Hayden balled up her napkin and tossed it into her empty to-go box. She’d toyed with the last several bites of potatoes for so long, Austin had wondered if she planned to eat them. Maybe she had been hoping—as he had been—that if she never did, she wouldn’t have to leave.

Then again, she could have been simply waiting for him to finish telling her how his mom, his father, and his dad had gotten together and made their three-way partnership work.

“That’s remarkable. That they were able to overcome so much then stay together all this time despite the odds.” She slumped in the passenger seat. “I thought I could do that, too. With Bobby Joe, I mean. Turns out I was wrong. I couldn’t keep us together.”

“Congratulations on failing. It’s not a bad thing if he treated you like that.” Austin reached out slowly and brushed his fingers over the bruises peeking from beneath her tattered sleeve.

She groaned, more from embarrassment than physical discomfort, he assumed. “I know it’s no excuse, but he never did this before. Got so rough with me, I mean. And I’m pretty sure he was too drunk to know he’d done most of it.”

Austin gritted his teeth and silently counted to three to keep from pointing out that someone didn’t accidentally punch another person in the face and give them a black eye. “Whatever. I can already tell you weren’t the problem.”

“I was planning to leave him. I just didn’t get out in time.” She lifted her gaze to his then, her stare blasting him with the grit he found so damn attractive in her. “He won’t ever have the chance to do that to me again.”

He believed her. Especially because now he had a name. He knew who the guy was and where he lived, or pretty close to it. Austin planned to ask Uncle Sawyer, Compton Pass’s sheriff, to look into the matter. None of the Compass men tolerated brutality.

So he simply nodded and hummed a vague agreement.

“Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to juggle three sets of priorities and challenges. Two was hard enough.”

“I’ve learned a lot from them about how to make a relationship work.” Austin barked out a humorless laugh at his own pathetic track record. “Or at least I think I have. I guess I’d have to have an actual girlfriend to test that theory. It’d be hard not to get a few things right, at least, with so many great role models around.”

“Your parents? And Jake, right?” She didn’t react to his declaration of his single status.

“Them too.” Austin nodded and tried not to smirk as he baited her a bit. “Plus my aunts and uncles and my older sister—who also has two husbands, by the way—and the trio of girl cousins I mentioned yesterday.”

Hayden smiled wryly. “Too bad you don’t have time to tell me about all of them, too.”

Perfect. Austin wished for the same thing. More time to spend showing her that not everyone was like the people she’d known before. How had she been raised to make lasting love and companionship seem so alien to her?

He couldn’t imagine doubting it was possible even if he hadn’t been lucky enough to find his own counterpart…yet. Something in him had always felt he would someday. After all, nearly everyone else he knew had.

What if he didn’t? He wasn’t getting any younger out here on the road, where it was nearly impossible to find a woman for more than a single night of fun. Well, shit. The instant he hesitated, thinking about it, was all it took to break the spell he’d been trying to cast over Hayden.

Son of a bitch! He needed a little while longer with her.

“Thanks again. For everything.” She placed her garbage in the plastic bag he had tied to the cabinet handle. “I guess I need to let you go. I’m sure if it wasn’t for me holding you up, you would have been on the road an hour or two ago.”

Like he had been the day before. She didn’t say it. Didn’t have to remind him of the harrowing ride he’d unintentionally given her.

She stood and shuffled toward the door before unwrapping his quilt from around her slender torso. He’d liked the way the colorful fabric had looked hugging her.

“Wait.” He couldn’t watch her limp away, chin up, without at least trying something. “Would you accept a lift somewhere? You know, the traditional kind. Stay a while in here? With me? I’ll tell you about my dad’s three brothers and how everyone in town thinks it’s hysterical they each had a firstborn daughter to torture them. Especially once they started dating.”

Hayden paused. Still, she eyed the trailer like it might be preferable to nearly freeze to death rather than sit next to him. It could have been that she was worried that there was no way out other than bailing onto the shoulder of the highway from a truck traveling at high speeds. He tried not to take it personally.

Austin didn’t hound her, sure that if he did, she would vanish.

“You’re not making this up, are you?” she asked.

“Don’t believe me? Come see for yourself.”

She rolled her eyes as if he hadn’t extended a legitimate invitation. Despite the urge to correct her, he let the suggestion hang in the air between them. Waiting for her answer was tough for someone used to taking the lead and getting his way. Compton men usually did. Especially with women.

Austin drew on his lessons in patience from Jake, certain they’d never been as important as they were right then. Eventually, she nodded. Compared to his bigger offer of visiting his ranch, a ride didn’t seem like so much, he supposed. Hayden asked, “Where are you headed? Another state or two farther away couldn’t hurt.”

“Compass Ranch is in Compton Pass, Wyoming.” He jerked his jaw west. “About six hundred more miles that way.”

“Sounds as good a direction as any.” Hayden plopped into the seat and buckled her belt. “Let’s go. I’ve never been a navigator before.”

“Fortunately, it’s a job you can do without pants.” He took a chance teasing her just a bit.

Thankfully, she snorted.

Austin started the truck’s engine, loving the roar it issued as it came to life. Then he pulled onto the highway as he said, “I’d lend you my sweats but they’d probably look more ridiculous than that skirt you rigged out of my Grandma Vicky’s quilt.”

“Oh God. She hand-made this for you? Don’t tell her. She’ll be so pissed.” Hayden began to shimmy out of the material.

“Hey, don’t.” Austin swallowed hard. “She passed away when I was fourteen. I highly doubt she’ll wake from the dead to scold us about it. Besides, she was one of the most caring people and generous women ever. She’d be happy you wrapped yourself up in it.”

He’d never been jealous of a damn blanket before. Putting his arms around her, sheltering her, and giving her a sense of security would have been even sweeter than the pie they’d shared the night before.

“But it’s a family heirloom.” She ran her fingers over the seams of an intricate block, admiring it anew.

“Trust me, Vivi would had loved knowing it gave you comfort—and covered your bare ass when you didn’t even have clothes.” He didn’t have to lie about that.

“I’m sorry about your grandmother.” Hayden sighed. “She sounds lovely.”

“She was. And don’t be. She lived a long, full life. Loved completely. Her husband, her children, her family, and her friends. If I manage all that before I croak, I’ll consider myself lucky.”

“I never knew any of my grandparents.”

“Sucks. My grandfather died before I was born. People talk about JD so much, though, I feel like I know him pretty well.”

“Must be nice.” Her tone held no hints of sarcasm either. “My father raised me. My mom left him shortly after I was born. Not really into the whole parent lifestyle, I guess. He was so bitter about it, he kept me away from her side of the family. His own parents had disconnected from him because they didn’t approve of my mom in the first place. The only times he reached out to them when I was a child, I remember there being a lot of we-told-you-so and shouting. Needless to say, we didn’t stick around for that.”

“Why didn’t he get you out of the situation with your ex?” Austin tried not to judge a man he’d never met. It was tough.

“We don’t speak.” Hayden cleared her throat. “My fault, mostly. I’m stubborn. Definitely his daughter. He remarried when I was a senior in high school. Moved out of state with his new wife. I refused to leave Bobby Joe. Told my dad he was jaded when he insisted young love couldn’t last and that Bobby Joe wasn’t the guy I thought he was.”

She buried her face in her hands then.

“Hey, just because it didn’t work out doesn’t mean it couldn’t have.” Austin felt it necessary to defend her. “Seems to me like a grown man shouldn’t be so immature when it comes to his only child. I’ve fucked up plenty of times. My parents are always there to help me get my shit back together when I do. It’s sort of their job, isn’t it?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea what Dad thinks about the situation. He never contacted me again after our humungous fight, when he drove off to his new life. It surprised me, to be honest. That he held a grudge so long considering his parents had essentially done the same thing to him. I tried to reach out about six months after that. His cell number had changed and my email to him bounced. It pissed me off, and crushed me. So I didn’t try again. But I don’t have a lot of options now. Whenever I get to where I’m going, I’ll have to look him up. Hopefully he’ll be happy to see me after all this time.”

“I’m sure he will be, Hayden.” Austin lifted his hand from the gear shift and held it out, palm up, in her direction. He wasn’t sure she would take it. “Blood is thicker than water, right?”

When she entwined her fingers with his, something inside him relaxed for the first time since she’d agreed to come along after breakfast. She said, “Did you know that quote doesn’t mean what most people think it means?”

“Um, no. I’m not very smart. Dropped out of college.” After he’d broken the news to his parents—who had seemed completely unsurprised by his decision—he’d never really been ashamed of it either. He worked his ass off and made a meaningful contribution to his family. That was good enough for him.

“Really?” She squinted at him, then shrugged. “Well, I never went to college at all. But yeah, some people believe the original saying was, ‘The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.’ Meaning people you fight alongside become closer than relatives.”

“How do you know that?” he wondered. To him it made better sense. Sure, he had a fierce bond with the rest of the Compton clan, but that included people like Jake and his aunts, who’d become integral members of their family despite being born outside of it.

“I like to read, and the library is free. Can’t say that about most other entertainment.”

“Well, hopefully your dad isn’t a bookworm.”

One corner of her lips kicked up, making his grip on the wheel tighten. With his other hand, he brushed his thumb across her knuckles. Damn, she was pretty, even when broken.

“Unfortunately, I inherited that from him, too.” She sighed.

On that somber note, their conversation trailed off.

Austin paid careful attention to the road. That didn’t keep him from noticing in his peripheral vision that Hayden observed him instead of the scenery flying past mile after mile. It shocked him since studying the earth, watching it roll beneath his tires, and finding his place in it had been one of his favorite pastimes for years now. He felt grounded, part of the dirt. Being out here, surrounded by it, always soothed him.

Could he do that for her? He hoped so.

Their silence didn’t last forever. He eventually needed to reclaim his hand to shift and steer. When he did, she started peppering him with questions about the ranch and his family. They talked and laughed for hours. It was easy to share things with her, both the good and the bad. The sentimental stuff along with the wacky antics of his relatives. Hell, she knew better than most that the road winding through life climbed over mountains and plunged into valleys.

Who knew what was around the next turn?

Eventually, he approached a trucker’s outpost on the most barren stretch of their route. It consisted of a gas station, a few shitty fast food joints, and a mega-mart isolated from civilization for hundreds of miles in every direction.

Ideal for what he had in mind.

He put on his blinker then downshifted as he took the next exit.

“Do you need gas?” Hayden tried to peek at his gauges as he eased the semi into the outer lot of the big-box store. She fidgeted as she glanced out the window at a whole lot of nothing.

“Yeah.” But not as much as he needed to take the next step in his plan. “And I have to grab a couple of things from here.”

Austin parked, then stretched. Hayden kept craning her neck without luck. He could have told her there wasn’t much around. Which was exactly why he’d picked the place. She didn’t have a lot of options there.

“I guess this is my stop then.” She pasted on a brave smile anyway.

“You’ve hung out with me all morning, why not stay a while longer? I’ll run in and grab you some clothes so at least when we make it to someplace less remote you can be on your way. You’ll blend in better, be able to ask around for work, and won’t freeze your ass off in the meantime.”

Her mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again.

Still no argument came forth. Hayden nodded.

“Smart choice.” He sealed the deal with one parting shot as he hopped out of the cab. It wasn’t a line. It was one-hundred percent truth. “Besides, it’s nice to have someone along for the ride. The road gets lonely sometimes.”

Even Austin wasn’t sure if he meant the highway, or his path through life. He’d have plenty to talk about with his cousins next time they got together, in person or virtually.

Hayden visibly relaxed, melting into her seat.

“I’ll be right back,” he promised, then set off at a jog.

If she vanished before he returned, he didn’t know what he would do.