He wallowed in his thoughts until the atmosphere in the car mellowed, and soon he and Libby were chatting easily, as if nothing had happened. As if he’d never mentioned Seattle.
Libby was looking down at the radio, trying to find a station in the middle of nowhere, when Noah spotted a billboard advertising the place he was taking her.
“Could you check my phone?” he asked. It had been charging for over an hour, and while he’d felt it vibrate on the seat next to him, he hadn’t bothered to check it. He was sure it was full of texts and voice mails from his brother, admonishing him for his irresponsible behavior. And while he didn’t exactly care to deal with that right now, if Libby was busy reading over the list, she wouldn’t look up and see the sign.
“Okay.” She left the radio on a Latino station and checked the phone. “A text from Donna, three from Josh, two from Megan and one from Blair. Ten missed calls. Five voice messages. Oh, and a Facebook notification that Tiffany Brown has accepted your friend request.” She glanced up at him. “I didn’t think you used Facebook.” She sounded irritated.
“I don’t.”
“Yet you friend requested her.” Her mouth pursed. “You haven’t even friend requested me.”
“Because I’m never on there, Lib. You know that. It’s a work thing.”
“On Facebook?” She sounded skeptical.
“It doesn’t matter now anyway. I don’t need it anymore,” he said, not wanting to share the whole sorry story of how he’d lost the account and promptly quit. “This is our exit.” He turned off, thankful he had an excuse to dodge the conversation.
She looked around. “Where are we?”
“Wilson, Kansas.”
“Why are we here?”
“It’s your first surprise.” He was suddenly nervous. This had seemed like such a good idea last night. Now it seemed incredibly stupid and lame. “Close your eyes.”
“What?”
“Just do it.”
She covered her eyes with her hands.
He glanced over at her. “No peeking.”
She grinned. “You’re not planning to slow down and dump me on the side of the road, are you? I’ll pretend I prefer Iron Man to Thor if it means that much to you.”
He laughed. “I already told you, I can’t go back to Kansas City without you. It would be a death sentence.”
“What you fail to mention is that you don’t have to go back to Kansas City at all.”
Her words sobered him. She was right. His only excuse for his frequent trips to K.C. was the work he’d been doing on the merger of his and Josh’s firm with Megan’s father’s firm. If he didn’t work there anymore, he would have no reason to come. No reason to see her.
Libby continued grinning, unaware of his emotional turmoil, and he planned to keep it that way. “I promise you won’t come to any harm on this stop. No guarantee for the next one.” He found what he was looking for and flipped on his turn signal. “We’re almost there. No peeking.”
“Hurry!” she said, squirming in her seat.
He parked the car and turned off the engine, his stomach twisting with anxiety as he looked at the object he’d just driven nearly one hundred miles to show her. It was ridiculous. She was going to think he was crazy. “Okay, open your eyes.”
She dropped her hands, and a moment later, her mouth dropped open too. Then she climbed out of the car.
He followed her, watching her closely as she tucked her hands under her armpits to keep warm. She stared at the giant black object that towered over them. “What is that?”
He swallowed. “It’s the World’s Largest Czechoslovakian Egg.”
“The what?”
Oh, God. She hated it.
“It’s a twenty-foot-tall and fifteen-foot-wide fiberglass egg,” he explained. “The town has a large Czechoslovakian community, but it was dying off. So they built the egg to bring in tourists. A guy somewhere in Kansas made it for cost and the whole town came together to paint it.” He pointed to the black egg with the white and yellow pattern adorning its sides. “They decorated it by hand.”
She stood in silence. Horror stole his breath when he realized there were tears in her eyes. “You hate it.”
She shook her head as the first tear slid down her cheek. Then she turned to him and threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest.
“Talk to me, Libby. Why are you crying?” He’d wanted to make her happy, but apparently this was just one more thing he’d failed at.
“I love it,” she mumbled, still clinging to him.
“You’re crying because you love it?”
She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “This is the most perfect gift anyone has ever given me.” Her arms still firmly wrapped around his neck, she said, “How did you find this place? What made you even think to look for it?”
An older couple walked toward them from the parking lot. They gave Noah and Libby a confused look.
“She’s so overcome by the symbolism of this piece,” he said over the top of her head in mock seriousness. “It’s moved her to tears.”
The elderly man’s eyes narrowed as he looked up at the giant egg, then back at Libby.
Noah shrugged with a who can explain it expression.
Libby broke free and wiped her eyes.
“I told you. It’s Libby Day,” he said. “So I looked for things that I thought would make you happy.”