I gave her my hand so she could lower herself down the rock, which she did quite gracefully. Once down, she turned to walk away but then paused and looked back up at me. “I’m really sorry about your brother, Honor.”
“Thank you.”
“And . . . for what it’s worth . . . I bet good things will happen for you. That’s how it should work, anyway.”
She turned again, and I watched as she picked her way gingerly down the trail, then disappeared over a little ridge. The sun fell warm on my back and splashed color into the rocks all around so that they bloomed soft and hopeful in the light of a new day. And as I sat there watching, something in me did too.
20
By the time Bru and I rumbled up the dirt driveway to his house, the heat of the day was coming on fast. We’d dropped off Ashley and her mom, washed down the jeep, and gone to breakfast, all before ten o’clock. And now I was anxious to get the Pala fixed up and keep going, all the way to California and Kyra Kelley. Which was a real possibility, thanks to Ashley and the little piece of fate folded up in my pocket. She’d written Kyra’s assistant’s cell number on a stray receipt and assured me she’d be expecting to hear from me soon. I couldn’t wait to tell Celia I thought she was right and show Rusty that maybe I wasn’t crazy after all.
When we came to a stop, I glimpsed him sitting on an overturned bucket next to the Pala’s open hood, beer in hand, and my mood took a nosedive. Ah. It would be that kind of Rusty today. I took my time getting out of the jeep when Bru turned it off, thanked him again for taking me along, then walked begrudgingly over to Rusty.
“Well, don’t you look all refreshed and enlightened this morning,” he said with the exact flat kind of sarcasm I’d been expecting.
“Probably better off than you.” I eyed his beer. “Isn’t it a little early for that?”
He glanced up at me, then took a long drink from the bottle. “Prerequisite for working on cars. Right, Bru?”
“Whatever gets you goin’, I guess.” Bru waved his hands in an I’m-not-getting-into-this surrender as he walked by and went into the house.
I waited for the door to shut behind him before I turned back to Rusty, all sass and smugness. “Doesn’t look like you’re working very hard.”
“That’s ’cuz I’m done.” He set the bottle in the dirt and stood as I walked over to the car. “I got good news and bad news.”
“What’s the good?” I asked, hoping it was that he’d gotten it fixed already, so we could get back on the road as soon as possible.
Rusty stepped over to the open hood of the Pala and surveyed the inside. “Good news is that the radiator’s fine. It’s a connector hose that has a leak, and that’s a cheaper fix.”
“Okay,” I said cautiously. “What’s the bad news, then?”
“Bad news is that shops don’t stock parts for fifty-year-old cars.”
No, no, no. This couldn’t happen, not now. Panic leaped into my throat. “The concert’s the day after tomorrow. We have to get there. Can’t we rush-order one or something?”
“Did that already,” he said, leaning on the car. “There’s a guy in Fresno that Finn and I got a bunch of parts from when we were first fixin’ her up. I gave him a call, and he said he’d send a hose that should fit, but it’ll be a day before it gets here.”
“A day, as in tomorrow? And then you can fix it and we can go?” I started running through back-up plans in my mind before Rusty could answer. Maybe I could rent a car for the rest of the way.
“How much is it gonna cost?” I asked him. I hadn’t figured on having to fix the car. Actually, I hadn’t really figured anything for this trip. I’d had Finn’s ATM card, which I sometimes used if Gina was running low or if there was something special I wanted. But I had no idea how much money was in the account, and now seemed like a good time to start worrying about it.
“I got it,” Rusty answered.
“No, this is my mess. And now my car. You don’t have to pay for that. I just need to know how much it’s going to cost.”
Rusty sighed, exasperated. “I said I got it, okay?” He turned and shut the hood gently, giving it a pat. “It’s been a while since I bought Pala anything nice. She’s been neglected lately.”
I almost rolled my eyes but stopped short. I’d take this kind of chivalry, even if it was meant for the car. “Well, thanks. That’s . . . that’s nice of you.” I looked at the ground and outlined a circle in the red dust with the toe of my boot, not sure what to say after that.
Rusty pushed off the car and turned on his heels to face me. “Don’t thank me yet. I don’t know how far she’ll make it even after we get it fixed. Lots of times, one problem like this leads to a whole bunch of other ones real quick. Just makin’ it there may be shaky, let alone back home.”
I thought of the car breaking down and us ending up here, and meeting Ashley, and my ticket to meet Kyra Kelley tucked safely in my pocket, and I hoped with everything in me that we’d make it to her, because now I knew we were supposed to.
“I bet it’ll be okay,” I said. “We’ll just have to go easy.”
Rusty didn’t seem convinced. “We’ll see.” He bent down and grabbed his half-full beer, then walked it over to the trash can in the carport. “We got at least a day to kill anyway,” he said, coming back. “We can drive my mom’s truck until then if there’s someplace you wanna go.”