We All Sleep Alone (Finley Creek #11) - Calle J. Brookes Page 0,77
there, I was certain you’d start drooling down your shirt while I watched.” He knew exactly what pain management plan they were working. She was at least an hour behind on taking the next one. He respected her wishes to be clearer headed. There was no perfect answer. “If you start hurting, let me know. We’ll stop for the day, find a place where you can relax a little.”
“I’m good. No matter what. Finding a place to hide for a day or so probably is a good idea. We need to prepare a bit better than what we have. I want out of these clothes. They’re Nikkie Jean’s and way too small. I’m not changing out of them until we wash these.”
He hadn’t noticed the T-shirt and jeans she’d slipped into being too tight, but he had known they were more form fitting than he’d seen on her before.
Allen hadn’t minded. He was used to seeing her in nurses’ scrubs. He liked these tighter things a lot better.
Under her habitual baggy scrubs, Nurse Izzie was very nicely shaped.
“Where exactly are we headed?” she asked after a few minutes. She’d found a state map in the glove box and had unfolded it over the large dash in front of her. The van had a slight built-in desk area.
“There’s a campground in Kerrville, about two hundred miles away. Four hours or so. I figured we’d stop there first. It’s not quite as far as I was hoping to make it, but with this approaching weather, I think we need to find a place and park for a while. Do the planning that you want.”
She tracked the destination with one finger. “It’s not too far away. The exit is coming up.”
He normally used GPS on his phone, but he’d left that phone in Rafe’s office desk.
Allen had taken the SIM card out of the phone and stored it in a freezer bag—with the battery disconnected. Nikkie Jean had done the same with Izzie’s. Anyone looking for those phones wouldn’t be able to find them. “Does this phone have GPS?”
“I’m sure it does. Many prepaid smartphones do, now, I think.” She shot him a smirk. “What’s the matter? Don’t believe I can read a map? We don’t need GPS.”
“I’m sure you can do whatever your heart is set on, Nurse Izadora. It’s part of your Superwoman powers.”
“Funny.” She was quiet for a long while. “The exit is coming up in about ten minutes.”
“Thanks.” He had no idea what they were going to do when they made it to the campground. Boil water in the pouring rain? Not likely.
Take a real shower in the campground bathhouse? Most likely. They’d have to wrap her cast in a trash bag and tape it well first. He’d grabbed a roll of duct tape for that very reason.
He pulled into the small campground about five hours later and was surprised to see a small gas station right in the middle of it. “Well, that’s convenient.”
“Hey, it’s a convenience store. Why wouldn’t it be convenient?”
Apparently, his road companion had a fondness for word play and snark. At least she’d stopped looking at him like he truly was an evil abductor. Or a practiced seducer of innocent nurses everywhere.
“I’ll park at the pump, then go inside to see if they have a site available.” That was something they were going to have to be aware of. A lot of campgrounds required reservations. There were RVs everywhere, and only a few open sites, from what he could see.
In the smaller Class B RV, they could camp in store parking lots if the stores would allow it. But he hoped not.
Allen was a man of creature comforts, after all. He didn’t want Izzie to have to rough it in the physical condition she was in.
“I’ll fill up the tank. You get us a spot.”
Allen hesitated. He didn’t want her out of the van. It didn’t seem safe to him. She couldn’t stay in it the entire time they were on the run. That wasn’t feasible and would be damned suspicious if they stayed anywhere more than a day or two.
“Keep the cast dry. Stay by the van. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Go.”
“Do I need to give you the stranger-danger talk?”
“Go, Dad. I can fill up the van by myself. Why don’t you ever let me do anything? I’m sixteen. I’m not a kid anymore.” She shot him a rebellious pout.