Stop The Wedding!: Night Driving / Smooth Sailing / Crash Landing

“Probably, but reality is overrated.”

“The study said that, too. Obviously, the paper was written by an optimist.”

“You know, if I had just a few more months I bet I could turn you.” Tara slipped a sideways glance at Boone.

“Turn me?”

“Into an optimist.”

“You would have your work cut out for you.”

“Would have been fun to try.”

He was studying her intently. “I wish I’d gotten to know you better before. I missed out on some lively conversation.”

“Through no fault of my own. I tried knocking down those walls you’ve got built up around you, but it was a no-go.”

“I should have given you a fair shake.”

“As a friend?” She felt suddenly breathless, but had no idea why. Was he suggesting that if she wasn’t moving to Miami there might have been something between them? But if not for this road trip they would never have gotten to know each other. Such a shame the way things turned out.

“As a better neighbor,” he corrected, crushing any fantasies she once might have had about them being a couple. But hey, the door had closed on that a long time ago. Ah well, it was better this way, wasn’t it?

“You never did answer my question,” she said, realizing it wasn’t the first time he’d avoided the topic of his future. “What are you going to do with yourself when you’re healthy again?”

He squirmed in his seat. “Stupid knee.”

She wasn’t letting him off the hook with the knee excuse. “You know,” she said. “I went through something similar once.”

“You went through a bomb blast?”

She ignored that. “When I was eighteen and in secretarial school—”

“You were a secretary?”

“Don’t sound so shocked. It’s not rocket science.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. I just can’t imagine you chained to a desk. That would be like putting a butterfly in a jar.”

“Anyway, I got mono.”

“That’s not quite the same as going to battle.”

“I know that. I’m not comparing your injury to my mono, I’m just trying to prove a point.”

“Continue.”

“For six weeks, all I did was sleep. My boyfriend who gave me the freaking mono dumped me—”

“What an ass.”

“Thank you. I thought so, too.”

“He did you a favor. You deserve better.”

A sweet tingling started in her stomach, spread lower as she took in his sultry gaze. “Anyway, I also got fired from my job—”

“This was the job as the chipmunk at the amusement park?”

“Yes.”

“Couldn’t very well run around in a chipmunk head with mono, now, could you.”

“Exactly. And I flunked out of secretarial school and had to move back home. When you’re sick and all this bad stuff happens to you, it’s really difficult to fight back. You start to think that this is the way your life is going to be from now on. It’s easy to get depressed and not see all the joys that are waiting around the corner for you.”

“You think?”

“Once I started to feel better, I began to realize something.”

“What’s that?”

“Getting mono was actually a real gift. I’d been studying to be a secretary to please my parents when what I really wanted was to style hair. So I enrolled in beauty school and the rest is history.”

“Glad it worked out for you.”

“Life’s little detours often lead us to our real destination.”

“You sound like a fortune cookie.”

“Clichés are clichés for a reason.”

“They’re trite for a reason, too.”

“I know my little story doesn’t compare to all the suffering you’ve been through, Boone, but what I’m trying to say is that everyone comes to a crossroads in their life, and it’s okay to sit and mull for a while until you figure it all out.”

“I’ve done a helluva lot of stewing,” he conceded.

“What is it you really want to do?”

“Be a soldier.”

“But that path is closed. What else are you passionate about?”

“Hell if I know.”

“What appealed to you about military service?”

“Knowing what’s expected of you.”