CHAPTER 1
After selling his 183-acre horse farm in Fayette County, Kentucky five months after his wife's untimely death, Pete Kurtz headed west on his so-called 'follow the sun' adventure in his small RV to see something of America, something he'd always promises he'd do one day.
It was raining heavily. So it appeared it was a 'follow the rain' adventure. Well what's in a name anyway. When his father had disappeared forever with the mail delivery woman his mom had changed their family name of Kuznetsov to Kurtz and he became Peter but his pals called him Pete and that name stuck. To confuse his family identify further his mom married an Ivan Stefanski five years later after securing a divorce on the grounds of abandonment but she decided Pete should stick to Kurtz as his surname.
Pete had named his motor home Molly after his late wife whose name was actually Molleur but when they were courting he kept stumbling over his name so she'd sighed and told him to call her Molly. Despite that, Pete rather liked the idea his wife could be journeying with him in spirit and might even find her replacement for him.
Ah well, dream on.
Pete had no route apart from wishing to end up in California. He chose to go via Texas in the hope of escaping this summer rain. When Pete came out of a café at Bowling Green in Tennessee three female backpackers waiting near his vehicle.
The girls said they came from Sacramento and wondered if he could take them through to Nashville.
"Okay, one of you sit in the cab and the other two sit on the sofa with two seatbelts and don't release the belts unless we are stopped and I call out.
The fat moody one sat beside him, as to be expected, and was soon asleep and he could hear the two good looking and lively ones behind him chatting and singing away.
At Nashville they took him to a diner for lunch and it appeared they were tiring on hitching rides. Two of them talked about flying home but the really good looking one called Nellie to continue their road trip.
"We took two months leave of absence from nursing," she said. "Why go home a month early?"
The discussion went back and forth, boring Peter so he said he was off and they kissed him. He whispered to Nellie. "Journey with me" but she said she couldn't do that; her mom would kill her.
Pete was down the road a bit filling with diesel when Nellie came running up, red-faced and breathless.
"Is that offer still open?"
"Yeah."
"But I know nothing about you?"
"That's right."
She paused, finding that response unhelpful. "But mom will probably kill me and dad will get rid of the body."
"Don't be dozy. They'll be glad to have you back home alive and not pregnant."
"Oh god, what do you have planned for me?"
"Actually nothing. Seems hard to believe doesn't it? Either go back to your companions or jump in. I'm about out of here."
Nellie was in the cab buckled up when he returned from paying for the fuel, a newspaper and some snacks and two bottles of water.
Pete asked, "Nervous?" and she asked should she be? He laughed and said he was glad she was over her jitters. "But don't feel bad about that Nellie. You made a big decision to travel alone with me and your companions must have unnerved you calling you mad and a fool for having such a crazy notion and predicted dire outcomes for you."
"That's so true and surprisingly accurate. Initially I was confident about hitting the trail with you but they both sapped my confidence. But a few minutes ago when I was listening to you and watching your expressions I felt I could trust you with my wallet and that was me done with my fears buried."
"Good girl. On we go."
"Tell me about yourself Pete."
"My name is Pete Kurtz, I'm thirty-eight and home was on the horse farm of an older woman I loved and married eight years ago. She died of cancer five months ago so I sold up and now my only possessions are this vehicle and money in the bank and in stocks."
"That's so sad Pete. I'm sorry she died but that won't be half as sorry as you are."
"Thanks Nellie. The word is half as sorry as I was. I'm almost over it now. She was forty-five when she died and had inherited the farm from her parents. She had never married but had a daughter many years ago but the wee thing died of influenza when not quite two years old."
They traveled in silence for a couple of minutes thinking about what Pete had just said until she almost whispered, "Will we have sex?"
"I should think so Nellie."
"When?"
"When you decide. My thinking is you'll be attracted to me because of my more comfortable queen size bed compared with your converted sofa."
"Aren't you intending to be a gentleman and give me the most comfortable bed?"
"No. Next question?"
"It's not a question. I just wish to say I'm learning about you and you are humanizing yourself telling me those intimate things about your marriage, your wife's death, her baby dying and how you feel your grief has lifted."
"Well I know women like to hear stuff like that. I would just say to a guy that my wife died and I got out of there. He'd nod and say something like 'good move'.
"Is it a good move?"
"Good question Nellie. I've thought about it for hours and hours and found I couldn't stick for long with any conclusion I reached and so would try again later. In the end I decided to buy this camper, hit the road and try it to see what happens. But don't think you should feel compelled to give me a romantic interlude. I'm not on the road to lap up pity."
She didn't reply to that. "My name is Nellie Stevens. I'm twenty-eight, a registered nurse working on an orthopedic surgical team and my parents are both professionals and I have an older brother and a younger sister. Oh I have a boyfriend back home but believe it's wearing a little thin because all he thinks about is sex and thinks all I think about is marriage."
"Do you?"
Nellie laughed and said her boyfriend would look stunned if she told the truth and said she thought a lot about sex too.
"Why?"
Nellie blushed as Pete glanced at her and said she often wondered if she were getting enough sex to satisfy her desires and she sometimes wondered what it would be like having sex with an older man. Mike was eighteen months younger than her.
"That's very frank, I guess honest, of you saying that but I know you would spend hours and hours thinking about many other things including friends and family and Mike and people you work with and especially your patients, past and present."
"That's sensitive thinking."
Peter turned on the GPS system he'd set at the last stop and began receiving voice directions to the camper site he'd chosen.
"I'd like to spend all day tomorrow looking around Nashville. It's one of our cities of international note."
She smiled and said, "I'd like that too."
"As we travel you can request diversions. This is not an A to B journey."
"Thanks, you are such a nice man."
"Well how about this for doing the right thing. This is an RV camp so probably provides a hotspot for Wi-Fi connection for my phone that I'll connect to my laptop. I want you to email your mom and tell her not to worry and then tell her all about your decision today and how you feel about me. I'll leave a digital head and shoulders photo of me on the Desktop that you can send and that will allow your family perhaps to make up their mind about me. My bet is your mom will agree with your sister that I'm nice and she can tell that by my smile and my eyes."
"Exactly what color are your eyes? The color seems to change."
"Hazel."
"Well you could be quite right about that assumption. Mom will be desperate to have someone tell her there is no need to worry and Sharon would be the likely one to do that."
"I'm liking Sharon already."
Nellie laughed and told Pete he certainly knew how to make her relax.
He returned from hooking up services at the allocated RV site he'd booked when they were an hour out from Nashville. Nellie invited him to read her email.
"No it's fine. You can delete the file after sending the message."
"I really don't mind you reading it."
"Well I won't be reading it. You may now write the truth about what you think of me."
