Page 20 of Reckless

“Reckless Soul,” I say without looking at him.

“I suppose I deserve that,” he laughs. Their latest album starts a few moments later. Jude sets my phone down and turns to his window.

The guilt hits almost immediately. The whole reason we’re in this situation is because he’s taking a break from his band. He hasn’t said it’s because he isn’t happy with the band, it’s the continuous working.

Maybe he doesn’t want to be reminded of it.

“Which is your favorite?” he asks, breaking the silence.

“Of your songs?”

“Yeah.”

“Whispers of the Lost.”

“You didn’t even need to think about that.” He uses one foot, pushing against the ground to make the chair turn back and forth. “Good choice. Old school. I wrote that about a local kid who went missing in our neighborhood. I was seventeen when it happened. I didn’t know her, but now and then it plays on my mind.”

“That’s so sad. Did they find her?”

“No. She vanished.”

We pass a sign for a local park, and I keep an eye out for the turn off. Jude looks up as I take it and we head along a bumpy road to get to the small parking lot. There are two other cars here, but no people. They must be hiking the trails.

“Why are we stopping?” he asks as I turn off the engine.

“So we can talk,” I say. “It’s impossible to focus and drive this at the same time.”

Jude stays where he is as I open the fridge and grab some beer and two sandwiches I bought earlier. There is a picnic basket in the cupboard over the microwave, so I grab that too and pack everything up.

“In that unit, by the fireplace, there’s a blanket. Could you grab it?”

“Sure.”

He hands it to me, and I put it in the basket too. Then I grab my jacket, shove the keys to the RV in the pocket and head for the door. Jude takes the basket once we’re outside.

I get my bearings, then head towards the trail. I’ve been here once, but it was years ago, with my parents and Shari, my sister, when we were teenagers.

It isn’t hard to navigate, it’s signposted well. It’s not bad terrain either, so our sneakers are fine for walking the trails. We have to go one behind the other for a few hundred feet before the path widens and we can walk side by side.

There is a picnic area not too far from here. It might be busy, but I doubt there will be people interested in Jude Smallwood.

“This is a weird request,” Jude starts as he slows his stride so as not to overtake me. “And I get it if you want to say no, given you usually do this by yourself.”

“Are you going to ask to tag along on my trip to Chicago?”

“That obvious?”

“Er, the fact you ran after my RV and almost got us both killed kind of gave it away.”

The picnic area comes into view. There is only one woman with her dog. She has hiking sticks and is packing her things up. There are tables here now. They didn’t have them last time, so we won’t need the blanket. I sit on the side of the table facing the woman, so Jude has his back to her, just in case.

“That’s a slight exaggeration,” he says

“We could have been hit by a car, what you did was…” I stop talking. He doesn’t need me to lecture him. I’m not his mom, or his manager, or any of the other people telling him what to do with his life.

“Yeah, sorry. I figure, what is the harm in asking? You can only say no and then I can hitch that ride to the airport. I mean, you let me get in the RV again, so that has to mean something.”

I eye him. “That stupid grin will not win you any favors.”

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