Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,7

yeah,” she said as if that should be abundantly obvious. “That was probably smart. What I’m not getting is why you didn’t tell me. We didn’t have to go today.”

“I know, but by next week, school will start and…” He scratched his ear as he let that trail off. They both knew well enough the other oncoming train that was going to derail their entire lives for who knew how long come next week. The trial. But he didn’t mention that. “Anyway, I figured I could study some on the way up there or back home.”

“Okay? And how are you going to do that? You doing the osmosis thing or what?”

“No. I have my books in the trunk.”

“Well, lotta good they’re going to do you back there.” She sighed long and slow, and he knew she was upset with him. “Tell ya what. Why don’t we pull in here, grab us something to eat, hit the restrooms and shake our legs? You can get your books, and I’ll help you study while you drive the rest of the way.”

“Oh.” Greg shook his head. “Uh, you don’t have to. I’m sure…”

Carefully Taylor turned in to a convenience store. “Besides, we need gas so we’re not headed into the mountains and who knows how far from civilization on a quarter tank and fumes.” She pulled under the carport where the pumps were. “You want to get the gas or you want me to?”

“Uh. I will.” It was pointless to argue when she got like this. Greg, of all people, knew that.

Frustrated was a good word for how Taylor was feeling. She couldn’t believe Greg hadn’t said anything about the upcoming test. And it wasn’t just any old test either. This was do-or-die, life-or-death at least for his chances of getting the job he wanted, the job he’d been studying for ever since they had graduated high school. That was going on three years. She couldn’t believe he was just blowing off studying to go on some crazy road trip she’d dreamed up taking. That boy. She was going to have to do something about him.

When they got back in the car, Taylor made him wait to pull out until he had shown her every bit of information in the book about how to study for the test.

“I really wish you would’ve told me, I would’ve brought my Anatomy book,” she said as she perused the thing, trying to find a good place to start. “Maybe we can do that when we get back.”

Before Greg got the question out of why they would study at home, she cleared her throat. “Okay. Name the bones in the wrist starting with the carpals.”

They ate a little breakfast on the road and studied all the way into the mountains. Thankfully, the castle was on the front side of the Rockies and not deep in them. However, the tree-lined two-lane road was not the best place to read and decipher anatomy terms.

“Is that it?” Greg suddenly asked. “I think that’s it.”

Taylor was pulled from the land of bones and muscles back to reality so quickly, she hardly had time to adjust. “Oh, wow. I think so.”

Their arrival was without fanfare as one minute they were driving, and the next, they were pulling up to the castle. In what would have to pass for the parking area along the side of the road, Greg stopped on the dirt stretch and arched his gaze up through the driver’s side window at the stone structure looming beyond. He ducked even further and swayed to get a better view. “Is that the dragon head?”

Without noticing her own movement, Taylor shut the book on her lap and followed his gaze up through the windshield and then up even higher. Her eyes widened on the sight, and she felt a little touch of vertigo brush past her. “I think so.”

“Whoa.” Greg shut off the car, and they both slid out opposite sides. “Wow. This is wicked cool.”

But cool was hardly the right word for it. Cold would have been a better one. Taylor danced on her feet to fend off the bone-numbing chill of the early morning mountain air. “Ugh. I should’ve brought a bigger coat.”

“Oh. Hey.” Turning, Greg took one look at her and opened his trunk. “I’ve got this blanket. It’s not great, but it’s better than nothing.” He brought it around to her and draped it over her. “Better?”

“Much.”

A woman came out a bottom portal and unlocked a little chain.