Winner Takes All

Playing it safe was smart. Comfortable. Easy. But in this case it would also mean failure.

Convincing him to go along with her plan had been a long shot.

Now she had to follow through, even if the idea of heading off into the unknown was giving her Texas-sized butterflies in her stomach. Daniel would keep her safe. All she had to do was keep her emotions in line.

Stephanie was casually filing her nails when Daniel strode through the open door. She nearly grinned at his slightly disgruntled frown when he spotted her. Victory.

“Have you been waiting long?” he asked. “Nobody will notice your manicure in Alto.”

“Multitasking.” She waved a hand. “You know how I hate to waste time.”

He studied her face, and Stephanie tried to fight the warm flush headed straight to her cheeks. Daniel had always been good at calling her bluff.

“Or maybe you aren’t as excited about this trip now that you’ve had some time to think on it.” He paused, one hand over the handle of her suitcase.

He was giving her another chance to back out, which made pretending she didn’t want to twice as hard, but she was committed. “Nope. I’m all in.” Petrified, but committed.

When he didn’t even grunt or grimace at the strain of carrying a bag that she’d dragged, with two rest stops, to the lobby, Stephanie decided that living in the Andes had built up his muscles. Watching them flex in his arms as he tossed the bag in the back of the pickup truck confirmed this suspicion. Also, it was fun.

“I haven’t been down here for long, but I wouldn’t dare keep you waiting,” she said as she slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door. After efficiently buckling her seatbelt, she cleared her throat. “I remember how well you wait. And we both know you would’ve grabbed the first chance to leave me behind, like you left your sister and me at home that time we insisted on going to the movies with you.”

This time he grunted as he stuck the key in the ignition and started the truck. “How long does it take to put on a pair of jeans?”

“For teenage girls? Eternity. Not any pair will do.” Stephanie studied her cargo pants. She should have spent more time on her own wardrobe.

The windshield was already covered with enough insects to be bulletproof, but the interior of the truck was spotless. Just as she’d expect. Determined to be so quiet Daniel wouldn’t even know she was there, she watched the beaches whiz by as they sped down the highway. She didn’t remark on how the mountains ended so abruptly at rocky beaches and crashing waves or the guy riding a ten-speed down the side of the highway or the men selling fruit out of the trunks of cars or the boxes lining the hillside that were obviously homes. And she definitely didn’t ask what the speed limit was. That took real courage. When she noticed how white her knuckles were, she painfully unwrapped her hand from the door and stretched her fingers.

Finally Daniel pulled over at a gas station and turned off the engine. “Better go in and stock up on all the necessities. From here we turn off the paved road. No gas stations. Restrooms are harder to come by. Next stop is about forty miles.”

Thinking that wouldn’t take long at the speed of light or whatever the speed limit was, she answered, “I can wait.”

He shook his head. “No. Go. Now. That forty miles could take the rest of the afternoon. Besides, I warned you about the restrooms. They’re less reliable until we reach Alto.”

Deciding he’d be difficult to live with if she ignored his instructions and he was right—and realizing she’d be crazy to turn her back on time to shop—she slid out of the truck, watched him unload a few gas cans and headed for the station.

“Hola,” she called out as the bells jangled on the slamming door. The young woman behind the counter waved. Stephanie thought about asking where the restrooms were in Spanish, one of the few phrases she remembered, but the sign was hard to miss. And it was in English.

She made use of the facilities and then decided to get a drink for the road. Instead of an overwhelming supply of choices she didn’t recognize, her favorite red-and-white can made for an easy decision. With three cold bottles in the basket she found by the door, Stephanie added what seemed to be plain potato chips and a big bag of individually wrapped chocolates. Chocolate was always a good idea. Frowning as she considered what might happen in the sunshine, she added another bag of hard candy. Too much candy was never a problem.

“Playing it safe already?” Daniel asked as he pulled open the glass door and pulled out two bottles filled with some kind of yellow drink.

“I thought those were your orders. We’re turning off the paved road, leaving the world as I know it behind, so I should cling to the familiar while I can.” She tightened her grip on the basket. “Besides, I like Coke and chips.”

He tapped a bottle. “You’ll like this, too. Inca Kola. It’s like Peruvian Coke.”

“But I already have Peruvian Coke. I mean, it’s actually Coke.” She trailed behind him on the way to the cash register and watched him discuss what she thought was the weather with the woman behind the counter while he unloaded her basket. Everything was easy for him, even making casual conversation in Spanish, and she was reminded again how much distance and time was between them now. The Daniel she’d loved like a brother and then crushed on like an idiot was different. His life here was so far from the cozy confines of Holly Heights.

To keep this trip on the right track, she needed to cling to the first Daniel, the one who’d seen countless pimples and the horrifyingly bad perm she’d had at sixteen. She would explain to everyone that he was a good friend, nothing more, and then she’d find a new and exotic man in romantic Paris.

Convincing herself that he was only a good friend might make all the difference back in Holly Heights, too. Maybe she’d take the men who sat across from her on dinner dates more seriously.

In a flash they were rung up, checked out and back in the car. “You know, for a guy who’s trying to raise money, you haven’t pushed your luck. Shouldn’t I be bankrolling my own junk food habit?”

She opened the bag of chips and offered it to him.

He took a handful of chips out, started the truck and said, “Don’t worry. I’m putting it all on your tab.”

The truck lurched as Daniel made the turn on to the dusty gravel road, and she gripped the handle above the door again. He laughed and glanced her way, so she pasted on a confident expression. “Oh, I’m not worried. Thanks to the Big Star lotto, I can cover the tab.” A hard jounce shook her across the seat, and she grabbed the bag of chips before it could sail on to the floorboard. The bumps in the road and the crackle of gravel under the tires were loud so Stephanie shut up and held on.

“This more like what you expected?” Daniel asked as he slowed to pass a woman walking beside a donkey. The woman raised a hand to her straw hat.

“It’s still pretty flat. That’s not what I pictured.” She glanced in the side mirror to see the dust cloud fall between the truck and the woman, dimming the bright colors in her wrap.

Daniel pointed over the steering wheel. “Not for long. We’re going up.” They drove quickly past a small town that seemed nothing more than deserted strips of small homes made of concrete-block walls and tin roofs, crossed a trickle of water that might be a stream on some days, and started winding their way up the mountain. At the first insane hill, Daniel flipped off the air conditioner and rolled down the windows. “This is when the khaki might come in handy. If the dust gets too much...”

What? Let me know? Too bad for you? She wanted to know how that sentence ended but she was too busy biting her lips to ask.

Stephanie was doing pretty well with the whole “faking being totally okay with this speed” thing until he wedged a knee under the steering wheel to twist off the cap of a bottle of Inca Kola. “Here. Try this.”

Instead of shrieking at him to concentrate, she studied the bottle.

Calm, Stephanie. He’s watching you, waiting for you to freak out and prove him right. Proving him right this early on will make the rest of the trip impossible.

Glass bottle. Cold yellow liquid. How bad could it be?

“Put both hands on the wheel and I will.” She took the bottle and very obviously waited for him to comply. When he did, she put the bottle to her lips and took a tentative sip. “Mmm, that’s good.”

She handed it back and tried not to think about how sharing a bottle was the kind of thing a happy couple might do.

“Definitely worth taking a chance on the unknown now and then.” Daniel nodded, tilted the bottle back. For a split second Stephanie was distracted by how good he looked with those muscles, that cold drink and the satisfied sigh. Then she remembered the speed and the road.

Enough was enough. Nagging would confirm his suspicions that she should have been left in a cushy hotel in Lima. But there would be no fun in saying “I told you so” if they were both dead. “Please slow down. The medical personnel for the area is in this truck so if we crash...”

“No worries. We’d never survive the drop.” Daniel’s lips were twitching as she gasped out loud. “Come on. This is fun, right? And beautiful.”

Daniel pointed and for the first time Stephanie noticed the amazing stretch of mountains ahead of them. Also, the curving road that seemed to completely disappear. The sheer wall of mountain marked one side of the road that was just wide enough for one car with a complete lack of rail on the other side that might prevent them from taking a long drop. Like, a very long drop. Where was the bottom of that fall?

She expected Daniel to comfort her with dry statistics on how few people died by plunging over the side of the road. Brushing off her concern and the real danger took some getting used to.

A cold drink might be the only thing to save her, so she fished a Coke out of her convenience store bag. The first sweet sip was calming.

“What do we do if we meet another car?” Stephanie asked and bit back a frightened squeak as gravel spun under the truck’s tires.

“Negotiate. Very carefully. You’ll see.” His certainty didn’t reassure her.

That’s what she’d been afraid of.

Was he trying to frighten her back to Lima? One glimpse of his face convinced her that this was his normal. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself.