Page 59 of Goode Vibrations

From the passenger side?

A long tan leg, wearing laced-up hiking boots. Body blocked by the door, all I could see for a moment was legs, the boots, the calves, backs of knees as she reached in.

Even so, I knew her. I knew those sensual, elegant legs.

Then she hopped down from the high cab, slamming the door.

She had a black hoodie on, backpack on one shoulder. Those little stubbies left her legs bare and her ass highlighted.

She rounded the front of the lorry, and the driver gave her a paternal hug, waved at her, pointed as if giving advice—ya’ll be safe now, hear?A smile. A wave.

And then she angled for the diner entrance, rather than the gas station.

Paused, though. She stood outside, back to the window, without looking in.

Leaned against my window, centimeters away from me, without seeing me.

Brought her cell phone to her ear, and spent twenty minutes on the phone, and I waited.

Unable to breathe, because she washere.

After a day spent searching,she’dfoundme. Or…fate had brought her to me.

She shut the phone off and shoved it into her backpack and let out a breath.

That’s when I knocked on the window.

She bolted upright, jumping in fright.

Spun, hand to her chest, gasping.

When she saw me sitting there, she just blinked. Disbelieving.

Errol? she mouthed.

I just smiled.

Patted the seat beside me.

Another moment, and then she headed for the door, and my table.

11

Poppy

My heart was hammering as I sat down in the booth across from Errol. The shock of the fright had passed; now, it was a complex amalgam of emotions clashing my heart like a medieval battlefield, chemical reactions in my body combusting, a starburst of conflicting thoughts in my brain.

A momentary, incendiary silence.

“Hungry?” he asked, voice pitched low as if confiding a secret.

I could only nod. “Famished.”

He twisted on the bench, half rising, flagging the waitress; she came over, chomping gum, pad and pen ready. “She’ll have a double cheeseburger with fries,” he said, glancing at me for confirmation; I nodded.

“And a chocolate milkshake,” I added.

She left to ring in the order, came back in a matter of minutes with my shake, and then we were alone.