“Well why didn’t you just say so? It’s fine. I’m just happy to be here with you. I’m just along for the ride. It’s getting late. We should start looking for a place to stay the night and get some dinner.”
“Nonna, it’s only five.”
“Five? No wonder I’m starving over here.”
I bit back a groan. “Okay. We’ll stop for dinner, but then I’d like to get a few more hours up the road before we stop for the night.”
“Oh look, there’s a Cracker Barrel. I love Cracker Barrel. Let’s eat there.”
With a reluctant sigh I pulled off on the next exit.
Dinner was good. The service was great. The food was warm and filling. I stifled a yawn as Nonna shopped in the attached store for a lot of random things I was certain she didn’t need.
“I saw that. You’re tired. It could be dangerous for us to go any further tonight. You’ll feel much better if you get a good night’s sleep and then get up early to hit the road. I saw a lovely hotel just next door and besides, who knows when the next exit is going to come with an opportunity for a good hotel.”
I knew there was no point in arguing with her. Nonna had a stubborn streak a mile long.
After paying for all of her finds, I drove us across the parking lot to the hotel next door. I pulled up to the front door. Before I could say, “Stay here.” Nonna was out of the car and in the building.
I just shook my head and walked inside. I found the desk while she found the cookie and coffee table they had out for guests. She was helping herself before I even knew for sure they had a room for us.
“Hi, can I help you?”
“Do you have a room available for the night?”
“Absolutely. Is a king room okay?”
“Two queens please.”
“Certainly. How many are in your party?”
“Just two.”
Nonna stepped up beside me. “Oh, Caleb, isn’t she lovely?”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“Yes, Nonna, she is.”
“This is my grandson, Caleb. He’s single and available.”
My mouth dropped open and I turned to glare at her just in time to see her grin and wink at the receptionist before waltzing off for another cookie.
“I’m so sorry for that. She clearly doesn’t get out enough.”
The girl giggled. “It’s cute. Where are you headed?”
“Idaho.”
“Road tripping with granny. That’s so sweet,” she gushed.
That was my cue to get far away fast. I cleared my throat and she seemed to snap out of whatever Nonna’s trance she’d been put in.
“Right, well, you’re in 412. The elevator is around the corner. Breakfast is served daily starting at seven. If there’s absolutely anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to call.” She leaned forward and I was certain she squeezed her breasts with her arms to draw attention to them. “I’m here all night.”
There was definitely some heavy sexual tension in the air, and that was the absolute last thing I needed right then. “Thanks,” I said. I gave her what I hoped was just a friendly smile and left to retrieve our bags.
Nonna was nowhere in sight. I didn’t think she could get into too much trouble in the lobby of a hotel, so I walked back out, moved the car to a parking spot and started pulling out our luggage, or rather Nonna’s. While I had one gym bag for the week, Nonna had five overflowing suitcases. I had no way of knowing what she actually needed. I knew that no matter which one I chose she would inevitably need something from one of the others, so I just grabbed them all.
I had three out when she ran out of the hotel and yelled across the parking lot. “Caleb, come quick. It’s an emergency!”
My body tightened on full alert. I threw the bags back into the trunk and slammed the door down as I turned and ran back to her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What? Nothing.”
“You said it was an emergency.”
“Oh, yes, come quick.”
She dragged me back into the hotel and over to a tall man with snow white hair sitting in the lobby. He was wearing a suit. His briefcase was propped up against his chair on the floor next to him and his computer was sitting on the table in front of him.
“Caleb, this is Walter Johnston. He’s recently widowed and lives in Sacramento. He’s in town on business.”
“Uh, okay. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Walter this is my grandson Caleb I was telling you about. He’s a computer genius. He’ll have you fixed right up.”
“Come again?” I asked.
“Walter is having trouble getting his computer to connect to the Wi-Fi. I assured him you know everything about computers and would have it working in no time.”
“Right. Okay. And that’s the emergency?”
“Of course. Didn’t I mention he’s here on business?”
I groaned, but sat down next to the man, feeling trapped and unable to do anything else, knowing Nonna wouldn’t stop until she was satisfied, I’d do the job and help the man.
“So, what’s going on?” I asked him.
“I’m not sure. It’s a new laptop and I can’t get my email to come up.”
I checked his settings. Everything looked fine.
“Have you been sending and receiving email since you got the laptop?”
“Yes. This is the first time I’ve had any problems.”
I ran a few more settings checks and everything looked fine. I went to run a ping trace and suddenly noticed he was connected to the hotel Wi-Fi, but he wasn’t getting any service. No one else was complaining about it so I had to reason it was just his laptop being affected.
I disconnected the network and then reconnected to the Wi-Fi. The internet popped up with the sign in screen.
“Mr. Johnston, is the room under your name? You need to put in that info and your room number again.”
“Again? I never saw this before.”
I held back my groan of irritation. “Well, sir, looks like that was your problem then. You should be good as new now.”
Before Nonna could drag me into something else, I walked back out to the car and retrieved our bags.
She met me in the lobby smiling proudly.
“Thank you for helping poor Walter. I told him you were a genius. You showed him. I just love watching you work.”
I scoffed. “That wasn’t me working, Nonna.”
The rest of the night passed by uneventfully and I was grateful for it. Nonna was a pistol, and I was already starting to rethink my decision to bring her. We had only managed about four hours of the drive on day one. I needed to find a way to distract her and just get up the road. We couldn’t afford all these diversions or stopping before sunset for the night. I appeased her one day, but I couldn’t let that happen again.
“You’re very quiet this morning. Did you not sleep well?” she asked me at breakfast.
I had wanted to just grab something off of the continental buffet the hotel provided, but she’d insisted on breakfast at Cracker Barrel.
“I’m fine,” I said. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her feelings.
“No, that’s a lie. What’s wrong?”