the open windows are letting in.
“Oh shit,” I say. My mouth is dry and has a sour taste. And my head hurts.
I fumble on the ground for my bag and pull my phone out. The ringing had been muffled by the leather in my bag, but the volume is ear splitting and I curse my uncoordinated fingers when I drop it.
It stops ringing before I can pick it up from the seat between my thighs where it fell. I flip it over and see my mother’s number. My heart drops.
I roll the windows up and grab for my phone, my heart hammering as I press “call back” on the missed call notification.
My mother answers on the first ring. “I was just leaving you a voicemail. Why does Evangeline have her own phone?” She asks in her no nonsense, direct way.
“So that we can reach her when we need to. Marcel’s idea,” I add because I know that always shuts her up.
Stone’s fingers drum the steering wheel, just once
“What’s up mom? Is everything okay? Have you heard from Remi?” I ask cutting to the chase.
“No. And that Rivers woman who saw him last won’t say what it was all about. Anyway, your husband just called, and he says you’re not answering your phone.” My stomach lurches at the mention of Marcel’s name.
“I have bad reception,” I lie and cut her off. I can’t deal with her right now.
“Everything okay?” He asks.
“Yeah, everything is fine. My mother doesn’t have my brother to boss around, so she’s turned her attention on me,” I say and then feel a surge of guilt at how ungracious I’m being.
My mother is a lot of things, some I don’t understand or like. She and my brother Remi have been at each other’s throats for as long as I can remember. She and I not so much because I pick my battles and the ones she's waged against me haven’t been worth it. She’s cold, detached, and she finds disobedience intolerable. But she’s a great grandmother and my children love her. And if I didn’t have someone who I knew loved them back, I wouldn’t have been able to make this trip.
I sigh wearily and correct myself. “No, I didn’t mean that. I called my daughter and I didn’t call Mom, and she doesn’t like that. But everything is fine,” I say and pat Stone’s leg before I put my phone away and turn back to watch the dessert zip by.
“Hey, I thought we were headed away from Cabo,” I say when I see a sign that gives our distance from the city. I sit up and frown, a flare of worry that this adventure is already over.
“We will. I changed our itinerary again,” he says cryptically, and it eases some of my concern, but I want to be as far away from anywhere that people might know us.
“Where are we going instead?” I peer out the window. Not that I would know this from any other part of the Baja peninsula, but I suddenly don’t feel so blasé about not knowing what’s next.
“Thought you didn’t care,” he says with a laugh, but his vague and cryptic answers do more to ratchet up my nerves than anything else.
“Yes, I know that. Obviously, since I said it. I don’t need you to remind me. I’ve changed my mind, and now I want to know.” I sit up straight. We turn off the road at a sign that reads Wild Canyon.
“What is this place?” I ask, reaching for my phone so I can google it.
“I was going to stop here on our way back, but I thought it would be the perfect way to kick off this adventure. I’m about to show you how easy it is to let go.”
Chapter 21
Transformed
Regan
“Your guts turned to water yet?” Stone squeezes my hand and I glance over at him to find him grinning wildly. I grip the metal side of the small basket that’s currently transporting us several hundred feet above a canyon in the middle of the desert. I have never been more scared in my life. I’m nearly paralyzed by fear. But Stone’s grin and the delight in his eyes snaps me out of it.
“Don’t fuck with me Stone. I’m really scared. If I shit my pants up here, I’ll never speak to you again.” I warn him.
“If you shit your pants, I’m not sure I’d mind a little distance.”
I slap at his arm and then scream when my movement sends