Page 27 of Planes, Trains, and Candy Canes

“Ah.”

“We’ll call you back, Mom. Love you! Bye, Evie. Hug my munchkins for me.”

“I’ll tell them you’re bringing them an uncle this year.”

Derrick gave Reese a panicked look as she retrieved the phone and tucked it in her pocket. “Last night was soooo far from pitiful, babe. I didn’t mean you were pitiful,” Reese soothed.

“She said the word uncle!”

“Well... that’s what happens when your new boyfriend says he wants to be ‘tenured.’” Reese chuckled and started fiddling with the radio. “Tell me where to stop?”

“Baltimore—if you floor it, the traffic is nonexistent, and we don’t stop for lunch, gas, or to pee.”

“On it! What’s in Baltimore?”

“A train that actually goes to Pine Ridge with about a dozen stops in between. But we’d be there by four.” Derrick held up his own phone to show her the Amtrak timetable. “There’s even an Our Car Is Your Car rental office right in the station. We can park the car in their secure garage facility and put the key in the lockbox, it says.”

“Get us tickets! You can use my credit card.” Reese began to reach into the backseat.

Partially out of chivalry and partially out of fear, Derrick caught her hand and replaced it on the wheel.

“No, I got this. You got us the room last night.”

“They didn’t even charge me once I mentioned I was the CFO’s daughter.”

Derrick tapped on the screen to purchase the tickets, and his heart sank. “They’re sold out.”

“Well... All the trains won’t be sold out,” she said cheerfully. “I’ll think of something.”

Derrick shook his head. “I know you will.”I should probably be worried about that.

Reese’s hand made its way into his lap, heading directly between his legs. “You spoiled me.”

“I can do better.”

“Mmm, but after we get all of our family obligations taken care of, I’d be happy to come by your place and show you that I give as good as I get. You know, with shaved legs and nice lingerie.”

“Honey... I don’t care about that stuff. I mean, I’d love it, but I don’t love a woman for the hair she has on her body—or lack thereof. I don’t think a person is worth dating because they own some silk nighties.” Derrick shook his head. “Part of what makes me the guy girls pass over is because I just want... I want real things. Things that don’t change. The way you are—kind of chaotic but adorable—I don’t think that’s going to change, even if you were standing still.”

She sighed. “You’re right. My parents used to say that if there was a simple way to do anything, I’d add ten extra steps just so it could be ‘fun.’”

“That’s not going to change. It might make me a little crazy sometimes, but I think... I think I want that kind of crazy. You can be my one exciting spot in my otherwise boring as boiled eggs life.”

There was silence for a minute. “I think you’re too hard on yourself. You think steady is boring, but I think steady is sexy. Every storm needs a safe harbor—and if there were no storms in life, safe harbors wouldn’t be much good, would they?”

Derrick’s eyes rolled back as her fingers slid his zipper down and retrieved his rapidly stiffening cock from its confines. “You are something else.”

“That’s good,” Reese purred, her voice breathy and apparently calculated to the exact pitch that would turn him from semi-hard to raging in seconds. “If I were the same oldthing, you wouldn’t like me. Whether you knew it or not, you’ve been looking for something else—and now you found me.”

He closed his eyes and let Reese have her way—with the car, with the speed limit, with his body... everything. She was in control and sometimes out of it. For the first time in his life, he was glad to just relax and go on a wild ride.

“I LOVE THIS COMPANY. They’re so thoughtful.” Reese wiped off the steering wheel, seats, and dashboard with the disinfecting leather wipes they’d found in the glove compartment. The little card hanging from the rearview mirror instructed renters to return cars in good condition with a full tank of gas, to wipe down seats and interior surfaces with the wipes found in the glove compartment, and to place the keys and paperwork in the little envelope also found in the glove compartment. Reese slid a candy cane into the envelope as well.

“I know I shouldn’t ask, but why?” Derrick shut the trunk and shivered as they navigated the underground lot next to the Baltimore Penn Station.

“To say thank you—and because we only have three-quarters of a tank of gas.”

“I don’t want to turn in this envelope with the keys until we have seats on that train. And that train is leaving in thirty minutes.”

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