Road Trip With The Best Man

She just had to stick to the plan. Get to the Hamptons, get her stuff back and find the closure she needed to move on. After that, this whole trip would just be a memory—like a half-remembered, crazy dream.

One more breath, and she felt the calm settling over her again. That was better.

Then she looked down at the puddle of lace and silk she was sitting in and cursed Justin one more time for good measure.

‘In that case, I’m really going to need to find some new clothes.’

* * *

‘It’s not too late to turn back, you know.’ Cooper could tell she was getting cold feet. She was British—what did she know about great American road trips? Or how long they took? For some reason, tourists always seemed to underestimate the size of this country. And he could totally use that to his advantage now. ‘I mean, we’re only an hour or so out. It would be no big thing at all to turn round, head back to that lovely mansion you picked and get back to your regularly scheduled life. You can tell your family you just needed to get some space, so you went for a drive. No one’s going to think anything’s odd about that, not after the day you’ve had.’

Cooper did his best to sound sympathetic, rather than gleeful. He might have always wanted to do a big coast-to-coast road trip, but this wasn’t exactly how he’d pictured it—even if the car was perfect. No, the best thing for everyone involved was for Dawn to give up now and go home.

‘In fact, we’re still going to be closer to the wedding venue than to the beach house for another....’ he glanced down at the dashboard ‘—one thousand, four hundred and seventy miles. I mean, we haven’t even crossed the bridge to Oakland yet. Perfect time to turn round.’

‘No.’ Just the one word, but Cooper could hear a world of stubbornness behind it.

‘You know, I could call Justin and ask him to courier your passport and stuff to you,’ he pointed out, entirely reasonably, in his opinion.

‘Still no.’

Damn. He must have laid it on a bit thick. He’d been so sure she’d been about ready to back down from this crazy stunt. What was she really hoping to achieve? To prove to Justin how much she truly loved him so he’d forget that, until she drove across the country, he knew she’d only wanted to marry him for his money? Did she really think that would work?

Cooper sighed. The worst part was, she might be right. After all, if he wasn’t afraid Justin might fall for the big romantic gesture, he wouldn’t be turning onto Interstate 80 at the San Francisco-to-Oakland bridge right now.

The problem was that Justin had always been the romantic one—even if he’d been the only one to see through Rachel the one time Cooper had let down his walls long enough to fall in love. Justin still believed in love and happy-ever-afters in a way that Cooper never had—and certainly hadn’t since he’d learned the hard way that the only thing other people wanted from him was his money and influence.

But Justin... Justin had always been easily swayed by a beautiful woman—just like their father. And Dawn was, Cooper could admit, objectively speaking a beautiful woman. With that dark hair and pale skin, not to mention those bright green eyes...

Of course, every woman looked beautiful on her wedding day. Which was no doubt the reason Dawn had decided to chase after Justin in her wedding dress and full make-up—to make maximum impact.

Cooper smiled to himself. At least he could be pretty certain that the dress and make-up would look rather less impressive in a week’s time, when they finally reached the Hamptons and Justin. And, since he was the one who knew where they were going, he’d have to do his best to make sure that any new clothes she did manage to get her hands on wouldn’t be half as alluring.

‘You know, I’ve always wanted to take a proper road trip too.’ Cooper glanced over and saw that Dawn had kicked off her shiny satin high heels and rested her feet against the dashboard. Her perfectly painted toenails peeked out from under the edge of her wedding dress, glossy red.

He looked away. ‘Have you really?’ As of five minutes ago, he’d bet.

‘Absolutely,’ Dawn said, nodding enthusiastically. ‘And really, there just isn’t enough of Britain to count as a proper road trip. You can drive the whole thing in a day or so. No, you have to come to the States for a real road trip experience like this.’

‘And what constitutes a “real road trip experience” in your mind?’ Cooper asked sceptically.

‘Uh, well...snacks, obviously. And music. You need a soundtrack.’ She looked dubiously at the ancient radio the Caddy boasted. Cooper suspected that if it picked up anything it would be radio waves beamed straight from the fifties, giving them a steady diet of Elvis and Buddy Holly. The car’s engine and working parts had all been updated enough that he trusted the Caddy to make the distance he needed, but the interior and aesthetics were most definitely of its time—radio included.

‘What else?’ he pressed.

‘Stopping to eat in diners—like, proper, authentic American ones, with pancakes and burgers and stuff.’

‘Are you hungry, by any chance?’ Cooper asked. ‘Because that’s the second food item on your essentials list so far. And you’ve only come up with three things.’

‘Kooky roadside attractions!’ Dawn shouted. ‘That’s what a road trip needs! I mean, that’s what I’ve always imagined for my dream road trip.’

That she’d clearly come up with five minutes ago as a way of convincing him she was going through with this. Right. ‘Roadside attractions,’ he repeated dubiously.

‘Yeah, you know—like the world’s biggest ball of twine. That sort of thing.’

‘The world’s largest ball of twine is in Kansas,’ Cooper replied automatically, and regretted it almost instantly. ‘We’re not going through Kansas.’

Dawn stared at him. He tried to pretend he hadn’t noticed. ‘How do you even know that?’

He shrugged. ‘I know things.’ Such as the world’s largest ball of twine made by one person was in Minnesota, which they also weren’t going through. But he wasn’t telling her that.

‘You like kooky roadside attractions too!’ Dawn declared. ‘Well, this is perfect, then. We can bond over them on our road trip.’

She sounded so pleased with herself for figuring out something about him that Cooper had to pour cold water on her optimism.

‘Not much point in bonding though, really, is there?’ he pointed out. ‘Not when you’ll be out of my life, and my brother’s life, the moment you get your passport back. Right?’

Because that was the deal here. He wasn’t helping her win Justin back. He was making sure she never even had the chance to try.

And, the sooner she accepted that, the better.

* * *

‘Right.’ Dawn dropped her feet from the dashboard and shoved them back into the stupid, uncomfortable wedding shoes her sister had insisted she buy.

For a moment there, she’d let herself get carried away with the trip. With the escape. Running away was so appealing right now...but she wasn’t. She was running towards something.

Justin.

Not to win him back, exactly, whatever Cooper thought. But to figure out the truth.

She had to remember what she was in this for: closure. Not kooky roadside attractions.

Well, maybe one or two. They did have to take breaks, after all.

Speaking of which...

‘Do you think we could stop somewhere soon?’ she asked. ‘Not to turn around or go back or anything. But you were right. I am hungry.’

Breakfast and mimosas had been hours and hours ago, and she hadn’t been able to stomach lunch, when the ceremony was supposed to start at two. All she’d had since Justin’s non-appearance was half a bottle of Prosecco, a couple of canapés and a breath mint—all courtesy of Ruby.

Cooper made an impatient noise in the back of his throat. ‘We can stop when we get to Sacramento.’

‘Sacramento?’ Dawn didn’t want to admit that she had no idea where that was but...she really had no idea where that was.

‘It’s only another hour or so from here,’ Cooper told her.

Dawn wondered if her stomach might start to eat itself before then.

‘So, you know this route pretty well, then?’ she asked, more to distract herself from her growling stomach than anything else.

‘It’s mostly one road,’ Cooper answered. ‘Just follow the I-80 to New Jersey, and from there I’m practically home.’

‘Right. You live in New York.’ Too far to consider flying over to meet his brother’s girlfriend in California, of course.

‘When I’m in the country.’ And too busy to bother anyway. Even if he worked for the same family company as Justin, somehow Cooper managed to make it more all-consuming.

What was it Justin had always said about his brother? ‘He doesn’t need love, he has work. It’s basically the same thing for him.’

How sad that must be. Sure, Dawn was all for job satisfaction—that was what had brought her out to the States in the first place. Her company had needed someone to take over the marketing of one of their products on this side of the Atlantic, and they wanted someone who understood the true Britishness of it, as well as how to sell it to the locals. With her American mother and very British father, Dawn had been perfectly positioned for the job.

But a job wasn’t a life. It was something to do in between the more meaningful parts—the parts of a life that involved other people. Relationships, family, friendships, love.

The part of her life that had used to be all about Justin until that afternoon.

Suddenly her job was looking a lot more appealing.

‘So, what is it you love so much about your job?’ she asked. Maybe she could learn something from Cooper. Such as how to forget all about the more painful aspects of her existence for a while.

‘You mean apart from the money?’ Cooper asked drily.

Dawn raised her eyebrows as she looked at him. ‘Given it’s your family business, I’m pretty sure you’d still have plenty of money even if you didn’t work yourself half to death.’ The Edwards family had made the rich list every year for the last hundred, after all.

‘Who says I work myself that hard?’

‘Your brother.’

A muscle jumped in his jaw at her statement, but he didn’t respond.

‘So I figure, if you’re working that hard it has to be for more that money. So is it love of the job? The challenge of it all? Or...?’ Another option occurred to her. One far more fitting to her own situation. ‘Or is it an escape?’

Because that would explain it. But what was he trying to escape from?

‘You know, it’s funny. My brother never told me all that much about you at all. Whirlwind romance, was it?’

Dawn looked away at his obvious attempt to turn the questioning round on her. ‘I wouldn’t say “whirlwind”.’

They’d been together over three months before Justin had proposed. That wasn’t whirlwind, was it?

‘And a short engagement too.’ He glanced away from the road to raise an eyebrow at her.

‘Well, my work secondment was almost over, and if I wanted to stay, well, we had to make some decisions quickly.’

‘I’m sure. Of course, I know my mother was scandalised at having to try and plan a whole wedding in so short a time.’

‘We were lucky her name opened a lot of doors when it came to finding a venue,’ Dawn admitted.

‘You mean her money.’

‘Both, probably.’ Of course, that had also meant that Mrs Edwards had had the first and final say on where they held the wedding, what it looked like and who they invited.

‘Hmm.’

Dawn frowned. ‘Is there something you’re not asking me? I mean, something you want to know?’ Because it felt very much like he was skirting around some accusation she couldn’t quite grasp. ‘Wait—did you think we had to get married? You know, for...old-fashioned reasons?’ The kind of reason that would have had her father on Justin’s doorstep demanding he marry his daughter now he’d ruined her.

‘You mean, did I think you were pregnant? No.’ Cooper’s words were blunt, unemotional, but the image they brought up stung Dawn’s heart all the same.

She’d imagined it, even if he hadn’t. Her life with Justin. A family of her own. All of it.

And now it was never, ever going to happen.

Turning in her seat, Dawn stared out of the window at the lights and landscape rushing past. San Francisco Bay stretched out under them as they crossed the road bridge back to the mainland, on the interstate at last. The road that would take them all the way across the country. All the way to Justin and closure.

‘You might as well try and sleep some more,’ Cooper said suddenly. ‘I’ll stop in Sacramento so we can eat. Then it’s your turn to drive.’

Her turn. Right.

‘You’re sure you don’t just want me to drop you off somewhere so you can fly home?’ she asked. ‘I promise I’ll look after the stupid car.’

But Cooper shook his head. ‘No. We’re in this together now.’

‘Why?’ Who in their right mind would want to take this trip with her?

‘I have my reasons.’ And obviously no interest in sharing them with her.

Dawn sighed and rested her head against the window again. If she needed to drive on the interstate, she really should try to sleep.

Besides, apparently she had plenty more days ahead of her to figure out exactly what Cooper was getting out of this crazy road trip.

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