Page 21 of Misadventures And Ms. Demeanor

"George," Goldie replied, eyeing the cat.

JT just shook his head and stared at George the Gnome. "How hard can it be to babysit a garden gnome?"

The RV lurched from hitting a pothole and George teetered on the table. I grabbed it before it could plummet onto the linoleum floor. I exhaled, relieved it hadn't broken. "Yeah, how hard can it be?"

Over the next hour, turkey sandwiches were made by Goldie while Velma drove on a state road back toward interstate ninety, meeting up with it southeast of Billings to get us back on track toward Sturgis, and ultimately Omaha. Esther was the drinks lady, mixing fruity cocktails for all of us—except Velma—to go with our meal. Without a place to sleep, the cat had gone off into the back bedroom and hadn't been seen since.

"If you aren't going to eat your fruit, you might as well drink it. It's important to have a healthy diet." Esther returned to her recliner, her drink in the little built in cup holder, paper plate in her lap. Goldie sat with me at the little dinette and JT across from us.

"How long is your vacation?" Goldie asked JT.

"Ten days." He chomped on a chip.

"That's a nice bike you have," Goldie added, clearly trying for small talk.

JT just glared at me, remembering I was the one who had broken it. I glared at Goldie, not thankful she'd reminded JTwhyhe was riding with us. I took a big gulp of my drink. My eyes watered. Wow, it was strong and had plenty of vitamin C.

"I like it," JT finally said. "I guess I have to thank you for arranging with Bob to have it fixed."

Goldie just shrugged. She'd put on a hot pink hoodie over her t-shirt. "It's the least we could do. Right, Daphne?"

"Right," I agreed quickly. "What kinds of things do you do at the Rally?"

"More likewho," murmured Goldie.

"What?" I asked, confused. We hit another pothole and I bounced up in my seat.

Goldie shook her head as she sipped her own drink. "What's in this, pineapple?" she called to Esther.

"Secret ingredient. Not telling," Esther replied. I really didn't care what she put in it. It was tasty and if it could numb my senses, it would be all the better.

"I've never been before, but friends of mine are already there and invited me to catch up." JT took a healthy gulp of his drink. "My days off were short notice."

"Oh?" Goldie asked. "You mean your trip wasn't planned?"

I swear JT blushed, but couldn't tell for sure. It was starting to get dark and the RV's lights weren't overly bright. Things were starting to get a little blurry around the edges from the drink.

"I got the time off because of that call out on Baxter Road," JT murmured.

"You were on that call?" Velma asked from the driver's seat. She might have had her eyes on the road, but her ears were on the conversation.

JT nodded, his mouth a thin line. "It was pretty bad. All of us who responded were given some leave."

I looked at Goldie. She wasn't smiling. "What call?" I asked.

"Some drunk driver on the wrong side of the road. You should tell it, JT, not me." Goldie took a bite of her sandwich, letting JT take his time to respond.

"A family was killed. It wasn't pretty. End of story."

My sandwich felt like lead in my stomach. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"Now you're going to go to Sturgis for a little fun," Goldie said, her voice filled once again with verve. She even waggled her eyebrows.

I darted a glance at JT.

He grinned. "We'll see." He turned those dark eyes on me, looked at me in a way that had my toes curling in my sneakers. "We'll see," he repeated. "What about you, Daphne?"

I pointed a chip at myself. "Me?"