Read Hearts for Free Online Page B

is that, as she took his arm, he tensed the muscles in it. She thought it was to show off a little, and to assure her of his protection, and that it was a lovely and primitive thing to do.
    Later, in bed one night, he confessed that it had been from the joy of being touched that way. And he reviewed the scene with obvious pleasure. “How did you know
I
wasn’t a killer, too?” he said, smiling.
    “Well, I’ve got to go,” she told Simonetti. “I have a lot of packing to do.”
    “Am I stopping you?” he asked.
    “Come
on
,” Linda said, trying to sound equally playful.
    “You know,” Simonetti said. “It’s too bad that you and me never, you know, got together.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Listen, drop me a line when you get there. I’ll send you a letter of recommendation. We got a lot of branches on the Coast. Hey, you’ll probably meet producers, directors, all the stars of stage and screen! Our little Linda.”
    Just as she was about to break down, to ask outright for her money, he lost interest. His eyes went blank and sorrowful, and he put his hand absently into his breast pocket and removed the check.
    Iola hugged Linda and gave her a going-away present. “Open it later,” she said. “It’s only a little something. Just don’t forget to use it.”
    At suppertime, Linda remembered the present andbrought it to the kitchen table. There was a box of note-paper inside, each page imprinted with a floral border and a different saying.
Thinkin’ of ya. Better late than never! Just a little love note. I’m blue for you
.
    Dear Iola.
    Hi! I really
am
thinking of you, and I’m glad for a chance to use this adorable stationery. So far we are having a lovely trip, with many side visits to places of interest. Robin and I are enjoying …
    Slowly Linda became aware again of Robin sitting opposite her at the table, stony with contempt. So she picked up her fork and began to eat.

8 Iowa, which is heavily agricultural, was appropriately colored green on the map in Robin’s old geography book. Linda was pleased to note that California was blue.
    On the Exxon road maps, all the states had been neutralized to a noncommittal white. The mechanic, a stocky man in coveralls, wiped his grease-coated hands on a greasy rag. “You picked
this
summer to drive to the Coast?” he said. “Oh, lady. What are you, an Arab?”
    “I didn’t pick it, actually,” Linda said. “It just worked out that way.”
    “Oh, yeah? Well, good luck to you, then. You may have to sell a pint of blood to get a gallon of gas on the way. You may end up living in Timbuktu.”
    “Oh, no. I have to—”
    “So, why don’t you fly?”
    “I guess I’ll need a car once I get there, won’t I? And as long as I’m going, I thought I ought to see America on the way. Maybe this will be my last chance.”
    “Yeah, well, don’t be disappointed. An awful lot of it looks like Jersey,” he said. Then he bent to the maps opened across the desk in the station office and pointed with one blackened finger to the route she would take.
    Linda had a notebook and pen ready. She was prepared for an onslaught of highway numbers and city names she would have to scribble quickly in a makeshift shorthand.
    The mechanic picked up a yellow highlighting marker and began to trace a crawling line across the states. “You pick up Interstate 80 right here, and you take it all the way through,” he said. “If you don’t get off, you can’t get lost. You could drive this baby blindfolded.”
    Was that it? Linda looked at him and then back at her notebook. She had written the number 80 at the top of the page, and nothing else under it. The road he’d indicated was practically a straight horizontal line. They would shoot across America like a guided missile, without seeing anything of beauty or interest. She felt very disappointed, and wondered if this was the
best
way to go, or simply the fastest. But she was too shy to ask him. Outside, another man pumped gas, and