From the seat behind mine, Rhodes made a sound that had to be a bark of a laugh.
“You don’t want to smell pee for the next hour.”
The teenager finally glanced over with an alarmed expression.
“Please, Am, please. If you love me—and I know you do—stop at the next station. At the next pull-off. I’d be happy going just over to the side of the road right here, and I’ll be fast.”
That time, Rhodes definitely didn’t muffle his laugh or what came afterward. “No peeing on the side of the road. A state trooper will drive by, and I won’t be able to talk him out of giving you a ticket for indecent exposure.”
I moaned.
“Am, there’s a gas station coming up in about five or ten minutes. Can you hold it ’til then?” Rhodes asked, leaning forward between the seats.
I squeezed my muscles—noticing again how sore that area in general was from last night—and gave him a tight nod before pressing my legs together even closer.
His hand came up and settled on my forearm, the thumb rubbing along the sensitive skin there. I grinned at him, which more than likely looked like a sneer from me squeezing my muscles again to ease the urge to pee.
Today had been a great, great day. We’d left right at eight in the morning, with Am saying five words until eleven mostly because he’d been passed out in the back seat. Rhodes and I had talked about Colorado and some of the things he’d learned while in training, explaining how there was a game warden, or a DWM as he called himself when he was being fancy, that handled all the areas closer to Montrose versus the southwest of the state like he did. We listened to some music, but mostly, he talked and I ate up every word and especially every sly smile he sent my way.
He didn’t need to actually tell me, but I could tell he was thinking about last night too. Hopefully thinking about how we should have a repeat ASAP. I’d settle for draping myself over his bare chest again like we’d done afterward, too.
Am’s aunt had been just as nice as I remembered from Thanksgiving, and I’d had such a nice time crashing their party, talking a ton to Rhodes, a little to Am who mostly hung out with his Uncle Johnny and his dad, and helped out in the kitchen as much as possible. I’d ducked outside in the cold for a little while to call my aunt and uncle and wish them a Merry Christmas, and talked to my cousins for a bit too.
We’d left right after four, because Rhodes had to work tomorrow. He’d asked if it was okay if we let Amos drive, and I’d been all about it—at least until he started to get stingy with the stops thirty minutes in. The roads had been plowed that morning, and the temperature had warmed to a pretty perfect forty-five degrees, keeping the roads free of ice, so it hadn’t felt like a safety hazard to let him drive. Rhodes had only complained a little when I’d begged him to stop twice on the way up.
I was just about panting though when I spotted the sign for the gas station in the distance, having kept quiet because it was taking all of my effort not to pee myself, period.
“Finally!” I moaned when he turned right and headed for the pump.
“We’re going to get gas,” Rhodes said as his son parked.
“Okay, I’ll pay you back. I gotta go,” I hissed as I threw open the door, having taken my seat belt off while he’d been turning, and flew out of there.
I heard them both laugh, but I had better things to do.
Luckily, I’d been in so many gas stations by this point in my life, that I had an inner magnet for where the bathrooms were and spotted it instantly, pretty much waddling toward the sign because every step got that much harder. It wasn’t a huge travel center, but the station was a surprising size with a full-sized bathroom with stalls. I peed about two minutes straight, or at least half my weight in fluid, and got out of there as fast as I could. The employee behind the counter looked away from where she’d been focused outside and nodded at me. I nodded back.
And it was then that I noticed what she’d been looking at.
There was a huge class-A bus that had pulled into the offset section where I figured 18-wheelers in the area stopped at.
The door was open, and people were filing out of it, yawning and rubbing at their faces. It was too many people to not be a tour bus, I recognized.
Rhodes or Am had moved the car one pump over, and they were both hanging outside of it, Am staring at the pump and Rhodes leaning against the car, gaze on me.
I waved at him.
He shot me one of those low-key, devastating smiles that made me want to hug him.
And that was when it went to shit.