Page 46 of Here We Go Again

“Be less rigid?” Hale rushes to fill in. “Less uptight? Less controlling? Less shrill?”

“You’re not shrill, Hale. You’re… passionate.”

Her mouth puckers into a cat’s butthole, and Logan can’t help but laugh.

“And I was going to say, if you promise to be patient with me. And maybe call me out for my more rectally inclined behavior.”

That almost makes Hale laugh. It sounds like just an indignant puff of air, but Logan knows. Her hand is still dangling in the space between them. Hale’s frosty-blue eyes fix on that hand for a few seconds before she finally slips her small hand into Logan’s. Her hand is clammy and gross, but they shake on it anyway. And Logan feels like maybe they managed to bridge something at the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon to Somewhere EastChapter Fourteen

ROSEMARY

“Come on, Hale! You can do it!”

“I-I can’t.”

“You can!” Joe cheers. “We believe in you! Throw it into the Grand Canyon!”

Odie barks three times in encouragement.

“What if… what if I’ve changed my mind?” Rosemary clutches the binder closer to her chest and glances out at the sun rising over the Desert View watchtower. “We… we can’tabandon the itinerary!”

“Sure we can,” Logan says breezily. “We’re already two days and five hundred miles off course.”

“And I would drive five hundred miles and I would drive five hundred more,” Joe sings in a Scottish brogue.

“And you said you wanted more detours,” Logan reminds her.

A cool morning breeze ripples along Rosemary’s bare arms, causing her skin to break out in goose bumps. Logan isn’t wrong. She did, foolishly, say that. The surprise detour to Arizona was bad for their itinerary, but good in almost every other way. Except for the heat exhaustion.

The Vitaminwater and saltines helped a lot, but she still wokeup the next morning feeling too nauseated to get back in the car. Logan insisted they take a rest day, which mostly consisted of lying around in the hotel room eating vending machine snacks and reading. Logan powered through multiple paperbacks. Joe slept a lot. Rosemary took several cold baths to help with the heat exhaustion and tried not to obsess over the feeling of Logan’s hand in hers as they shook on their friendship truce.

And when Logan asked her if she would consider ditching the binder in favor of more spontaneous detours, she had said yes.

But now it’s six in the morning, and they’re saying goodbye to the Grand Canyon, and Rosemary isn’t sure she can let go.

“I know you worked really hard on this binder,” Logan says in her new, gentle, trying-not-to-be-an-asshole voice. “And I’m honestly in awe of your ability to craft a perfect travel itinerary.”

Logan takes a cautious step closer to her. “How about this…? You’re still in charge of our daily schedule. You’re good at planning stops for gas and meals and diaper changes—”

“Hey!” Joe interjects indignantly.

“And you’ll have final approval over any and all detours. You just have to trust me a little. Can you do that?”

If Logan had asked for her trust a week ago, Rosemary would’ve laughed in her face, but now. She thinks about the Logan who tried to smooth her anxiety and the Logan who took care of her when she was sick. The Logan who apologized and owned her insecurities. The Logan who listened when she opened up about her dad and her mental health.

The Logan standing in front of her right now, trying to meet her halfway.

“I trust you,” Rosemary says.

Logan’s smile is wild and uncontained. “I knew she was still in there.”

“Who?”

“The girl who carried around a list of places she wanted to seesomeday.” Logan throws an arm around her shoulder. Rosemary takes in the view for a moment. The golden sweep of the Grand Canyon to the west, sun rising in the east, the pattern on Logan’s tropical shirt. It’s neon pink with yellow dinosaurs and orange palm trees, and it reminds her of the version of Logan who craved adventure, too.

“Fine!” Rosemary concedes. “We can throw out the itinerary for a few days. But then, it’s the fastest route to Maine.”