Page 65 of Part & Parcel

“Irish?” Ty said, gripping Nick’s arm and shaking him. “You awake?”

“Huh? Yeah. Why? What?”

“If you’re tired we can switch up. You been driving all morning.”

Nick glanced over his shoulder at Ty, damn near knocking his chin into Ty’s nose because he was leaning so close to Nick’s face. He shoved at Ty’s chest with his elbow. “Calm yourself.”

“Lumpy plains,” Eli muttered, shaking his head in disgust as he watched the scenery pass by. “I’m too brown for this.”

June 10, 2013

“Sometimes Eli would get mixed up, lose words,” Owen said. He was sitting in the middle row of seats with Nick as Ty drove.

Zane was enjoying the stories they were sharing. He felt like he was finally getting to know not only Elias Sanchez, but also Owen, Digger, Nick, and Kelly better. It was the first time he could remember that they’d all been together when they weren’t being chased or threatened or hurt or any number of other unsavory activities that often got in the way of small talk.

He was sitting sideways so he could see into the back as they talked. He wouldn’t be able to do it long because it would make him sick as a dog, but watching the other men as they talked about Eli was compelling.

“He grew up speaking Spanish at home, English everywhere else. So he would just sort of weave them into each other without realizing he was doing it,” Nick explained. His voice sounded distant and sad, and Zane’s smile faded as he listened. “It made for some interesting conversations sometimes. He had a great sense of humor.”

“Lumpy plains,” Ty said under his breath, snickering. “He also called a bunch of bushes ‘green rocks’ one time. And on one of the recon missions we ran, he kept talking about ‘the big blue blanket,’ and then he finally got all angry at himself and shouted ‘the sky! It’s called the sky!’”

Zane barked a laugh. “I get it,” he assured them before they could get defensive on Eli’s behalf.

Zane hadn’t grown up speaking both languages equally like Eli apparently had, but he had been taught both from an early age thanks to his mother’s Spanish heritage. She’d insisted on teaching him the dialect of Spain, the language her great-great-great-great-grandfather had spoken. Needless to say, he’d had to teach himself the different local dialects when he’d gotten older. He sometimes hit words that had no equivalent in any of the languages he knew, and was left searching for a replacement. He could only imagine the difficulties Eli had faced with the language barriers.

“The gentlemen in the back have to pee,” Digger announced.

Zane was watching Ty’s profile as he drove, and the way Ty’s eyes flicked up to check the rearview mirror when Digger spoke made Zane’s stomach flip pleasantly.

They were only one day into the trip following Eli’s rules, and Zane was already regretting the fact that no one had protested the no-sex clause. Nick and Kelly were having the same problems, Zane had learned that much from Kelly last night. Owen had a steady girlfriend in San Diego, so he had merely shrugged about the sexbargo, as Kelly had called it. And Digger didn’t seem to care. Zane didn’t know if he was in a relationship with someone, and no one had asked him. He just didn’t seem bothered by the sudden lack of sex in his life.

Zane was bothered by it, though. He watched Ty with a smile, watched the way his hands moved on the steering wheel, the way the sunlight hit his hazel eyes and made him squint away from it as he kept his eyes on the road, the way his knee bounced since the Suburban was an automatic and he didn’t have a clutch to deal with.

He flicked the turn signal with long, talented fingers, and Zane had to look away from him as they changed lanes. He just barely repressed a frustrated groan.

The song on the radio stuttered, skipping like an old record. Ty tapped the display.

“Dude, how does an iPhone skip?” Ty asked Nick.

“I don’t know, the Pandora app was being weird last night.” Nick stuck his hand up between Ty and Zane. “Let me have it.”

Zane unplugged the phone and handed it back. The music abruptly quit when he disconnected the phone, which was exactly what it should have done. A few seconds later, though, the music blipped back on. The song wasn’t the same classic rock tune it had been struggling to play, but rather old-school salsero that made every muscle in Zane’s body want to dance.

“Dude,” Kelly said from the back row. “How much of that salsa music do you have on your phone?”

“I don’t have any of it on my phone,” Nick insisted. “It’s not even connected!”

Ty banged on the dash of the Suburban. “Get a hold of yourself, Helen!”

The music stopped again, leaving them with that odd static coming over the speakers that only a disconnected AUX accessory could make.

Nick groaned from the backseat. “He told me he would haunt me if we didn’t follow directions, he said he’d haunt my Irish ass.”

“Dude,” Digger said quietly.

“But wearefollowing directions,” Owen said, and he took the phone from Nick as Nick started cussing at it.

“It started playing salsa music last night too,” Nick admitted as he sat back and scowled, watching Owen tap at the screen of his phone.

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