Winding up the road, E.D. realized he forgot his cigar. He reached over to the glove box and pulled out the box, struggling to do so with the wheel in his other hand. Sam recognized his attempt and helped him get it open. She pushed away his hand and when E.D. looked at him she nodded away from him and he withdrew. The cigars were fresh and still stuck together slightly, so Sam laid the box on her lap and carefully took one out. She put it in her mouth and bit off the end, much like E.D. had done on the past. 'What a woman' he thought, 'I'd never had expected that.' Through cigar filled lips, Sam just smiled and reached over motioning for a lighter. E.D knew where it was and passed it over to her, and proceeded to watch her light it up. The cigar lit up and puffed out smoke as she pulled on it a few times, finally passing it over to E.D. She smacked her lips and smiled watching E.D. place it in his own mouth and notice the sweet flavour from her lip gloss. He just smiled and looked over at her, relaxing back into his seat.
"So how does this work," she asked "we drive until that thing is gone?"
E.D. shook his head no, "not quite, I usually make a turn when I get half way"
"Ahh, I see. How about this time you drive until it's gone, then we'll turn."
E.D. wasn't opposed to the idea, it would put them further up north before they went exploring. He had always threatened to do just that, but never did. "We can do that, but I think I might need to stop for a beverage before that"
Sam just laughed. She winked at E.D. and turned in her seat toward the back. "Well, I don't see why we need to stop already." she said opening the cooler. Two beer in hand, the sweat off them running down her arm, she sat back into her seat and then opened one, placing it between E.D's legs. "There," she said "now we're good to go."
E.D. was amazed again. He always sucked on suds along the way, but with all the hype of drinking and driving in the news and such, he never did that when he had company, which is probably why he usually never took anyone with him. E.D. sat back in the seat and drove. Cigar in one hand, beer between his knees and a knockout in the truck beside him. There was a god after all.
The two drove another hour or so, before Sam turned down the stereo again. 'Here it is' E.D. thought, 'here's where we ruin it all by talking about Oprah or something.' He turned to Sam only to see she had removed her top. Certain that he would hit the ditch, he slowed down. "WOW" he uttered in amazement, "whatcha doing?"
"Just getting comfortable, hope you don't mind. I wore my bikini underneath in case we found somewhere to sunbathe. The sun is shining on me over here and I'm hot."
E.D. couldn't agree more. She was hot. She was more than hot and he couldn't believe that she had looked so different in the store before.
"No problem, no problem at all. There's a little spot just up here where the rivers meet up, maybe we can stop for a bit. My butt won't mind a break." he pointed up the road and looked over at Sam.
"That sounds great!" she replied seeming very eager at the idea.
After checking out Sam for what probably seemed like an inappropriate amount of time, E.D turned back toward the road, only to realize he had crossed lanes. He veered back into his lane and looked back at Sam in surprise. She was just sitting back relaxing, watching out the side window drumming her beer can with her fingers to the beat.
After another couple of minutes, the river was beside the road. Sam took notice and sat up in her seat looking for the spot E.D. had mentioned. The next turn revealed a tiny little trail that E.D. turned into. It wasn't a road. It looked like the animals had used it briefly as a path, nothing more. E.D. knew of this place, he had walked it before and knew it was nothing he couldn't handle. He also knew that the interest in someone following behind him would be nil. most people would think he was nuts for even attempting it. After a short while of the branches scratching down the paint, the path opened up into what appeared to be an old logging road. It was bumpy, but it wasn't long before they pulled up to a beautiful spot with a rock jetting out in to the river overlooking the junction of the two rivers.
"Here we are Sam." smiled E.D.
"Oh my," she sighed "it's beautiful here."
"Quiet too!" he added. Sam just smiled and opened her door as the truck stopped. E.D. had backed into a nice spot that allowed the tailgate to face the river.
"I always stop here for a short while, sometimes I don't go much further than here actually, especially if it gets hot and the beer starts tasting good."
"I can see why" replied Sam "I've never seen anywhere like this before.
Sam walked down to the shoreline as E.D. dropped the tailgate and pulled the beer cooler closer. He had his gear organized so that the softer bags were at the back and that was by design as he climbed his butt onto the tailgate and laid back onto them cracking open another beer. He watched as Sam waded into the crystal waters and looked around in amazement. E.D. just watched her and wondered if this could possibly get any better.