cheeks growing warm.
“Good Lord!” His eyes bulged. “Well, I’m not going to tell you, and you have to promise me you won’t look it up on a map.”
“Why not?”
“Because it will be the perfect chance to surprise you.”
I made a face. “I don’t like surprises.”
“Hey, you said you wanted to see where the road takes you, and so you shall. Now promise me, Jane.” He held out his pinky finger.
My face bunched with a skeptical frown. “A pinky promise? How old are we again?”
“They are the most sacred of promises. Now, I really must insist.”
I giggled, loving the expression on his face. For a boy from Rye, he really knew how to put on royal-class airs. I loved his jesting tone and the way he held his nose just so. He was completely charming, and I couldn’t resist wrapping my pinky finger around his.
“I promise I will not look at a map.”
“Or plan too far ahead. We shall decide each day’s events at breakfast with the proviso that they could be changed at a moment’s notice.”
I grimaced, trying to pull out of the finger hold. I didn’t think I was capable of such spontaneity. Jumping in a car with Harry was the most wild, impulsive thing I’d ever done, and there he was, making me promise to make the whole trip like that.
Harry tightened his grip. “Come on, Jane, be a sport. You’re trying to reinvent yourself, remember?”
I gave in with a sigh, my shoulders drooping as I shook on the promise and agreed to make the next two weeks a trip of surprises. I didn’t know how I’d manage, but it felt good nonetheless. Excitement warred with nerves, making it hard to eat my toast when it arrived.
Buttering the bread to the very edges like I always did, I picked at the crumbs on the plate, my leg bobbing beneath the table as Harry read me some of the French articles from the paper.
By the time my tea was finished, he had me laughing over some celebrity and her poodle. I didn’t know if he was distracting me on purpose or not, but it didn’t matter. I was confident Harry’s charm could probably get me to do anything.
And that part should have scared me the most.
Chapter Six
Harry
I checked Jane’s profile out of the corner of my eye as we drove into Spain. At first she didn’t notice, but then she spotted a sign and her eyes narrowed.
“Spain,” she murmured, then whipped to face me. “Spain! Of course. I knew that.”
“You did not know that,” I teased her.
She blushed and gave away her lie. I couldn’t help stealing a second glance at her rosy complexion, glimpsing it fade back to white to reveal her pale freckles again.
As we headed down the coastline the overcast sky opened up, drenching Yambi and making her little wipers work overtime. They squeaked back and forth and I slowed to a crawl, negotiating the road with care.
After twenty minutes of gripping the wheel, my fingers were getting sore. “I say we find the first hotel we can and just pull in for the night. I know it’s only midday, but this storm feels like it’s going to hang around for a while. I don’t like driving in this kind of weather.”
Jane’s head bobbed. “Sounds good to me.”
Pointing at my phone, I asked her to do a quick search for accommodations in San Sebastián, and we soon found a quaint little inn with a view of the bay. There was only one hitch…if you chose to consider it that way.
“Only one room available, sir,” the woman informed me in her thick Spanish accent. “Very busy over summer.”
“Yes, I understand. Uh…”
I exchanged a tentative glance with Jane and raised my eyebrows in question. Her lips pursed to the side as she turned and looked through the front window at where Yambi was parked. The rain was torrential, pelting onto the tiled entranceway.
She glanced back and gave us both a brave smile. “We’ll make it work. Thank you.”
Tucking her wet, frizzing hair behind her ear, she remained quiet while I checked us in and then led
Alex Richardson, Lu Ann Wells