Melissa saw the implication he should go back to his family’s cabin settle on Beck like a jail sentence. She had imagined this moment as satisfying and triumphant, but instead it felt miserly and cruel. After a long pause, he gave her a thumbs-up and went back to his call.
Daphne stepped on the gas and cranked the radio, tuned to a crackly local Top Forty station. Melissa stared out her window as they whipped past trees and fields, grateful for Daphne, who sang scraps of songs, kept the energy in the truck buoyant and left her alone with her thoughts. Once in Lanark, Daphne slowed the truck to an urban chug and palmed the steering wheel, whistling. Wrenching into reverse, she backed into their spot at the weekly farmers’ market, a ten-foot-wide slot of public real estate.
They had thei
