“Fine,” she said, lifting her chin as he began to reply. “But it will be something just off the highway. That McDonald’s that you were lusting after was over a mile from the exit. I am not taking any more time off the road than I have to.”
“Okay, okay.” Lucas held up both hands in surrender.
Haley watched the roadside signs waiting for one that showed a store or restaurant near the highway exit. She finally saw a sign for a store and gas station. She followed the signs, slowing down and signaling to get off the highway.
She happened to look over and catch the smug look on Lucas's face. "You know I could just keep on driving. I don't have to stop. I'm not the one that needs to eat every half hour."
He looked horrified for a quick minute and then calmed, sure in the knowledge that she would be true to her word to stop. Haley kind of hated that he was right, but she decided it was easier to stop than to deal with his whining for another couple of hours.
A small store was visible from the highway exit and she pulled into the parking lot. The store and gas station was situated near a scenic overlook of the canyon that stretched along the highway. A fairly large but mostly empty parking lot sat to the left of the store. Haley pulled up into a space alongside several other cars parked directly in front of the store. A sign in the front window boasted that their kitchen was open from ten in the morning to eight at night.
Lucas was already heading into the store when Haley got out of the car to stretch her legs.
He paused at the door and called back to her, "You aren’t going to strand me here, are you?"
She honestly hadn't thought about it until he brought it up and, although the idea of not having to deal with him was extremely tempting, she just could not get herself to abandon him so far from the city.
"No." She waved her hands at him. "Just hurry up, I don't want to be here all day."
Lucas shot her a grin and then turned to go into the store just barely avoiding a man coming out. The man scowled at Lucas and then seemed to notice Haley. He gave her a polite smile and nodded genially before walking away.
Haley leaned against the car for a few minutes while she waited for Lucas. She could not help wondering what was happening to her life. For the first time since her first job in high school, she suddenly found herself jobless. It seemed unreal that she had quit her job. Although the reasons for doing so had been valid, and she would have told any of her friends that they should have quit months if not years before. It was likely that she would be able to find another job quickly. It was a scary prospect though; unemployment was not something Haley had ever had to consider. She was doing everything she could not to worry about the fact that the lease on her apartment was up soon and she might have to move on top of finding a new job. It did not help much that she would be spending the next week or so on her trip to visit Brianna and not searching for a job. Canceling the trip to find a job was not an option since the issue of her vacation time had been the catalyst for quitting in the first place. There really wasn't much she could do but enjoy her trip and look for a job when she got back.
After a few minutes of waiting for Lucas, Haley began to look around and remembered that the scenic overlook was not far away.
"If I'm stuck waiting I might as well do something useful," she muttered to herself and pushed away from the car to open the back door. She had to move a few things around in the backseat but eventually, she found her camera case.
It had taken nearly eight months of penny-pinching for Haley to be able to buy the camera. That had been two months ago and she had barely gotten a chance to use it. Her work schedule had been so busy that she had done little with the camera but take a few pictures in the park when she had first gotten the camera to make sure it operated correctly.
Excited to finally get an opportunity to use it, Haley walked down the road past the store and noticed a small area with picnic tables set back beyond the store. They were unremarkable, just the standard redwood tables found in many backyards in America. It was the fact that they were nestled in a patch of trees that made it somehow cozy and inviting. She snapped several photos, trying to block out any evidence of the parking lot or highway.
Haley continued around the corner toward the picnic area, hoping to capture the way the sun filtered through the trees leaving dappled shapes on the tables.
She paused and looked back toward the store, wondering for a moment what Lucas would think about her working at the portrait studio for so long. Would he be proud of her for following her heart and passion? Or would he be disappointed that she settled for such a mundane job? He had been working his dream job, traveling to exotic places as a photographer for an indie travel magazine. It had been Lucas who had gotten her interested in photography in the first place. Of course, that was a long time ago when he had just been her best friend's older brother. Haley had gotten a new camera for her sixteenth birthday and Lucas had noticed her interest in photography. It was that shared interest that had helped to forge a friendship of their own. For Haley, it had been the opportunity for her to develop a crush on Lucas. To her credit, she had known at the time that it was a silly schoolgirl crush and that nothing would come of it, although it had not stopped her from finding any and every excuse to talk to him. It would be years later that she would figure out that Lucas would never grow up.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Like I care what he thinks.”
Looking through the lens, she turned slowly, getting her first sight of a meadow off to the right of the picnic area. Wildflowers had sprouted up, dotting the meadow with varying shades of white, purple, and orange. Still looking through the lens of her camera, she spotted a yellow convertible parked beyond the flowers. It was an odd sight, seeing the shiny car parked so far from the road. With the wildflowers growing in front of it, it was both different and beautiful. If it had been old and rusty, she would have thought that it had been abandoned there, but the yellow color was intense and the chrome gleamed bright in the afternoon sun. She snapped several more photos using the car as a backdrop to the wildflowers.
She was testing the zoom lens, focusing on specific flowers, when she realized that someone was still in the car. Before she could even register the thought, a red-haired woman got out of the car. She was wearing dark sunglasses and looked around swiftly before closing the door and walking toward the woods behind the car. Feeling suddenly intrusive, Haley moved away taking a few more photos of the picnic tables before heading back to her car.
3
Haley glanced over at Lucas for what must have been the fourteenth time in the last half hour. True to his word, he had been quiet ever since they left the small store and restaurant. Quiet, but not silent. She had been forced to endure his food-induced moans, as he ate a ridiculously overstuffed bacon cheeseburger and an order of perfectly fried onion rings. Haley knew they were perfectly fried because she had finally accepted his offer to try one. The kitchen had been more than happy to accommodate Lucas and complete his ridiculous demands for food, including the chocolate shake that he had somehow drunk in record time.
Lucas was looking out the window and had shifted in his seat a number of times. Haley suspected that he was bored and she couldn’t really blame him. They had left the city behind them and, while the area that they were now driving through was beautiful, it seemed to go on forever. Feeling guilty for being so grumpy, Haley took a deep breath.
“So, Lucas, I didn’t really ask before, but what have you been up to recently?”
He seemed surprised by the question and she went on to ask, “You said you had moved back to Fairview. Does that mean you are done traveling the world?”
“For the most part, yes.” He shifted in his seat turning to face her. “I haven’t worked for the magazine for about two years now. I quit after my trip to South America.”
“You quit?” Haley realized then that she had not seen him since before Bri had moved; of course, before that she had mostly avoided him. She
waited to hear what he had been up to in the time since and about his latest adventure. Lucas never stayed in one place for long and she was sure he would be moving on from Fairview any day now.
“Yeah, I’d had enough of the constant traveling. I started taking some classes in Washington and finished my degree.”
“Wow! I had no idea.” She would have thought that Bri would have told her, but then again Haley had spent a lot of time avoiding the subject of Lucas.
"No, it's okay. I didn't really tell anyone." Lucas paused and then started over. "While they knew I had quit working for Path and Passage and that I was still doing freelance photography, I really didn't tell anyone that I was taking classes."
"You didn't?" Haley realized that she kept asking him to repeat himself but she could not seem to help herself. "Why not?"
"I don't know," Lucas said with a sigh. "In the beginning, I only planned to take the one class."
Haley gave him a questioning look.
"Marketing. I figured if I was going to do freelance work I should learn how to promote myself."
Haley was surprised but she nodded, encouraging him to continue.
Lucas seemed to understand and went on. "I hadn't gotten that far with my business degree when I dropped out of college to go work for Path and Passage."
"Right." Haley had forgotten that Lucas had been studying business before he had left. It seemed so incongruent with the free-spirited drifting idea of Lucas that she had in her mind now.
"I took the marketing class during the summer session and then decided a second marketing class wouldn’t hurt,” he said with another shrug. "When I signed up for the second marketing class, my instructor suggested I take another class and so I did and I had two classes that semester. I don't know what happened. By the end of that first year, I was only a handful of classes away from finishing the program and I just kept going."
"That's pretty fantastic! So, what do you hope to do with your business degree?" Haley asked, wishing she didn't sound like her mother.
"This is a little confusing but I didn't actually get my business degree."
Haley was confused; she was sure that he had said that he had gone to Washington to finish his degree. Not that she was surprised that he hadn't stuck around long enough to get his degree, but she thought that's what he was talking about so she simply said, "Oh?"
"Yeah, uhmm, I actually got my degree in physical education and a minor in business."
"Physical education," she repeated. This time it wasn't a question. This was nothing like what she expected to hear from him when she had asked him what he had been doing lately.
"It's a strange combination, I realize," he added quickly.
"I don’t know about that. I mean, if you have some sort of plan that you are working toward, then it doesn’t really matter."
“I want to work with kids. “
"Yeah,” she said. “I can see that."
"Yeah?" Lucas asked, looking at her.
She turned to look at him and saw the questioning look on his face as though he wasn't sure if she was being truthful. "Yeah. You are great with kids."
“During my travels, I saw so many different cultures and the universal thing about kids is that they all want to play and be outside. It seems like the kids here don’t really do much playing, and they really don’t spend much time outside. Definitely not as much as we did when we were younger.”
“That is true,” Haley agreed. “Do you want to work with kids in schools or after school programs?”
"Well, what I'd really like to do is to open a camp where disadvantaged kids, even the troublemakers, could get a chance to camp and have fun. Maybe learn some life skills along the way."
Haley was completely blown away. "Wow, that’s amazing.”
“I came back to Fairview to get a plan together and find some land for the camp.”
“I bet that business minor will definitely come in handy with that,” Haley said. “That’s really great.”
Haley was more than a little amazed at his news. He seemed excited and she was extremely happy for him and couldn’t help but wonder if he had grown up some during his time away. When she glanced over at him and he grinned at her, her stomach flipped and just like that Haley remembered all of the hurt and disappointment she had gone through the last time she had let her guard down around Lucas. Focusing on the road in front of her, she silently reminded herself that she could be friendly with him but there was no way that she would fall for him. Once was more than enough.
"I'm sorry," Haley told Lucas. "I don't care what you say; Tony Stark is totally irresponsible."
“What? No way!” Lucas exclaimed. "Tony Stark is the man."
"He is so not. I mean, he's cool as Iron Man and all, but you have to admit he's really reckless."
"I don't know. What you call reckless I call confidence and decisiveness. All Bruce Wayne does is hide behind his cape and cowl."
“You are crazy." Haley shook her head, as she had done many times in their argument over who was the best billionaire superhero. "It's not confidence; it's called arrogance."
“Arrogance? How do you figure that?” Lucas asked.
“By revealing that he was Iron Man, he totally put himself and everyone around him at risk."
Lucas shook his head sadly. "Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to do the right thing."
"Really? So, if you were a superhero and you knew bad people were looking for you, you would just tell everybody who you are and where you live? It wouldn’t be hard for them to figure out where your sister and where your mom lived. You would have to believe that anyone could kidnap them or hurt them to get to you."
Luke shifted in his seat before saying, "No, of course not, but that's different."
"How is that different? Tony Stark put Pepper, Rhodes and anyone else that worked for him or knew him in danger."
"But he's Iron Man, " Lucas said as if that meant something.
Haley stifled another sigh. "Yeah and Batman is Batman and he doesn't put anybody at risk."
"Yeah sure,” Lucas admitted reluctantly. “But he’s always brooding; it’s so annoying."
"I'll take broody over reckless any day."
Haley glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed a black car coming up fast behind them as they drove along the narrow road. "Speaking of reckless, I don't know what this guy is doing."
She looked in the rearview mirror and said, "I don't know what you're doing, buddy, but you're a little late. The passing lane ended three-quarters of a mile ago."
Lucas turned around to look through the rear window as the car moved into the empty lane of oncoming traffic. "Yeah, I don't know what his problem is."
"Whatever it is, he needs to slow down and figure it out.” Haley knew she had seen the black car before. It had come up behind them before but always fell back and then disappeared. She nodded towards the upcoming hill. “He's running out of road."
Haley kept driving at the same speed, not knowing what the other car was up to and not really comfortable slowing down. At the crest of the hill, Haley gasped upon seeing a large semitruck in the oncoming lane. The car was also still in the oncoming lane, and Haley increased her speed so that the black car would have plenty of room to slip into the lane behind them. Her eyes darted to the rearview mirror every few seconds, expecting to see the black car move over at any moment. The seconds stretched on for what seemed like hours but the car made no move to change lanes.
The prolonged sound of a loud horn pierced the air as the semi closed in on them. The black car had pulled up alongside them, although not close enough for Haley to see the driver without turning her head completely to the side.
“What is he doing?” Lucas asked.
“I don’t know,” Haley managed to say, her heart was beating so fast she could barely breathe.
Before she could decide whether to speed up or slow down, the black car jumped forward to cut across their lane at the last minute. Haley jerk
ed the car violently to the right to avoid being hit by the black car or the semi that had swerved when the black car shot forward.
“Hold on,” she cried out as her Honda bounced on the uneven ground as she attempted to steer her car through the tall grass growing on the side of the road. The black car continued down the road only to disappear around the next curve.
There was a grinding sound underneath the car just before they lurched to a stop just missing a massive tree.
“Are you okay?”
Haley turned to look at Lucas. His voice seemed kind of far away.
“Haley, are you okay?” He said again touching her arm.
Haley realized she was still gripping the steering wheel, so tightly that her knuckles were white. She tried to open her hand to release it but she couldn’t seem to do it. “I don’t know. My hands, I can’t…”
“But you aren't hurt?” He asked reaching down and hitting the button to release his seat belt. “Hang on. I am going to come around.”
Haley nodded slowly. Lucas jumped out of the car, moving swiftly to open her car door. Slowly and gently he peeled her fingers from the steering wheel. He rubbed her hands between his until she started to get feeling back into them.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Did you hit your head?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, just shaken up.” Haley pulled her hand back. “I just…oh my car. It made that awful noise.”
Lucas stood up from where he had been crouched. “I’ll take a look. You stay here and rest.”
“No,” she replied quickly. It was silly; she knew that he wasn’t going anywhere really, but she couldn’t stand the idea of being left alone. “Wait for me.”
4
Haley opened her car door and got out, grabbing onto the door frame when she felt herself falter. Her hands were shaking and her legs felt like jelly; she grumbled silently to get herself together. She hated that some crazy driver had managed to shatter her cool calm. It was the refusal to let it get the best of her that gave her the strength to close the car door and lean against it.
The Road to Sampson's Quarry (A Sampson's Quarry Mystery - Book One) Page 2
