Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Taking her meaning, I put my own twist on her metaphor, “But a little mold doesn’t mean the cheese is all bad. Slice it off and there’s still plenty of perfectly good cheese left to enjoy.”
“But the cheese is past its prime by then,” she counters.
“Past its prime cheese is still good cheese. And past its prime horseradish cheddar is still far superior to most other cheeses, even if they’re brand new.”
She arches a brow. “Now it sounds like we’re talking about me. I’m the only past their prime cheese in this vehicle.”
I shake my head but keep my eyes on the road as I say, “Not even close. You’re clearly in your prime. And besides, you’re not cheese, you’re a fine wine, who’s only going to get better with age.”
She snorts. “Now who’s talking cheesy?”
“Too much?”
“Nah. I’m a sucker for compliments, even cheesy ones. Especially after being called a wrinkled old prune last night.”
“Daria is a liar and an asshole,” I say. “That’s been proven in multiple clinical studies.”
Tessa laughs. “Can you imagine? She’d give the scientists heart failure.”
“Nightmare. But maybe not our nightmare for much longer. Christian texted earlier. Your door is all cleaned up, the security system went in this afternoon, and there’s been no sign of Daria. Hopefully, she sobered up, realized she was a maniac last night, and came to her senses.”
“Hopefully,” Tessa says with a sigh, “but she doesn’t seem like the kind of person who comes to her senses. She gave me more ‘gator with its jaws locked in the middle of a death roll’ vibes. And that mannequin…it gives me the willies just thinking about it.”
I want to reach out and take her hand. Instead, I promise, “If a week away doesn’t cool her down, I’ll camp out in your yard and keep watch every night until this is over.”
“You’d look pretty rough in court after a night in the front yard. And what about the gnomes? What if they come to life and attack you for calling them creepy?”
“I don’t care. I’ll brave a gnome uprising if I have to. I won’t let her get anywhere close to you again, I promise.”
Tessa’s posture softens, her arms slipping away from her chest. “Well, thanks. I appreciate that. I confess, I am glad I’m not spending the night alone for a while. I’m probably at least four inches taller and quite a bit heavier than Daria, but she could still take me. I lack the killer instinct.”
“One of the many things I like about you,” I say, pushing on before she can start comparing me to bad cheese again. “Would you mind pulling the directions up on your phone? I still can’t figure out how to pair my cell to the camper GPS. The name of the restaurant is Mama Maria’s. Should be about twenty miles up the road.”
“Oh, that’s close,” she says, quickly fetching her cell from the small black purse she pulled from her bag. Even with only ten minutes to pack, she did a much better job than I did. “I’m so glad. I’m starving.” She reaches for her coffee cup from the holder on the dashboard and takes a sip. “I probably shouldn’t drink this if we’re aiming for an early bedtime, but it smells so good.”
“We don’t have to have an early bedtime,” I say. “It’s going to be a clear night. If we want to hang out around the campfire and watch the stars for a while after dinner, that’s fine. Like you said, we can always sleep in late. We don’t have anywhere pressing to be tomorrow. Our campground reservation at the park doesn’t start until Monday night. They were full through the weekend.”
“Sounds nice,” she says. “It’s been way too long since I sat around and stared at the stars.”
Her words make me think about the night we spent in my tent, about opening the flap on top and gazing up at the dazzling sky with her in my arms.
It’s a beautiful memory, one of my best. It makes me want to make more memories with Tessa, but the moment we pull up to Mama Maria’s, I know tonight isn’t going to be an evening I look back on with fondness.
It’s going to be one I’ll be lucky to survive…
Chapter 14
TESSA
“Are we high?” I lean forward, peering through the windshield, but the view doesn’t change. “Maybe the kid at the coffee shop slipped some acid into our coffee or something?”
“Except that I didn’t drink any coffee,” Wes says, cocking his head sharply as one of the clowns outside the restaurant executes a sloppy front roll only to immediately bound into the air and scurry up a thick pole at the edge of the patio like a spider monkey.
“Wow.” My jaw drops as the clown climbs higher and higher, his hands a blur on the small metal handholds. In under a minute, he reaches the top of the pole and rings a bell, summoning a round of cheers from the other clowns milling about. A few raise their wineglasses in his honor as the sound of a whoopie cushion being violently emptied echoes through the air, so loud I can hear it from inside the still-closed camper.