everyone in line.”
“I thought I told you to stay in the car.” I frowned at her.
She bit her lower lip, her eyes gleaming. “Yes, master. So sorry to disobey.”
I burst out with a laugh. “Actually, we’re about ready to open the road, so bring the car up and park behind the busted one.”
“On it.” She sashayed away, and I watched her pert arse for a moment before finishing my job.
The cars moved on, and I waited with the broken-down minivan for Taylor to pull up. She killed the engine and joined me again, adding her phone torch to mine as I examined the wheel arch.
“Is it fixable?” Taylor peered in.
“Not by me.” I gestured to the husband and wife, making a sad face at the wheel and a phone sign with my hand. “Broken. Phone recovery.”
The woman heaved a sigh, patted my shoulder, muttered to her husband, and found a phone. The man put his daughter back into her seat then offered me a hand.
I shook it. “Glad to help.”
“Shall we wait with you?” Taylor mimed us staying, but the man waved us away.
Whatever he said in response, I had no idea, but he was happier than when I’d first seen him, and we left them to their roadside pickup.
In our car, Taylor gleefully threw herself at me for a hug. A kiss followed naturally, but soon we were both breaking away.
“We have to stop. People can see us. Kids are looking,” Taylor said, her cheeks pink and her eyes glassy.
“I know. Ye have no idea how close I am to throwing you onto that back seat and having my way with you.”
“You are such a good man. The best. You are a fucking saint, you know that?” She dropped back into her seat and chuckled. Then she yawned, big.
“Glad ye think so. Why don’t you rest now? I’ll get us back on track, and when ye wake, it’s your turn.”
Taylor reclined her seat, and I spun us into the now free-flowing traffic.
“I might just close my eyes. It’ll mean we get to a hotel room quick if I sleep.”
In under a minute, she breathed softly, and I pressed on with the journey, buzzing with the need to find privacy, a soft bed, and a place to use up all my built-up energy.
Afew hours on, and we’d passed toll booths and skirted Lyon, all without Taylor waking. We were closing in on the Italian border and five AM when signs for the Fréjus tunnel appeared.
It went under the mountains with no stopping for miles.
Man, I needed to take a leak before we drove in there.
The night had darkened to a predawn royal blue when I pulled over. The edges of mountains loomed, jagged against the sky and, when I opened the door, clear, fresh air flooded in.
“William? Where are you going? Jeez. How long was I out?” Taylor’s voice followed on my dart into the trees.
“Pee break. Good to know you’re still alive,” I shouted back.
Her happy laugh had me rushing to finish and get back to the car. From my door compartment, I took a half-drunk bottle of water and washed my hands, then chucked the rest on my face to freshen up.
“We’re about to go under the mountain, so you might want to use the facilities now.” I tipped my head at the scrubby edge of the road.
“Roger, Captain.” Taylor disappeared for a minute. When she returned, she booted me from the driver’s seat. “I’ll take it from here. You must be exhausted.”
“I’m not.” Not even the smallest bit. “It’s a gorgeous night, the drive has been easy, and I’ve had you to look at. What more could a man want?”
She shoved my shoulder. “Sweet talker.”
Taylor got us back onto the road, and soon, we were in the queue for the tunnel.
I had the idea that my energy was boundless, probably because of her and all the things I had in mind to try.
Even so, my eyes began to close, and I twisted to get my tall frame comfortable on the seat.
I stayed awake long enough to pay the toll fee—money that would be refunded as part of my contract—but then the strobing effect of the tunnel’s lights sent me under.
The bleeping of my phone woke me, and I swept out an arm, trying to find it, my eyes still closed. “Shut up. Stop it,” I mumbled.
“Heh. You’re cute when you’re half asleep,” Taylor said.
Fuck. We were still on the road? I groaned and stretched out my arms. Broad daylight had me wincing, but the sight of my bonnie lass perched behind the steering wheel, her hair swept up into a high ponytail, had my heart thudding faster.
“In my dream, we were in bed together. But people kept knocking on the door and trying to get me to go to work.”
“You were sleep talking.”
I found my phone on the floor but shot a glance at Taylor. “Uh, what did I say?”
Her lips tweaked at the corners. “You said my name. A few times.”
Outside, a road sign read: Novara. I peered at the satnav. “We’re nearly there?”
“Sure are. You needed your sleep, so I just kept on going. Hey,” she gestured to my phone, “start looking for hotels. Find us a room, baby. In an hour or less, I want to be under a hot shower with you. Then thrown onto soft sheets.”
“Searching now.” A message from Ally waited on my screen—he was already in the city—but I tossed back a quick reply to say we’d see him later in the afternoon then got on with finding us digs.
“Is it okay if we see my brother for dinner before I go to work?” I’d mentioned meeting Ally to Taylor at the airport, once I’d remembered.
“Yes! He and I can hang out while you do your thing, then maybe we can go out to a bar after.”
“Plan.” If she stayed with my brother, she wouldn’t have to suffer being around Rex, too, so the idea suited me.
I texted the suggestion, and Ally sent an enthusiastic reply.
Then I got on with booking us a room. It took a while to find somewhere with instant check-in and parking, but eventually I made a booking, and we were on our way.