~
They pulled up to a small-town feed store, greeted by the suspicious stares of a few old men populating a bench out front. They all had the weather-beaten faces and bowed legs of retired ranchers, and they eyed the scruffy-looking bikers suspiciously. Calvin filled the gas tank while Caledonia went in, nodding and smiling at the men as she passed by, encasing them in a potent cloud of disarming aqua serenity.
She went to the clothing section, picked out some jeans and boots, and changed into them in the dressing room. When she came out of the store, Calvin was bent over a map spread out on the bench, listening politely as two of the men argued about the relative merits of one roadside restaurant over another.
He looked up to see her and smiled wide, making her heart skip a beat. He was even more handsome than he was the first time she’d laid eyes upon him, because now his colors were very different. His cocky nervous energy was gone, replaced by a confident and purposeful rosy peach that was growing pinker as he looked her up and down.
“You look like a cowgirl,” he said.
Then they were back on the road, wind in their faces and Caledonia’s hands gripping his waist. She rubbed his stomach, laughing into his back when she felt his muscles clench and quiver. His colors strengthened, intensifying to the deepest and sweetest hues she’d seen yet. She pressed her face into Calvin’s back, perfectly satisfied.
Caledonia was back on a journey into the unknown, navigating a world full of danger, only this time she wasn’t alone. The future ahead of them was uncertain, but neither one of them cared. They were in love, they were together, and for now, that was all that mattered.
They were heading south.
~
~
Epilogue
The Athena Effect Page 56
