Chapter 29
It turned out Madeline didn’t need to rent a van for her buying trip, after all.
When it came up in conversation with Grant, he volunteered himself and his truck—and he had an enclosed trailer she didn’t know about, to boot.
She tried to argue at first, more out of politeness than anything else, but Grant wouldn’t hear of it.
Then, when she thanked him profusely, he winked.
“Don’t thank me. I’m only doing it because I have an ulterior motive.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. You to myself for five straight days—and nights.” He gave her a lecherous leer, which made her laugh—and her insides tighten, though he was only joking around.
Even when she explained the miserable, work-intensive side trip she needed to make—and mentioned that she wanted time alone at the cemetery—Grant was undaunted.
“It won’t be fun.”
“Fun is great, Mads—and I love having fun with you. But I’m not just your friend for the fun stuff, okay? We’re friends for all the stuff. Like all the work you helped with at my dad’s. Not fun.”
They exchanged a look, and Grant amended his statement with a small grin. “Okay, bad example. A lot of times, we did—do—have fun there, but you know what I mean.”
“But—”
“No buts. I can handle it.”
So they commenced their five-day road trip, leaving the store in Aisha’s capable hands for the three days it would be open while they were away.
British Columbia was a big province, and the drive from Greenridge to the lower mainland where they were headed was nearly a sixteen-hour drive, so it would be a pedal-to-the-metal kind of trip.
It turned out Grant loved to drive as much as Madeline did, however, and the kilometers rolled by quickly.
They shared lots of laughs, along with comfortable silences, good conversations, and an audiobook mystery that enthralled them both.
Through it all, though, a small part of Madeline’s mind remained on separate things, churning with low to mid-grade worry.
It was one thing to think you were mentally prepared for something, the way Grant thought he was.
It was another thing altogether to actually confront that something in real life.
Madeline was afraid that in accompanying her through this, Grant would see her too clearly.
How could he not be overwhelmed by her baggage and by the pain she, for the most part, managed to shield other people from?
He would run from her as far and fast as he could, and she wouldn’t blame him one bit.
He’d had enough difficult people in his life, after all.