It takes us about two and a half hours to go fifteen miles.
The car seat started the entire fiasco.
Everything was going fine. We even snuck Bailey into the store under the guise of a service dog, even though I'm pretty sure I'm going to hell for doing so. But co on. It isn't like we could just leave her in the truck, and the camper's hot without the air conditioning running.
Granted… they did make us buy a leash first, and Asher seed abnormally interested in how easy it is to pose as a service dog, but those aren't the type of details to derail our trip.
It all started when Asher finagled the oversized box into our cart and we made the mistake of thinking we were done. I very clearly recall saying, "Well, the hard part's over," because choosing one was a lot harder than I thought.
Seriously, why are there so many types of car seats?
But I digress.
Anyway—we thought we were done.
Hah.
Pip had other plans. Maddox calls it an "epic blowout", I call it "sensory trauma". (For —not her.) She thought the entire situation was hilarious. We unanimously disagreed.
Asher was forced to run back to the camper for the supplies necessary to deal with the situation.
Of course, things couldn't end there. Oh, no. That'd be too easy.
As soon as we made it to the long line of self-checkout stations, Finn had to pee, this ti declaring his entire brain was floating in it and he would burst like a bomb.
Well, guess what?
You get a lot of looks when you have a kid shouting about being a bomb. I'm half-convinced the cops were called.
Not to ntion, we just ca from the bathrooms. But it was fine. Lesson learned: never assu kids know if they need to use the restroom.
Evan, thankfully, took Finn and Maddox both while Asher and I checked out. Lily insisted she didn't need to go at all. (This turned out to be wrong.)
What happened next?
Ah, yes.
Installing a car seat isn't as easy as it sounds. We spent another thirty minutes in the heat trying to get it installed without being slightly tilted to the right, before Asher reluctantly agreed to try Evan's blue sedan.
It took us five minutes to install it in his backseat.
Five minutes.
After sweating for thirty, trying to fight the truck and wondering if we needed a different brand.
Then, five miles down the highway, when we thought we were free and clear, Lily was hungry. So hungry she beca what the boys call hangry, which involved a lot of snapping every ti soone called her na. Which Finn did. Repeatedly.
And then she desperately needed to pee, too.
So of course, we pulled over at the next giant truck stop for gas station pizza, snacks, and yet another potty break.
But the horror doesn't end there.
Pip had another epic blowout, all over Maddox this ti.
And then she threw up.
Everywhere.
But did we give up? No. Asher insisted everything was fine, even though up to that point it was an entire dumpster fire. Maybe two dumpster fires. Evan, the jerk, told , "So days are just like that."
Silly .
I believed him.
And now?
We're fifteen miles from where we started… and we have a flat tire.
By so insane miracle, the flat occurred near a section of wide shoulder Asher could pull onto, so at least the camper's not in any danger of being rear-ended. Still, the road isn't that far from us.
Maddox ended up joining Bailey and the children in Evan's sedan in order to keep them corralled.
Which brings us to now, where we are three adults staring at the offending truck tire that's beco our collective last fucking straw.
"Does Echo have triple-A?" Evan asks, finally breaking our moody stalemate.
Great question, but… "No idea."
Asher pinches the bridge of his nose with a long sigh. "Violet, let's get the camper settled for the day. We'll have to rest here."
"Here?" Several cars whiz by, as if to emphasize my question. "Really?"
"We don't have much choice. Evan, find a place who will get our truck back to us before the end of business today, then call a towing service to take it there."
"Yes, High Alpha." He's quick to turn on his heel and stride back to the car, briskly following orders without batting an eye.
Huh. Evan's surprisingly calm around Asher. I didn't even spend a second thinking about it, but he's adapted seamlessly into our strange little group. He's been staying in the background, sothing he's probably used to after a life spent following Xander around, and hasn't shown even a flicker of defiance.
I still can't really trust him, but at least I know he's capable of taking children to a public restroom, I guess. He hasn't done a single shady thing. Okay—unless you count the stalking. But aside from that, the sketchiest thing he's done is be without reproach.
He doesn't even glare at Asher when the latter isn't looking. He's been, as loathe as I am to admit it, well-behaved.
"Violet."
"Huh?" Blinking at the handso face suddenly taking over my field of vision, I backpedal about three steps. "What is it?"
Asher crosses his arms, his mouth turning down into a frown. "Why are you staring at him?"
"At who?"
"Him." His head jerks in the direction of Evan's sedan. It's impossible to miss who he's talking about, but he looks so surly, I can't help poking the wolf a little.
"You an Maddox?"
He gives a faint rumble of displeasure, and I laugh. "Sorry. I wasn't really staring at him. I was just thinking—he's really taking this situation well, isn't he? Doesn't bug us with questions. Doesn't complain."
His brow arches. "He is doing as he should."
Seriously, this man's denser than a brick. "Don't you think he should be angrier, after you killed so many of our pack? Maybe resentful you ca in here and bulldozed his plans?"
"No." Asher's upper lip lifts in a faint sneer as he looks in Evan's direction. "He values his life too much. And it isn't he's loyal to. It's you."
I shake my head. He's wrong, but I don't want to argue. Arguing ans explaining he isn't loyal to , but Xander. And I don't want to think about that bastard for a single second more than I need to.
"I'll get the kids," I mumble awkwardly, too grateful for an excuse to detach myself from this conversation. With us returning to Blue Mountain, I really don't need him overthinking the situation too much.
I'd like to think I've gotten to know Asher well enough now to understand he doesn't just go around slaughtering packs without reason, but… well, there's a little tiny part of convinced he might just decapitate Xander or Nora for looking at wrong once we get there…
Wait.
I gnaw on my lower lip, thinking hard.
"Violet? Aren't we getting the kids?"
"Yeah, but…" My decision's made. Rolling my shoulders back, I stand as tall as I can, which is miserably short next to the oversized Lycan in front of . "Actually, about Blue Mountain. I have a request… but you're not going to like it."
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