Read Online One to Tell the Grandkids by Kristina M Sanchez - Free Book Online Page B

eyes darted from his and away, that shyness from before coming back. “I’m really glad you were here.”
    He squeezed her hand before he let her go. “Anytime.”
    But his heart beat a hollow rhythm in his chest, remembering another woman’s big brown eyes, sincere at the time, as she’d said those exact same words.
     

 
     
    Chapter Eight
     
     
    A fter her appointment, Caleb insisted on taking Taryn out to lunch. There he discovered one of her darker secrets. She hated driving.
    “But this is Southern California.”
    Taryn stared at Caleb with a patient but amused expression. “I’m drinking a delicious milkshake. Are we playing the state-the-obvious game?”
    Caleb closed his mouth and shook his head. “I just mean it’s practically impossible to get anywhere without a car.”
    “I have a car.” She grimaced. “Technically. Maybe. We’ll see what Slate and his people have to say about it.”
    “But you hate driving.” Caleb repeated her words from just a minute before, trying to get them to sink in. How could anyone hate driving?
    “I do what I have to do, but why does that mean I have to like it?” She shrugged. “My coworkers always make fun of me. I’ve been known to offer to pay for lunch just so I don’t have to drive five minutes down the road.”
    “So you walked to the doctor’s. Meanwhile, I’m so lazy, I was known to drive a block and a half to rent a DVD before movie streaming was a thing. I don’t get it.”
    “What’s not to get?”
    “The day after I turned fifteen, I dragged my dad out so I could get a learner’s permit. I love my car. I have my prerequisite two or three speeding tickets on record.”
    “Ah, see, I must have missed that very expensive prerequisite of being a Southern Californian.”
    Her smug expression amused him. Before he could tease her about being so proud over such an achievement, she took another sip of her milkshake. The movement distracted him. She hollowed out her cheeks when she drank, he noted. It was cute. His eyes were drawn to the purse of her lips around the straw. When she pulled back, the tip of her tongue darted out, licking the remains of her shake.
    “I guess I just don’t like how much concentration it takes,” she said.
    Caleb blinked, confused for a brief second until he remembered they’d been in the middle of a conversation. He sat back and dragged a fry through a pond of ketchup. “It’s not rocket science.”
    “I didn’t say it was difficult—I said it took concentration. Cars weigh what? Two tons? Three? And you know as well as I do all it takes to cause an accident is a split second of lapsed concentration. Less than a second. Not only do you want to put me in charge of this killing machine, but you expect everyone else to pay attention at the same time?” She nodded across the restaurant. Caleb followed her gaze to where a mother and father sat staring at their phones while their child poured sugar packets into a spinning top, spun it, and giggled crazily as the sugar went everywhere. “These are the people you’re trusting to concentrate on the hundreds of other people on the road as well as what they’re doing.”
    Caleb and Taryn shared a quiet laugh. “I guess if you think about it that way,” he said.
    She folded her hands on the table and leaned in. “Then here’s the other thing I don’t understand. You love driving, but how often do we actually get to drive? Nine times out of ten we’re going to be in traffic. How is that fun?”
    “You have a point. But it gives you time to do things you wouldn’t otherwise.”
    “Like what?”
    “I used to listen to books on tape when I drove to LA. Before you, I mean.”
    “On the other hand, you could actually read the book in the amount of time you spend in traffic.”
    “Ah, you assume I’m literate.”
    Her giggle made Caleb grin. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re going to be able to get your reading in again, then. Slate is insistent on me