Page 38 of Vodka and Violets (The Hamiltons)

“Sprite, I don’t think you have a ruthless bone in your body, and as far as I’m concerned that’s a good thing – a wonderful thing; I mean it as a compliment.”

“Thanks. But enough of all that. It’ll only be six o’clock in the morning there right now. I’ll call her later. For now, we should plan our first stop.”

Xander chuckled. “We should get down the road a way first, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, but it’s still fun to look at all the places we can stop. I’m glad that you didn’t want to plan it all out in advance, that’d be no fun.”

“I agree. Having a schedule and fixed stops takes all the enjoyment out of a road trip as far as I’m concerned. We can see how far we get, where we want to stop …”

“And where we can make detours,” Tori added with a grin as she pulled the huge book of maps out of the bag at her feet.

“Maybe we should hold off on calling your mom – if we stop at all the places you’ve been checking out, it’ll be weeks before we get there.”

She grinned at him. “Maybe you’re right. Did I tell you about those little cabins by the lake in Oklahoma?”

“You did. And you told me that it’s only an hour’s detour from I-40 to see Santa Fe, and then there’s the Grand Canyon.” He shook his head with a rueful smile. “I’m serious, we probably should wait a day or two before you call your mom.”

She shot him a quick smile as she traced her finger over the blue line that marked the interstate. “There’s no big hurry, is there? Autumn said that Clay wouldn’t be needing the truck for another couple of weeks.”

“Nope, there’s no big hurry at all. We should make the most of this.”

She nodded. “We can call it our first adventure.”

“I like the sound of that. The first of many.”

A comfortable silence descended as Xander focused on the road, and Tori studied the map.

“What is that tune?” he asked after a while.

It took her a moment to realize that she’d been humming ‘Amarillo by Morning.’ She laughed as she told him.

“I like the sentiment,” he told her, “But I don’t think we want to be driving through the night.”

She shook her head happily. “Nope. I want to stop every night. I don’t care whether it’s hotels or motels, as long as we have a bed, and I have you, I’m happy.”

~ ~ ~

Two days later, Xander couldn’t help smiling to himself as he stood on the dock outside the cabin that they’d rented. They’d only covered about a quarter of the distance they needed to, but he wasn’t worried. They didn’t have a timeframe – Tori still hadn’t called her mom.

She’d been so excited about the cabins that she’d found on the map that he hadn’t been able to resist calling ahead and booking one. He’d never been to Oklahoma before, but Tenkiller Ferry Lake was beautiful, and he was more than happy to turn this road trip into whatever kind of vacation Tori wanted. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken a vacation.

Whenever it might have been, he knew that it was nothing like this. Nothing in his life to this point had been anything like spending time with Tori. He enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes. She had a different perspective. He could admit that he was somewhat jaded after his years serving in the Navy. He’d seen the worst of humanity. It was refreshing to look through Tori’s eyes and only ever see the best.

Last night, they’d eaten at a little mom-and-pop restaurant. He’d enjoyed every minute of it, and especially seeing her befriending tourists and locals alike. People were drawn to her; he didn’t want to think about people taking advantage of her, but then that wasn’t a concern while he was around.

They’d agreed that they would continue on their way in the morning, but they were going back to the same restaurant tonight. He took a seat in one of the Adirondack chairs on the dock, hoping that she’d be out of the shower and ready to come outside in time to see the sunset. He really did like it here; it wasn’t spectacular scenery, there were no majestic mountains, or ocean, but the lake was beautiful in its own way, and as the sun began its descent toward the horizon, the changing colors in the sky promised a sunset to remember.

He frowned when his cell phone rang in his back pocket, but smiled when he took it out and checked the display.

“Slade!” he answered. “What’s up? How’s everything going there?”

“Everything’s just fine here. I was calling to ask you the same thing. How’s Tori? How’s Nashville treating you?”

He chuckled. “Nashville was just fine.”

“Was? What happened? Shit! Are you guys not together?”

“We’re together but we left Nashville. Tori doesn’t want to sing anymore, so there wasn’t much point in staying there.”

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