Page 68 of Something Borrowed

She sighs loudly.

“How long will that take? A day? A week? A month?”

“I don’t know.”

She nods. Looking out the window again.

The old woman comes towards us carrying a tray of food.

She places it on our table. The pot roast smells incredible and my stomach growls with excitement.

“That’s real butter.” She says, placing a bowl on the table next to the bread.

“Thank you.” Verity smiles. “It looks amazing.”

“There’s more. Just shout and I’ll come running.”

We both find the food surprisingly good. Verity jokes a little, but I can sense how uptight she is.

She’s right.

This isn’t an adventure. Our entire relationship has gone from being an adventure, a wild unknown, to become a stress.

As dramatic as it sounds we are on the run for our lives.

Her father has proven he is crazy enough to go to war to get her back and now I have to decide how to retaliate in order to force him to back down.

What terrifies me is just how far I will go to keep her.

I meant it when I said I would burn the world down for her.

As long as she and I stand together in the ashes afterward, it will be worth it.

After our lunch I purchased a few things from the kiosk. Snacks, cola, and a few bottles of water. Verity chooses a magazine and adds it to the pile on the counter.

When we walk back to the car Verity takes my hand and relief washes through me.

When we reach the car, I open the door for her but stop her from climbing in, instead I turn her to face me.

“I’ll always be at your side, little vixen. I need you to know that. To believe it. I will never leave you.” I say, staring into her bright blue eyes.

She reaches her hand up and traces her fingers over my jaw.

“I believe you, my Viking. I want to be with you forever too.”

“Then we can be.” I lean down and kiss her, relieved that she isn’t pushing me away.

The tension in the car dissipated as they hit the road again. She has her hand on my leg and my fingers and intertwined through hers.

As long as she doesn’t give up on me everything will turn out ok.

In fact, I won’tlether give up on me. So everythingwill be ok.

An hour from the truck stop we find a motel.

I book us a room and unload our luggage from the car.

“We can stay here for a night or two. If we don’t like it, we can drive farther on. The old man said there were a lot of places to choose from along this road.”

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