Chapter 651 Chapter 651
He wasn’t sure if they’d been driving for a few hours or longer. The weird thing was that he didn’t care. For most of his adult life, he’d heard men talking about mates and things that went with it. In all those years, none of them had mentioned how complete you felt after claiming yours and being claimed. Why was that? It was something that should have been discussed. He grinned at the road. His brain was still on a high from being with her or something because there was no way under any circumstance that a bunch of men would discuss how their mate made them feel complete. The only thing that would be worse than that to talk about would be the warm, fuzzy feeling you had.
The fact that they were both alert and going today was nothing short of a miracle. The night had led into the morning, each waking the other through out. Neither of them should have the energy to do anything, yet he felt like he could run all day right now.
“Can I learn to drive?”
Asher glanced over at her. “Sure.”
“Yes?” She smiled at him, her eyes wide with excitement.
“You mean right now?” She nodded. He checked in the mirror. They hadn’t seen a car since they’d started out a few hours ago. There was something about Sunday morning that was peaceful on the road. “Sure. There’s no traffic. The road is mostly straight.” He’d never taught anyone to drive, so that was going to be interesting. He pulled over and put it into park.
When he got out, he turned and scented the area. Checking when things were too quiet seemed to be second nature now. If life had taught him anything, it was that things weren’t always as they seem.
Journee came around the front, her smile was big. Just seeing her smiling like that made him happy. Leaning down, he kissed her.
She reached up and covered his mouth with her hand when he lifted his head. “Don’t distract me.”
He chuckled. “Get in, and I’ll adjust the seat.”
With another grin, she climbed in. He was honestly surprised she wanted to drive, given she still wasn’t comfortable riding in a vehicle. However, it might help her be more comfortable to be in control. It would help him.
Her feet didn’t reach the pedals, so he moved it forward and then up. “How’s that?”
She put her foot on the brake pedal and nodded. “I can reach.”
“Okay. Get your seatbelt on.” He closed the door and went around to the passenger side. When he got in, he moved her backpack to the back. It was never out of her reach. It was Probably because it was the only belonging that she had all those years. Adjusting the seat, he left his seatbelt off in case he needed to grab the wheel. He hoped he wouldn’t have to. “Put your foot on the brake and put it into drive. The D.” He pointed to it.
It took her a minute to get it in gear. She was gripping the steering wheel hard enough that her knuckles were white. “Relax, and when you’re ready, signal,” he pointed to it, “push it down for left and then gently push the gas pedal and pull out onto the road.”
She nodded, huffed out a few breaths, and then did as he’d instructed.
Asher glanced out the back window when she pulled out very slowly. He should have told her to check in the mirror. He rolled his eyes. Some instructor he was. “You can go a little faster.” He glanced at the speedometer. Their speed wasn’t even registering.
“Okay.”
Asher was thrown back against the seat and then jerked forward as she hit the brakes right after the gas pedal. He clamped his lips together so he would laugh.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay, it takes time to get used to it.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything. Her knuckles were white, and she was sitting forward, almost resting on top of the steering wheel. “I can do this.” She whispered it, and he knew she was talking to herself.
It was a few minutes later before she was going a steady twenty. It wasn’t fast, but he wasn’t about to tell her to speed up as long as she was comfortable with it. He looked out the back window to double check no one was behind them.
She huffed out a breath and accelerated a bit more. “Is this okay?”
“It’s fine. Go as fast as you’re comfortable with.” He knew this wouldn’t keep them on schedule, but it wasn’t like the island would go anywhere. Raising his eyebrows, he stared out the windshield. He hadn’t been this chill about anything in his life. To others, he may seem like he was, but the internal dialogue had never been anything like his projected appearance.
“There’s a hill.”
He blinked and looked ahead of them. “That’s several minutes away from us.”
“Okay.”
“If you don’t want to drive down it, just slow down and pull over before we reach it.” When she didn’t respond, he looked at her. She was biting her lip and had such an intense look of focus on her face that he had to smile. He checked behind them again. Still no cars.
“If-if I go down it, what do I do? Do I push the brake?”
He wasn’t sure how steep the incline was. “Sometimes, on smaller hills, you can just take your foot off the gas pedal and coast down. You may have to feather the brakes lightly.”
“Feather?”
He grinned and shook his head. He was going to have to check himself before he used words or phrases she wouldn’t understand. “Gently push.”
“Okay. I can do that.” She straightened but still didn’t sit back. “I’m going to try the hill.”
“Okay, if that’s what you want.” He was proud of her. He could see and feel how tense she was doing this, but she was going to push through and do it. He scowled at the dash for a second. That had been her whole life. Being scared, but still moving forward.
“Okay,” she whispered, “here we go.”
He looked to see they were at least a minute before they reached the crest of the hill. “You’re doing great.” He glanced at the speedometer. She’d managed to hit almost thirty now.
When they hit the top of it, she sucked in a breath.
Asher grinned, “breathe.” There were no cars coming up, so at least she wouldn’t have to panic about that. It wasn’t a crazy steep hill, but it was enough of an incline that it would be a bit intimidating for the first time behind the wheel.
They were halfway down when she slammed on the brakes so hard that he slid forward and hit the dash.
“Asher.”
He was looking around them, thinking there was an animal or something.
“My notebooks.”
He looked at her to see she was staring out the driver’s window. “Journee, you need to pull us off the road.”
“Shoot.” She grabbed the wheel with both hands again and just sat there. “What do I do?”
Reaching over, he grabbed the wheel. “Take your foot off the brake, slowly, and let me steer.”
She was nodding and did what he said.
“Okay. Hit the brake.” He straightened it out, so they didn’t end up in the ditch. “Keep your foot on the brake.” He put it into park and then sat back.
She was turned and looking out the window. “I think that’s it.” She opened the door and then fumbled to get the seat belt off. “My notebooks.” She got out.
Reaching into the backseat, he grabbed her backpack and held it out to her.
By the time he got around to the other side of the vehicle, she was flipping through one of her notebooks. “It is.” She held up the book and then pointed.
Asher took the book from her hand, looked at the sketch, and then looked where she was pointing. It wasn’t identical, but the monument looked similar. Then it hit him, she would have been at the bottom looking at it. “Get in.”
Nodding, she ran around to the passenger side. He got in and watched that she put her seatbelt on and then sped down the rest of the hill. He took the first left road at the bottom and followed it until he was sure they’d be able to see it from a different perspective.
Pulling over, he looked over at her. “Is that what you saw?”
She was staring at it and nodding. “Yes. I stopped once I was away from so many streets and drew that and then kept going.”
“You got off the boat near here?”
She was nodding but still staring at the monument.
“Okay.” He put it back into drive, checked that nothing was coming, and did a U-turn.
“Where are you going?”
“Back to the top, so I can look through the scope.” Leaning forward, he tapped his phone screen and brought up Illias’ number.
“You’re amazing. You can do that while driving.”
He glanced at her and smiled. “I’ve had many more hours driving than you.” He looked back at the phone and hit send.
It ran three times before Illias answered. “I was sleeping. Really sleeping.”
“Sorry, you’re going to want to wake up.”
“Asher?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on?”
“We found the town she got off the boat in.” He reached over and took her hand and held it in his.
“Do you see the island?”
“Just going to the top of the hill to take a look out in the water.”
“Right. Okay. Uh, I’m going to put you on hold, I’ll be right back.” The line went quiet.