Page 4

CHAPTER 4

anna

I pushed the button on the trunk of my white CRV, Stella, but it wouldn’t open. “Dag-gone-it,” I muttered. I felt around again, hitting the plastic padding right in the middle. Still nothing.

“You gotta buy a new car.” Brooklyn dropped her duffle on the ground like it might kill her to have to carry it for another second. “This one is falling apart.”

“No it’s not.” I glared. She knew better than to dis Stella like that. She’d been my mom’s car. And Mom had “bequeathed” her to me in her will. I was going to drive Stella until I couldn’t get another mile out of her.

Tally held onto her backpack straps, patiently waiting. “Do you think it’s wise to drive Stella? What if she breaks down?”

I jammed the key into the lock of the trunk, forcing it to open manually. “She won’t. Gramps helped me change the oil last time I was home. And he had the tires rotated, aligned, and balanced. And he made sure the mechanic checked everything and topped off all the fluids. We’ll be fine.”

Tally nodded, looking relieved. “Okay. Good.”

The trunk finally opened and we heaved our bags inside. As I was closing the trunk, my phone rang. I pulled it from my purse.

“Hi, Uncle Ford,” I said with a smile.

“Hey, girl,” he said in his sultry country-pop-star voice. He only had one tone these days and this was it. Like if he broke out of character he’d never find his way back. And for the lead singer of Whiskey and Women, country’s hottest, up-and-coming group, the tone was a necessity, according to him. Granny teased him all the time about how he better rein it in if he didn’t want every little old lady in the grocery store to fall head over heels in love. I was more worried about the younger ladies. We’d already had one stalker torment my Uncle Holden. We didn’t need any more psychos. “You guys on your way yet?” he asked.

“Just about.” I walked around to the driver’s side and got in. “You remembered not to tell anyone, right? Didn’t say or text anything that might tip them off?”

Brooklyn’s brow cocked.

I held the phone away from my mouth and whispered to her and Tally, “Uncle Ford.” Tally nodded like I may as well have been talking about some rando passing on the sidewalk. But Brooklyn let out a twitterpated sigh. Good grief. She’d known him for more than a decade. But now that he was rich and famous, suddenly he was “fire.”

“Of course,” Ford chuckled. “What do you take me for? I was the king of bad choices in high school and Granny and Gramps never found out.” I didn’t even know what to make of that statement. His bad choices and mine weren’t even in the same galaxy and I was pretty sure Granny and Gramps had found out about plenty of them. Even if they hadn’t back then, they surely knew about the ones he was making now. The whole world knew. They were all over the news and social media. Let’s just say, Whiskey and Women had been aptly named. And all of us Duprees were fairly sure Uncle Ford was a functioning alcoholic. I could hear a tiny bit of slur in him right now.

I clicked on my seatbelt. “It’s not a bad choice. I’m doing it out of necessity.” I gave him my rote speech. The same one I’d given Brooklyn and Tally when I’d told them I was heading to Knoxville to watch Blue play. Of course, they’d wanted to come. “Jonah isn’t going to ease up until I do.”

“Pfft.” Ford snorted. “Jonah needs a class on how to keep a woman. Tip number one: You don’t send her to see her ex-boyfriend. Especially if he’s the starting quarterback for Knoxville.” Brooklyn swiped up on her phone and connected the car adapter, cueing up the playlist the three of us had painstakingly put together last night.

“M-kay.” I rolled my eyes. Uncle Ford knew how to get women. Keeping them was another thing. He said he didn’t want to keep them. He liked moving on, over and over again. But I didn’t know how anyone could live like that. Uncle Holden used to put on the same show. We’d all known he was full of it too. Thankfully Aunt Christy came along and he realized she was a woman worth settling down for. He’d been much happier ever since. I tucked the phone between my ear and my shoulder. “We’ll meet you at the game? Full disguise. I don’t actually want Blue to know I’m there.” Jonah had said I needed to “see” Blue. He hadn’t been specific. I was doing my due diligence. Technically. But if anyone spotted Uncle Ford, we were done for. The whole stadium would know. I just needed to jump this hurdle—clandestinely—and then I’d be back in Jonah’s good graces, and more importantly, his arms.

“Yup. I’ll keep an eye on the Find My Friends app. No worries. I got y’all a hotel room, right next to mine.”

“I’m going to pay you back, Uncle Ford.” I was. I didn’t know how, or when. Those dang ticket prices were outrageous. Seemed to me that the University of Knoxville forgot they were a college team and not a pro team. I didn’t even want to think about the cost of the hotel room. But I’d work all Christmas break for Gramps on the ranch to pay Ford back if I had to. “Just tell me how much.”

He chuckled like I was being silly. Maybe I was. I’m sure he’d made more than triple the cost while he was chatting with me on the phone. “Nah. I’m good. You just worry about getting here safely. No speeding. Well, you can go six over. But no more.” I could practically see his finger wagging. He might be a fancy superstar, but first and foremost, he’d always be my uncle. He’d made that clear many times. “And call me if anything hap?—”

I screamed when someone yanked my door open.

Uncle Ashton.

And his light gray eyes were on fire. “Where do you think you’re going?” He glanced at me, then Brooklyn, then Tally, then back to me. Brooklyn had a bag of snacks on the floor, her feet up on the dash, ready to roll. I had an energy drink in the cup holder and sunglasses perched on the top of my head. And Tally was in back hugging a pillow, with her fuzzy blanket and a stack of books next to her. Red flags of a road trip waved everywhere. Still, I could’ve pulled a lie out of my back pocket.

But then his eyes flashed to the Heck, Yes! We’re Heading to Knoxville! playlist blaring like a neon sign on the touchscreen dashboard display.

Brooklyn swore and slapped her thigh. “What the freak?”

“What’s going on? Are you on the road yet?” Uncle Ford asked through the phone.

“Really?” Ashton said with a head tilt. “You called Ford to bankroll your trip? He’s not your sugar daddy, Anna.”

I bristled at the insinuation. I’d never asked Ford for money a single time before this.

“Is that Ash? Uh oh.” Ford swore on a chuckle. “That’s my cue. Love you, Anna Banana.” Then he ended the call.

My gaze flashed to the rearview mirror, giving me a shot of Tally in the back seat. Her lips were already pursed and she rolled her eyes. Tally was chill most of the time, except in two scenarios: late at night when she was hopped up on caffeine and got slap-happy, and whenever Uncle Ashton was around. Then she got major attitude. I was pretty sure she thought he was the biggest idiot on the planet. It all started five and a half years ago at a Dupree family dinner when they got into a table-pounding argument about Jane Eyre . Needless to say, Ashton had not made a good impression and Tally had never let him forget it.

He leaned his tall body into my doorway, his hands pressed against the top of the car. His lecture expression was cued up and ready. “Next time you try to buy tickets to a Knoxville football game for you and all your friends using your meager trust fund money, you might want to remember that you grew up in a small town. Those bank teller ladies will report any and all suspicious activity to your ‘duncle.’”

I groaned and let my forehead hit the steering wheel. The payment hadn’t gone through when I’d tried to buy the tickets using my debit card attached to that account. I’d never tried using it before. Silas had given it to me when I left for college, cocked his paternal brow, and said to only use it in case of a zombie apocalypse. Now that he realized I was taking a road trip, he’d sent Ashton to stop me. And Ashton knew exactly where to find me because our entire family stalked each other on the stupid location tracker app. Sometimes it sucked having such a close family. Okay, almost never. But right now, definitely.

My head snapped back and I glared at Ashton. “Did he put some kind of flag on my account?”

“Your Mom did before she passed. She was no dummy, Anna. That money is to be put toward vet school or your wedding or to help with a down payment on a house. Not to flit off to Knoxville to see your hot-shot ex-boyfriend.”

My cheeks caught fire. “That’s so not what’s happening here. I don’t even want to go.” I threw my hands up. “Jonah gave me an ultimatum. Go see Blue and figure myself out or we’re over. Okay?”

He rolled his eyes. “Tell Jonah to man up and deal with the fact that you have issues. Most people do.”

“Some more than others,” Tally coughed into her hand, loudly.

“Seriously?” Ashton’s gaze flicked back to her. “You know I could fail you on your David Copperfield paper.”

She shot him a toothy grin. I saw it in the rearview mirror. And then she shrugged. “That might look suspicious since you haven’t given me anything below an A minus all semester, Gramps. ”

Ashton looked like he wanted to spit nails. Which was precisely why Tally constantly called him that. Ash wasn’t that much older than us. Just twenty-nine. But it niggled him that my bestie, who I was one hundred percent certain he had a major crush on, constantly threw their nine-year age difference in his face. She was oblivious about him. I might tell her. Someday. If I thought he wouldn’t kill me.

I huffed. “Nothing below an A minus?” He’d given me a B last year on a paper in his Freshman English class. That he’d helped me write.

Now he shrugged. “She’s a really good writer.” His lips pursed. “Like really good,” he said so low I almost didn’t hear and like it pained him to admit it. Then his head tilted. “You know I pride myself in being the fun uncle?—”

“Grandpa,” Tally coughed again and a snort-laugh shot straight out of my nose. I couldn’t help it. Ashton’s face was too funny. Red and rigid. Nobody got under his skin like her.

His jaw jutted. “ But. This is crazy. Stella is too old to be driving this far.”

Uncle Ashton would only push this so much. He wasn’t a stifler. He believed in letting me have my freedom. But I could see the sense of duty in his expression. If he let me go, Silas would be livid. I hated that Ash had to be the go-between. But he was the one who’d convinced me to attend James River. He’d signed up for this.

“Uncle Ashton.” I sighed. “I’m going to Knoxville. I don’t have a choice. The end.” I patted Stella on the dash. “And Gramps told me she’ll go at least another hundred thousand miles, just fine.”

He stood, hands on his hips, staring off into the distance.

Brooklyn gripped my arm. “Just put the car in reverse,” she muttered.

“And make sure you back over his feet on the way out,” Tally added.

“Guys,” I whispered. “I’ve got it.”

He slouched and leaned back in. “Fine. Then I’m coming with you.”

I laughed in frustration. “Don’t you have papers to grade? And office hours for your students? And you don’t have any of your clothes here.” Ashton still lived on the ranch, in Momma’s and my old house. He commuted an hour to work every day so he could save money to buy his own house.

Tally leaned forward between the two front seats. “We’re not coming back until late Sunday night. We all know you like to go to bed at seven p.m. with the rest of the retirement home crowd.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked and he held his hand up like he didn’t want to hear any more from her. Then to me, he said, “Drive me around to my truck. I have a bag in there. I always take extra clothes since I work out at the campus gym. And I can buy a toothbrush in the hotel lobby. Ford got you a hotel room, didn’t he?”

“Yes.” Now I was the one cocking a brow. “If you come, it’s as a road-tripper. Not an uncle. Got it?”

He pursed his lips. “Whatever. I can be fun and you know it.”

It was true. Ash was hilarious and usually bubbly. Though I wasn’t sure what this was going to be like with him and Tally in the same car. The thought of having him here did make me feel more settled. I’d never driven this far without an older relative. Not that I thought the three of us couldn’t handle it. We totally could. But still.

He tossed his chin up at Brooklyn, trying to assert his seniority. “I’m riding shotgun.”

“Nope. I’m already set up. Sorry.” But she didn’t sound sorry.

He looked back at me, annoyed. “Your friends don’t take me seriously.”

I gave him a faux nervous grin. “I think it might have something to do with the fact that they’ve smelled your farts.”

“Facts,” Brooklyn said, straight-faced.

“And your morning breath,” Tally added. “And I’ve seen you wearing an entire bucket of bull testicles. There’s no coming back from that.” Blue had done that. The same afternoon as the Jane Eyre incident. It had not been one of Ashton’s better days.

“She’s got a point,” I said, pretending not to notice that his cheeks were pink. And it had nothing to do with me and Brooklyn. I gave him a backward thumbs up. “Back seat for you.”

“Fine.”

As he was walking around the front of the car, Tally leaned forward, forehead in a tight crunch. “Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to fit back here with those shoulders? Can’t we strap him to the top of the car? Let him ride in the front, Brooklyn.”

“No.” She huffed. “I’m comfy.”

Ashton opened Tally’s door and shooed her to the middle. She groaned but slid over. With our case of water bottles in the far seat, and all her crap on top, they were jammed up right next to each other.

Ashton caught my eye, frowning.

I wiggled my eyebrows and mouthed, You’re welcome .

He didn’t acknowledge that. Just glanced out the window.

Once we grabbed his stuff, we were finally on our way. Brooklyn cranked up the playlist and we sang at the top of our lungs. I didn’t know how to road trip any other way. This is how Momma and I did it.

It only took a half hour for Ashton to start complaining. “Why are all these songs by Double Dub?” That’s what we called Whiskey and Women. What everyone called them. “Don’t you have any other music?”

Uncle Ashton was very vocal about his dislike of Ford’s songs. Which was silly. Because the rest of the world had zero problems with them. But Ash had a grudge against Ford for all the attention he’d brought on our family. And all the tears Granny had cried over his “unchristian-like” ways. She was sure he was going to hell. I didn’t know about that. He was too good of a guy to spend eternity with Satan and his minions. I could see why Ashton was bugged, but there was no denying their music was really good.

“How about some Benson Boone or if it has to be country, Rascal Flatts?” he hollered over the noise.

Brooklyn cranked the music up even more. And Tally sang twice as loud, adding in an aggressive air guitar. Ashton stared at her, annoyed, for a full song before realizing she didn’t care. Finally he popped in his AirPods and tapped on his phone.

Tally peered over his shoulder to see what he was listening to. Then her eyes bugged and she gripped his arm, which made him flinch. She gawked at him like he had three heads. “You like Jane Austen?” Of course he was listening to an audiobook. Ash picked books over music every single time. But Jane Austen?

He popped one earpiece out and scowled, clearly expecting whatever she said to be derogatory. “What?”

I waved for Brooklyn to turn the music down. I wanted to hear this.

“I said,” Tally glowed, like suddenly he was someone completely different and not the stiff English professor she teased all the time. “You like Jane Austen?” The way to a man’s heart might be through his stomach. But the way to Tally’s was books.

I forced my eyes on the road so we didn’t die.

“I have to teach Pride and Prejudice next semester. I’ve never taught it before,” he said flatly.

“Oh.” Her disappointment was obvious.

He looked disappointed in himself.

He tried again. “Yeah. I like Jane Austen. Just because I hate Jane Eyre doesn’t mean I have no taste. Jane Austen was way ahead of her time. And she knew how to grip an audience. Especially Pride and Prejudice .”

Tally seemed unconvinced like he was just messing with her. “Really? What’s your favorite line?” It was smart. She was right next to him. He couldn’t google anything. And if he truly liked the book, he’d know some quotes.

I held my breath, praying for his sake that he did.

I could see him carefully sorting through the quotes in his mind, trying to decide which one to pull out.

When he took too long, Tally said, “And you can’t use, ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged.’” She busted out a fairly impressive British accent. “Everyone knows that one. It’s the first line in the book.” Then she let out a scoffing laugh. “No, wait. You don’t need to tell me. I’ve got it.” She held her hands up for dramatics. “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” I had to hand it to the girl—if her voice hadn’t been so high, I would’ve sworn Matthew MacFadyen had been in the car with us. Too bad her face was put out, like Ashton was as big a butthead as Darcy had been at that moment. And like he didn’t actually know any Pride and Prejudice quotes. “You’ve probably said that to some women’s faces, admit it.”

Ashton’s brow was raised to the ceiling. “Are you done?”

She waved a hand at him as if to say be my guest.

“I know Pride and Prejudice quotes. I was just trying to decide which is my favorite. Maybe this one.” He held her stare and paused for dramatic effect. Brooklyn and I traded a look. “‘But that was only when I first knew her, for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.’”

The way he said it, eyes burning, his expression honed in like he and Tally were the only ones in the car…whoo, buddy. Yeah. If I hadn’t known before, I was positive now. He had it for Tally. Had it bad.

Tally’s mouth parted slightly, and she froze, unblinking, clearly shook. Brooklyn squealed so quietly that only I heard. I looked back at the road, breathing it out.

“Or…” He shrugged like the back seat hadn’t suddenly become a tinderbox, ready to burst into flame. Brooklyn, who was goose-necking in the rearview as hard as me, reached over and gripped my hand. I squeezed back. Because I knew the quote he was about to say. Would’ve bet Stella’s pink slip on it, if that was a thing. Then he tilted forward a little, all joking gone from his expression, even more serious than before. “‘In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and l-lo-love you.’”

My jaw dropped. Because my uncle, who’d been in love with her since the first time he saw her, had just confessed his feelings to my best friend, full-on Fitzwilliam Darcy style. And she was completely oblivious.

“So. Much. Rizz,” Brooklyn fanned herself.

Tally looked like someone had blown scalding hot air right in her face. Dazed? Confused? Slightly smitten? I couldn’t quite tell. But Ashton had most definitely knocked that out of the park.

At least I thought he had. But then Tally shrugged. “That was pretty good. Next time try it with an accent, Gramps.” She unhooked her seat belt. “Oh, and if you don’t trim your beard soon, you’re going to start looking like those guys from Duck Dynasty. Not attractive. Girls don’t like that.” And then she patted him on the knee before reaching up between Brooklyn and me, turning the music up even louder than before. Then she sat back and snapped her seatbelt in place.

Now Uncle Ashton appeared dazed and a little frustrated. Poor guy. His wheat-colored beard that matched his hair was neatly trimmed and short. Truthfully, he looked really good with it. Older though. Maybe if he wanted Tally, he should shave. Then again, he was her professor so I suspected that wasn’t something he was going to pursue no matter what he felt for her.

But then I caught a glimpse of Tally that left me smiling on the inside. As Ash jammed the AirPod back in his ear, she peeked over at him and her cheeks turned red, in full-blown blush mode.

Too bad Uncle Ashton hadn’t seen.