“What are you smiling about?” Kaidan asked.
“Um, just thinking about when I talked to Jay last night.”
“Your boyfriend?”
I shook my head, not letting him ruffle my feathers.
“He gave me a joke for you. How do you know if a drummer is at your door?” I didn’t wait for his answer. “The knock speeds up and he doesn’t know when to come in.”
“Pfft. Funny guy, that one.”
Kaidan’s phone rang.
“I think it’s your mum, er, I mean Patti.” He handed me the phone.
“Hello?” I said. We were barely an hour into our trip and she was calling already. Not good.
“Oh, Anna. Thank God!” My heart gave a great pound inside my chest.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I think you should come back home.”
“Why?” I held my breath and pressed a hand to my chest.
“This was a bad idea. Please just turn around...” She was starting to ramble in that nervous way of hers. I exhaled.
“Patti, you scared me to death. I thought something happened. Look, everything is—”
“No! Don’t you tell me everything is fine!” I looked over at Kaidan, who was biting his lip. I put a palm to my forehead. “I can’t believe I let you go,” Patti said. “I’m so sorry. I’m the worst mother ever. Just come back home. I’ll get ahold of your father and ask for money....”
When she started crying, I angled my body toward the window and leaned forward, trying to think of a way to calm her. I kept my voice moderate and mild.
“Please don’t ask me to come home, Patti. You did the right thing. I need to meet Sister Ruth and my father. It’s time. I’ll call you every hour, if it’ll make you feel better.”
She was absolutely bawling now. My heart clenched to hear her pain, and my eyes burned.
“You’re the best mother ever,” I assured her. “Please trust me on this. We made a good decision.”
She let out a deep sigh. “If anything, and I mean anything happens,” she said, “you’d better call me right away. I don’t care what I have to do to get the money, but one of us will be on an immediate flight to the other. You hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
When that awful conversation was over, I couldn’t look at Kaidan as I passed the phone back to him. I crossed my arms over my chest and watched the miles pass through the tinted windows, hating the idea that Patti was sitting at home giving herself an ulcer.
We were coming up to a sign: welcome to alabama.
“Oh, yay!” I said without thinking.
“What?” He looked at me funny and my cheer deflated, chagrined.
“State border. I’ve never been out of Georgia.”
“Never? You’ve been in one state your entire life?”
I nodded my head. “Well, except for the first weeks of my life.”
“That’s incredible.”
Alabama looked a whole lot like Georgia, I thought with disappointment.
Starting at ten in the morning, Kaidan’s phone chimed at least every fifteen minutes with text messages. He read each of them, propping one hand on top of the steering wheel. The messages made him smile, or laugh, or frown, but he never responded to a single one. And when his phone rang, he looked to see who was calling, but never answered. After about the tenth message and call, I wanted to throw the thing out the window.
“Would you like me to drive so you can manage your social life?” I asked. It came out much snippier than I’d intended, but he was oblivious to my tone, still looking at his newest message.
“No, no, I’m fine.”
“We’d better not get in an accident because you’re busy sexting and driving,” I said. He burst out laughing.
“I’ve got my hearing senses on—the car in front of us is two and three-quarter car lengths ahead, and the one behind us is a quarter of a mile back. Next to him a compact car is passing. Engine sounds foreign, probably a Honda. He’ll be passing us in about twelve seconds. He’s got extra-thick treads, racing-quality tires. Sexting...”
He laughed again. Twelve seconds later a Civic zoomed past, low to the ground, with wide tires. Show-off.
He pointed out the signs to each state as we entered: first Mississippi, then Tennessee, where we read all of the signs for Elvis stuff and Kaidan did a horrible impression. He smiled when I made fun of him, a real smile that made his eyes squint in the cutest way. The sight made my heart squeeze.
We were quiet again all the way into Arkansas, where we stopped. The gas guzzler needed a refuel, which Kaidan called petrol. He handed me his phone so I could check in with Patti. I kept the conversation upbeat and short as I walked around the asphalt, stretching my legs. To my relief, she didn’t cry again, and I hung up just as Kaidan was finishing.