Page 9 of The Love Bus

“You guys can call me Joe!” he said, and my stomach gave a small, uneasy twist as I recognized him. This was the same “kid” who had loaded our luggage into the compartments beneath the bus earlier.

He barely looked old enough to drive, let alone navigate this giant tube over the Rocky Mountains.

Tay hesitated for a fraction of a second before adding, “Joey's been with WonderWorld Tours for—” She sent the kid a prompting look.

“Three years,” he supplied. “But this is my first?—”

“Three years!” Tay interrupted, her voice bright as she forged ahead, even as she gave Joey something that may or may not have been a “remember, we talked about this” sort of stare. “And he’s a WonderWorld Tour expert , so we’re in great hands.”

Reassuring.

I raised an eyebrow, not exactly sharing our tour guide’s confidence.

Regardless of my feelings on the subject, the engine roared to life and the bus lurched forward.

The back tires of the bus jolted over a curb, but our child-driver recovered quickly and proceeded to steer us onto the frontage road without further incident.

My options were either to get off the bus or pretend that hadn’t just happened. So, like the emotionally mature woman I clearly was, I took a deep breath…and entered a state of denial.

“Today, we’re taking the scenic route to Estes Park via the Peak-to-Peak Highway.

” Tay was standing, hanging onto a metal pole with one hand and her microphone with the other.

“This route offers some of the most breathtaking views of the Rockies, so keep your phones or cameras handy. There is only one stop scheduled this morning, at the historic Chapel on the Rock, a famous landmark in Allenspark. This’ll be a good opportunity to stretch your legs, take in the scenery, and use the facilities.

” She grimaced. “I know we’re all grown-ups, but please, please, take full advantage of these breaks.

Otherwise, you'll be stuck using the tiny bathroom in the back. And while it technically works, the door is thin, the space is…intimate, and let’s just say, we’ve all heard things we can’t un-hear.

Or un-smell. So yeah—do yourself and your seatmates a favor and use the restroom when we stop.

Because we won’t be making any stops that aren’t on my schedule. ”

Again with the schedule.

I drew in a deep breath. We had twelve days of travel ahead of us, so I’d better get used to this.

“You wouldn’t guess it now, but by the end of this trip, we’ll all be great friends.” Babs squeezed my arm with a conspiratorial little grin. “These tours are always more about the journey than the destinations, you know?”

Honestly, it was hard to feel sorry for myself in this woman’s company. She was just so damn…happy to be here. And it stood to reason that if I was stuck with Babs as a seatmate, Babs was also stuck with me. It wouldn’t be fair for my bad attitude to take away from her good one.

“I…can’t wait?” I answered tentatively.

“We’ll arrive at Chapel on the Rock right around nine o’clock,” Tay continued, “where we’ll have an hour to explore—and then onward to Estes Park.”

I knew from skimming the itinerary that after the drive today, we’d have two hours on our own in downtown Estes Park. Dinner together, and then we’d cap off the evening with a ghost tour of our supposedly haunted hotel.

For now, though, all I could see around Babs were passing buildings and cars.

I leaned back.

Maybe if I could sleep through some of this, it wouldn’t be so bad.

I closed my eyes. But could I relax? Nope.

I was far too aware of Just Noah, formerly known as Hot Annoying Aisle Seat Guy, seated…across the aisle.

We weren’t crammed together this time, but somehow, that narrow space between us didn’t feel like much.

Not with the way his legs stretched into it. And if I turned my head just so, I could catch a whiff of his scent. Something clean and woodsy, which oddly enough, was more familiar than it should have been.

So he was a doctor. That definitely explained his weirdly clinical assessment of my state on the plane

I stole a secret glance at him, quick like, because I really, really didn’t want to get caught.

It wasn’t hard to imagine him looking all caring and bossy in a white coat, a stethoscope draped casually around his neck.

And sure, he might be objectively attractive, but I was fresh off a broken engagement. This trip was about healing…not flirting.

Besides, he’d never answered Babs’s question. So, he could be married.

On top of all that, it was highly likely that he was a mama’s boy—because why else would a grown man come on a bus tour like this with his mother?

Then again, why would a twenty-eight-year-old former chef-slash-local celebrity come on a tour like this alone?

Touche .

I snuck another oh-so-casual glance in his direction.

Honestly, he didn’t look like a mama’s boy; he looked like the kind of guy who wouldn’t have any trouble in the social department at all. Attractive, confident, physically fit. But none of that mattered.

I wasn’t looking. Even if he was interested.

End of story.

I let out a breath.

I’d come on this trip to get away.

The trouble was, geography didn’t matter when you needed to get away from yourself.

Leo’s face popped into my head, uninvited, his expression twisted with shock as chunks of lobster meat dripped from his hair. “Jesus Christ, Luna, what the hell? Have you gone insane?”

Yeah, no, okay, I really needed to find something else to think about.

Anything.

Babs shifted in her seat, her tracksuit rustling beside me.

I had twelve days. With Babs, Just Noah, his mother, and an entire busload of folks excited to check bucket-list items off of some list that the WonderWorld marketing department had made up.

Twelve days.

I knew better than to think distance alone would fix anything, but time? That was another thing.

Maybe I’d make up my own list.

Because Ashley had been right. Again.

One step at a time.

One mile at a time.

And as far as I could tell, we’d only gone about twenty.

Only about a thousand more to go.