Philautia || Amour Éternel Series BOOK ONE ||

Fourteen - Callie

May 2015

They had decided on only riding the Pacific Coast Highway through California. It was easier and faster. Shannon rented a truck and trailer and hauled their bikes up to Crescent City, way up near the California-Oregon border. Callie chose to fly up to meet him. It had not been the best choice she had made in her life. There were no direct flights to Del Norte County Regional Airport, so she ended up having to connect through San Francisco. It wouldn't have been an issue if she hadn't been forced to sit next to the most annoying passenger in the history of aviation on the small plane going to Crescent City.

When the plane finally landed, Callie nearly knocked an old lady down in her attempt to get out as quickly as possible. She got three texts from Shannon as soon as she turned her phone on. And since Uber hadn't made it up to Crescent City en masse yet, she was left taking a taxi to the hotel he was staying at. He met her in the parking lot.

"Please don't tell me you checked out yet," she whined as the driver left.

"Why?"

"I need a shower like nobody's business. I have airplane on me," she complained.

He chuckled and put a friendly arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. The smell of cigarettes filled her nose and she wrinkled it.

"Are you still smoking?" she asked as he guided her toward a door. "That shit'll kill you. I thought you said you were quitting in Greece."

Shannon shrugged. "I am. I'm down a couple since then. Its a long process." He unlocked a door at the end of a long hallway and held it open for her. "Get cleaned up. I need to return the trailer to U-Haul by three."

"Relax. Its only ten. It'll take me like ten minutes, if that," she assured him as she disappeared into the small bathroom.

The water was on the colder side, but it did the job. As promised, Callie was finished in under ten minutes, emerging fully clothed just as Shannon finished packing his bag. Since they were both riding their bikes the whole way, all of their things had to fit into the packs on their backs. His was slightly less beat up than hers, but it still looked like it had seen better days.

"Touring," he explained when he caught her gaze. "In the early days, we had to travel light. This thing has probably traveled the world a few times." He looked at her bag. "What the hell happened to yours? It looks like its been in the wars."

Callie's bag was actually her dad's old army rucksack. It had been patched multiple times and had his name spray painted in black along one side. The top was frayed and the straps had been taped several times.

"It probably has," Callie answered. "It was my dad's. Got everything?" she asked, putting some clothes into her own bag.

Shannon looked around the room. "I guess so. I wasn't here that long." He followed her out of the room, letting the door click shut behind him. "So I figure, we'll drive to the U-Haul place and leave from there. We should reach Inglenook in about four-and-a-half fours."

They checked out of the hotel and headed for the rental truck. It was more utilitarian than fashionable and Callie was surprised Shannon would have chosen it to drive for such a long trip up. He wasn't exactly a man who struck her as choosing the cheaper things in life.

"Were they all out of Escalades or something?" she joked, rolling down the passenger window with the manual crank.

Shannon laughed. "No. But this is much less conspicuous, isn't it?" he said, getting into the drivers side. "This way, people are less likely to pay it any attention. Means our bikes are safer."