Should she ask Nick to open his phone so she could read all the messages from Seb? No. Definitely not. She was tired of being pathetic, and even though she didn’t know what she wanted, she knew exactly what she didn’t want. She didn’t want to wait around anymore for someone who valued her company so little that he would employ someone else to keep her occupied. She felt like a puppy in need of a dogwalker or a child requiring a nanny.
“This is Mario,” Nick said, motioning to the mammoth man sitting behind the wheel. “He’s going to give us a ride into town.”
Mario wore a straw cap and a polo shirt with gray chest hair poking through the buttonholes. His skin had weathered to a wrinkly rawhide, tanned to the middle of his biceps but paler beneath the sleeves of his shirt.
Nick held the truck door open for Adrienne. “I’ll sit in the back.”
But the back was full of chickens—dozens of them. They clicked their beaks against the wire cages and clucked and shook their downy feathers at Nick.
“Where?” she asked. “You need a beak to sit back there.”
“There’s plenty of room up here,” Mario called out, smiling at Adrienne.
Nick and Adrienne looked at each other. It’d be a squeeze. She’d have to wedge between Nick and Mario. Nick would never fit in the middle, not with the gear stick.
Adrienne climbed into the cab. It smelled of mud and grease. Nick clambered in beside her, put his guitar case between his legs and rested his arm across the back of the bench seat. To keep from touching Mario, Adrienne pressed herself against Nick’s side. He felt warm and solid against her goosepimply skin. By necessity his thigh ran alongside hers.
“Are you selling your chickens?” Adrienne asked, attempting small talk.
“Yep,” Mario said, looking her squarely in the eye. “Tomorrow being the Lord’s day, I do all my trading on Saturdays.” His big beefy hand rested on the gear stick inches from her knee.
“Are you a commercial chicken farmer?” she asked.
“No.” Mario shifted from second to third gear and his hand grazed Adrienne’s thigh. She scooted closer to Nick. “I just raise a few chickens on the side and trade my leftovers to the Gallo Pasada over in Puerto Natales. He looked from Adrienne’s legs to Nick’s face. “You two married?”
Neither replied for a moment. Finally Nick said, “No.”
Mario chuckled and shifted into fifth. Adrienne crossed her legs, trying to avoid contact with him and the gear stick.
“Bet you will be soon,” he said.
What is that supposed to mean? “Nick is my husband’s cousin and best friend,” Adrienne put in.
Mario’s grin didn’t fade. He shot a quick glance at Nick’s thigh pressing against Adrienne’s. “Not for long, I’m guessing.”
Was Mario a Dr. Phil in overalls? He knew nothing about either of them. Adrienne tried to pull away from Nick, but that brought her knee closer to Mario’s hand resting on the gear stick.
“So how is it you’re traveling together?”
You don’t have to answer him, Adrienne mentally told Nick. We need a ride, not a counseling session.
“This is a business trip,” Nick said. “Of sorts.”
Mario snorted and threw Adrienne a quick glance. “Some hanky-panky business.”
Adrienne stiffened. Again, what is that supposed to mean? She’d just been insulted. She didn’t speak until they pulled up at a stop signal next to a tavern called El Toro Enojado.
“Thanks, Mario. We’ll get out here,” Nick said, opening the door and pulling Adrienne out with him. He slammed the door as Mario got out to unhook the rental car from the tow line.
“Wait, why here?” she asked Nick’s retreating back. He was already climbing onto the porch of the tavern.
“I didn’t like Mario,” he said over his shoulder. He stopped beside the tavern door. “Did you? Were you comfortable with him pressing against your thigh every time he shifted gears?” He waited a beat. “I didn’t think so. We’ll get roadside service. But first, I need a human moment.”
While Nick went inside to use the restroom, Adrienne settled onto a wooden bench on the porch. Wondering if she might finally have reception, she fished her phone out of her bag.
Her pulse quickened when she read a text from Aubrey that said,Call me now.
