They Left Me Behind on the Road Trip, So I Got on a Better Ride novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Kanab

Sawyer took the phone off speaker.

Then, after a second, he put it back on.

I don't think he meant it for the partner. I think he meant it for me.

"I'm not coming back Thursday," he said.

The voice on the other end went very quiet, the dangerous kind of quiet.

"Say that again."

"My grandmother is seventy-eight and on a road trip through four national parks with a heart condition. I'm driving her. Give the trial to the second chair. He's ready. I wrote his outline."

"You've been on this case for two years."

"Yes."

"If you're not in Denver Thursday, you're off it. And I'll remember this at partnership."

Sawyer looked up at the Milky Way for a long moment.

"Fine," he said.

He hung up.

He set the phone face down on the hood, gently.

Something in his shoulders came down that I don't think had been down in years.

"Did you just lose your trial?"

"I believe I did." He sounded faintly amazed. "That's the first time I've ever said fine and meant it."

"How does it feel?"

He thought about it.

"Cold," he said. "You have my jacket."

I laughed so hard I nearly knocked the tripod over.

We didn't kiss.

The moment had gone back into the dark.

But on the drive back to the lodge, his hand rested on the console between us, and so did mine.

Neither of us moved them.

Zion was three hours south.

Dot made Sawyer stop in a town on the way for a sandwich.

Then she made him stop for a second sandwich, and then for a postcard she didn't send.

"You're stalling," he said.

"I'm living," she said. "There's a difference. Look it up in your notebook."

That afternoon we walked up the Riverside Walk to where the canyon closes in and the trail turns into the river itself.

The Narrows.

People were wading into the green water in rented boots, holding walking sticks.

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