Page 81 of The Law of Attraction
Then he let go of her and pulled away, as abruptly as he’d kissed her.
“Wait, that’s all?” she asked as he refastened his seat belt.
His eyes were dark with barely restrained lust when he looked at her. “I just needed to taste you. The main course can wait until we’re not parked by the side of a narrow rural road in the dark.”
Olivia grinned, slapping the dashboard with her palm. “Drive like the wind, Bullseye!”
Ten minutes later they were pulling into the parking lot of the motel. Thirty seconds after that they were tumbling into Olivia’s room in a tangle of limbs and lips and questing hands.
As they peeled each other’s clothes off, desperate for the skin-to-skin contact they’d denied themselves all day, she pushed aside all her worries about the future and gave herself up to the here and now.
They had to go back to the plant and work for a few hours the next morning. And then they had to drive seventy miles to Austin, turn in their rental car, and catch a flight back to LA.
After that, Olivia didn’t know what would happen. Living in the now without worrying about the future was not a natural state of being for her, but it was what she was determined to do. At least for this one day. They could worry about tomorrow when it came.
To be honest, she was too tired to do much else. Adam might have gotten a good night’s sleep and recharged the night he’d retreated to his own room, but Olivia had not been so lucky. The stress and emotional ups and downs of the week were catching up with her, and she felt like someone halfway through the transition from human to slow, shambling zombie as she checked the logs for errors.
When they were as sure as they could be that their software was running smoothly, they bid goodbye to the weekend shift manager, climbed back into their trusty Honda Fit, and headed for Austin.
The sky was clear and blue, and as Olivia blinked at the sunlight reflecting off the highway, she felt like Gollum emerging from the lightless depths below the Misty Mountains. Between the weather and the long hours locked up inside the plant, she’d barely seen the sun in days, and the warm rays soaking into her skin felt like a miracle.
A few minutes later, as they were driving through a small town, she saw a sign for a roadside store, and told Adam they needed to make a stop.
“Do you need to pee already?” he asked, sounding more amused than annoyed.
“No, I have to buy something here.”
“We don’t have a ton of time to waste,” he warned, even as he was pulling off the highway and into the crowded parking lot.
“It won’t take long,” she promised.
He followed her inside Hruska’s Store and Bakery, established in 1912, past the registers and aisles full of snack foods and souvenirs and jars of pickles and jams, to the long glass counter at the back.
“Holy shit.” Adam’s eyes were wide and bright as he stared at the bakery case. “Are those all—”
“Kolaches,” Olivia confirmed with a nod. “Even better than the ones at Buc-ee’s.”
She helped him select a variety of the best flavors—cream cheese and chocolate, apple, peach, and sausage and cheese—and they got back in the car and set out for Austin again. She fed him kolaches as he drove them through the wildflower-covered hills of central Texas, past cattle ranches, pumpjacks, and picturesque small towns. At some point after they’d shared the last kolache, Olivia nodded off to sleep, curled up facing Adam with her hand resting on his thigh.
The next time she opened her eyes, they were turning off for the Austin airport. She sat up and stretched, and Adam reached for her hand and brought it to his lips.
She felt a wistful pang when they turned in their rental car. A lot had happened in that dusty little Honda Fit, and it was harder than expected to say goodbye.
Before she knew it, they were dragging their suitcases through the doors to the airport terminal. The security line was a breeze compared to LAX, and their flight was still scheduled to depart on time.
“I’ll watch your bag,” Adam said as they approached a restroom, and patiently rolled their suitcases off to the side to wait for her.
Olivia barely recognized herself in the bathroom mirror when she was washing her hands. She’d forgone makeup yet again, and the dark circles under her eyes were verging into black hole territory.
As soon as she stepped out of the restroom, Adam’s gaze homed in on her like a heat-seeking missile, and his whole face seemed to light up. He leaned in for a kiss as she reached to take her roller bag from him, like she’d been gone three days instead of three minutes.
They set out for their gate, and detoured again at the sight of a Starbucks. It had been days since she’d had a decent cup of coffee, and Olivia nearly hugged the barista when he handed over her venti mocha latte.
Coffees in hand, they found two seats at their gate, and passed the time identifying celebrity doppelgängers among their fellow travelers.
“Blue shirt over there looks like a young James Earl Jones,” Olivia said, nudging Adam’s shoulder with her own.
He followed her gaze and nodded with appreciation at her find. “Not bad.” His eyes traveled around the terminal. “Middle-aged Miley Cyrus,” he pointed out, and she laughed, unable to remember the last time she’d enjoyed herself this much at an airport. It was the two of them against the world, comfortable and carefree and victorious after what felt like an eon of struggle.
