Echoes of Route 66

"I want to go in." The new CEO stopped right in front of me, his voice a low rumble. Heat rushed to my face.

Years ago, in a narrow little bed, he would hold me tight, his breath scalding my skin as he begged me time and time again in that exact same whisper.

It was his favorite thing to say. Chapter 1 Every eye in the room darted toward us. I froze. The tall man standing in front of me looked right past me with a flat gaze.

He gestured to the space behind me. "Excuse me, could you step aside?" It hit me that I was blocking half the doorway.

My face flushed hot again, and I quickly shuffled two steps out of the way. Christian gave me a polite nod. His expression did not shift at all as he walked into the CEO office.

I went to the break room to make a cup of coffee. Did he recognize me? Did he really not know who I was? What he just said. Was it on purpose, or just a coincidence?

I turned to look at my reflection in the glass cabinet door. A blurry thirtythreeyearold woman stared back at me.

Short hair tucked behind her ears, bland makeup, thick black glasses.

I had been called over in the middle of checking vouchers, so I was still wearing a baggy, pilled office cardigan.

I looked nothing like the wild, carefree girl from that crazy road trip years ago. We were two completely different people. It was a coincidence.

That was the only logical conclusion. Back in the finance department, my two young subordinates were buzzing about the new boss. "He is so hot.

If I didn't know better, I'd think he was an Alist celebrity!

If I knew the new boss was going to look like that, why did we even fight the acquisition?" "I heard he is only twentyeight.

He started his own successful company and then took over his family business. It is like a billionaire romance novel come to life.

I have to post this on my Instagram stories!" "Don't be so thirsty…" "Hey, if Evelyn, our strict, oldschool Finance Director, can get flustered enough to block his door, why can't I?

Ow, why did you kick me—" I walked to my desk with a blank face. "No gossiping during work hours." The two girls snapped their mouths shut, burying their heads in their desks.

The sharp click of high heels echoed down the hall, getting closer. Courtney walked into the office. As usual, she wore flawless makeup and a tight skirt suit.

She slapped a stack of receipts onto my subordinate's desk. "Why were the marketing department expense reports rejected?" The recent grad flinched.

She stammered out an explanation. "Assistant Courtney, this doesn't comply with the new expense report policy.

It is fifty percent over the limit, so it needs the General Manager's signature—" Courtney cut her off impatiently. "Our marketing team is out there on the front lines busting our asses.

You guys just sit comfortably in your office all day thinking of ways to hold us back, is that it?" I looked up and spoke in a cold, flat tone. "Assistant Courtney, the new financial expense rules were published a long time ago.

We even held a training session on them." "If you do not understand, go back and read them. If you have a problem with it, take it up with upper management.

Are you just yelling in here to show off how loud you can be?" Courtney turned to look at me.

She blinked, feigning a look of sudden realization. "Evelyn, you wouldn't happen to be using this to settle a personal grudge, would you?" I adjusted my glasses and met her gaze deadon. "What personal grudge could possibly exist between us?" She let out a light, airy laugh. "Looks like I will just have to let Cameron come talk to you himself.

After all, you two used to be married." Cameron arrived shortly after. Courtney greeted him with a soft, helpless call of boss.

Then she bit her lower lip and stared down at her shoes, playing the part of the bullied victim perfectly. "There is no need to make things so hard for a young girl," Cameron said.

Chapter 2 Cameron frowned at me, his tone as casual as if we were discussing the weather. I knew this routine well.

Before our divorce, he used to say things like this to me all the time. We were married for three years.

After he was promoted to Marketing Director, his relationship with his assistant, Courtney, crossed the line. I told him to transfer her.

He thought I was being ridiculous and paranoid. "You sit in an office all day," he had said. "The marketing team is out networking and wining and dining." "It is normal for us to look out for each other.

Don't tell me you are picking on a young girl." Once, he got drunk at a work dinner. I drove to pick him up, and Courtney volunteered to take care of him in the back seat.

Halfway home, a short, breathy gasp slipped from her lips. When she got out of the car, I saw her short skirt flipped up, exposing a flash of bare thigh.

I didn't have the energy for drama. I didn't bother catching them in the act. I didn't bother screaming or throwing things. I just handed him the divorce papers.

Cameron's reaction was nothing but pure sarcasm. "Evelyn, if this is some twisted game to manipulate me, you played the wrong hand.

I do not respond to threats." "You are a divorced woman in her thirties. You are boring and stiff.

If you can find a man even half as successful as me, I will get down on my knees at the front doors of this company!" The divorce went through quickly.

Unfortunately, we still worked at the same company. I saw him every single day. He and Courtney practically lived in each other's pockets.

He went out of his way to dote on her right in front of my face, shielding her from every minor inconvenience. His excuse was always the same. "She is my employee.

Of course I have to protect her." I knew the whispers going around the office. Everyone thought I was a doormat for not quitting. A few years ago, I might have felt humiliated.

I might have packed up my desk just to avoid looking at them. But I was thirtythree now. Age gave me a spine. I worked my ass off to become the Finance Director.

Why the hell should I be the one to leave? They were the homewreckers. They were the ones who should be embarrassed. Not me. Now, Cameron tilted his head at me.

That familiar, mocking smirk played on his lips. "Dragging a young girl into our personal issues is just petty, don't you think?" I kept my face deadpan. "Following protocol is petty?

Do you think the company's financial regulations were drafted specifically to target her? Director Cameron, is your brain malfunctioning?" He stared at me for a few seconds.

Then, he let out a low laugh. "Fine.

We will let the new CEO decide at tomorrow's meeting." "But Evelyn…" He lowered his voice, sounding sickeningly triumphant. "Using these cheap tricks to get my attention and win me back… honestly, it is a little pathetic." The next day.

A midtosenior management meeting. When Christian walked into the conference room, every spine in the room straightened on instinct. I studied him from behind my thick lenses.

He stood tall, his features sharp and commanding.

As he took his seat, the unbuttoned edge of his suit jacket brushed against the table, revealing the crisp folds of his white dress shirt.

The reckless boy from all those years ago had grown into a dangerously quiet man. He listened to Cameron present the marketing report. One hand rested lazily on the table.

He gave an occasional nod, his face unreadable. Without warning, he turned his head and looked right at me. I didn't have time to look away. My breath hitched in my throat.

But it seemed like a casual glance. His eyes swept past me just as fast. "The marketing department's expense report," he said.

His voice wasn't loud, but the entire room fell dead silent. "Make it a special exception. I approve it." Across the table, Courtney immediately flashed me a smug, gloating smirk.

After the meeting adjourned, Cameron stopped me in the hallway. A selfsatisfied smile was plastered on his face. Chapter 3 "Rules are rigid, but people are flexible.

You are too old to be this stubborn. Haven't you suffered enough for it?" I clutched my files and stared at him. "Director Cameron. Rejecting your report was protocol.

Approving it after CEO Christian made a special exception is also protocol." "You are the Marketing Director.

Is that concept really so hard for you to grasp?" He scoffed. "Evelyn, between us—" "Director Evelyn." A voice cut in from behind.

Christian stood in the middle of the hallway, hands shoved deep into his pockets. His face was a blank mask. "My office." The knot in my chest tightened. CEO's office.

A massive desk sat between Christian and me. "The finance department faces the most pressure rolling out the new policy. Friction during the transition is inevitable.

You need to manage it carefully." His tone was flat. Strictly superior to subordinate. He went over a few more tasks. His pace was steady, his logic flawless.

He radiated a calm, distant authority. He was nothing like the shameless, clinging boy from my memories.

The tight knot in my chest finally loosened. "Understood, CEO Christian." His secretary came in with tea.

Christian looked down, pulled a blue velvet box from his drawer, and slid it across the desk toward me. I didn't move.

The secretary smiled. "Director Evelyn, this is a welcoming gift from the CEO to all department heads. It is a signature pen.

You are the last one to receive yours." Christian took a sip of his tea. His long, pale fingers tapped lightly against the box. "Do you want it?" The words slipped out low.

Maybe it was the hot tea, but his voice sounded hazy, dripping with heat. Wet. A fine tremor traced the line of my spine.

My mouth went bone dry. "Do you want it?" "Do you want it, Evie?" Five years ago on that sweltering stretch of Route 66. My brief sixmonth memory of Christian.

It was nothing but a blur of tangled bodies. I grew up as the perfect daughter who always followed the rules. My dad taught middle school, my mom taught elementary.

To everyone else, I was obedient, quiet, and effortless. But only I knew the truth. I was a coward. I had no spine.

I just parroted what others said, terrified of conflict, terrified of disappointing people, terrified of making a single wrong step. I couldn't breathe. I started to hate myself.

So, at twentyeight, I made the first rebellious choice of my life. I quit my suffocating job. I curled my boring straight hair into wild, messy waves.

I ditched my thick glasses and put on a floral slip dress. I rented an RV and drove onto Route 66 all by myself.

I picked Christian up on that endless stretch of highway in the American Southwest. He was twentythree at the time.

He had crashed his bike and was sitting alone on the side of a deserted road. He looked rugged, broken down, his eyes clouded with a dark, heavy gloom. Like a trapped wild animal.

I pulled over, hooked a finger over my sunglasses to lower them, and shot him a bright smile. "Hey. Need a ride? I can give you a lift." He rejected me with total silence.

He just stood up and limped forward, pushing his broken bike. I slammed on the gas and sped off. But I didn't get far before I turned back around. He still ignored me.

I coasted the RV slowly behind him, coaxing and teasing him. "Kid, I promise I am not a bad person. Just trying to do my good deed for the day." "It is going to rain.

You don't want to get soaked out here, do you? I hear this road is haunted…" He suddenly stopped. Chapter 4 He turned to me.

His face was deadpan. "You talk too much." "So are you getting in or not?" My eyes crinkled with a smile. He got in.

I knew he was probably dragging himself through the darkest moment of his life. I didn't ask a single question. Who comes out here alone if they aren't?

I dragged him out into the howling wind, throwing our arms wide and screaming until our lungs burned. We lay sidebyside under a canopy of stars, talking absolute nonsense.

We spent an entire day helping local ranchers look for a lost stray calf. I crammed myself into the tiny RV kitchen and made him homemade roast chicken that came out halfraw.

Out in the middle of nowhere, with no expectations tying me down, I naturally morphed into the exact opposite of the old Evelyn. Free. Fiery. Fearless.

I was the fun, slightly savage older girl. My smiles were bright. My voice was loud. I was trying to save him. But really, I was trying to save myself.

The heavy shadows in Christian's eyes slowly cleared. His smiles became sharper, more real. The cold distance in his gaze melted away.

When he looked at me now, his focus was intense. Burning. Beneath his gloomy exterior, he was wild, brave, and unbreakable. Christian was the mirror image of everything I wasn't.

Under the starlight, wrapped in the dead silence of the desert, we tangled together on that narrow RV bed. It happened so naturally. Like sleeping when you are tired.

Drinking when you are thirsty. Raw desire bleeding into the wild wilderness around us. No ages. No job titles. No pasts. Just scalding skin and heavy, ragged breaths.

Every rule I ever followed was crushed to dust. The hunger was endless. The pleasure was blinding. We drowned in it.

Like two starving kids who had just found sugar for the first time. Tasting. Taking. Begging for more.

He loved trailing his index and middle fingers down my skin, inch by torturous inch. He would pause right at the edge, his voice wrecked and raspy. "Evie, I want to go in.

Do you want it? Can you take one more? Let's try…" We stopped and started, drifting down the highway for six months. The sun was setting, casting a soft golden glow over everything.

We sat by the window, sharing takeout burgers. "Evie, wait for me for a year," he said.

His expression was dead serious. "Let me go back and handle my family's mess." "Then I will come find you in your city.

Okay?" "No way." I laughed it off. "Why not?" "I am five years older than you.

I don't have time to wait around." I waved a hand dismissively. "Besides, age gaps like ours never end well." "I will be growing gray hair while you are still in your prime.

I will turn into some paranoid, bitter housewife. Hard pass!" I was talking out of my ass, just like always. He froze. He just stared at me, looking a little dazed.

I couldn't bear the look in his eyes. I cracked a smile. "Alright. Tell me what you actually like about me first." He thought about it.

Then he spoke, every word heavy with conviction. "I like that you are wild and free." "You are fearless.

You live exactly how you want to." I dropped my gaze and shoved a bite of my burger into my mouth. A few days later. In a remote small town. I left a note. And I ran.

The woman he saw in his eyes wasn't me. We were just two gusts of wind colliding on a lonely highway. We tangled together for a brief, heated moment under the perfect conditions.

Then we blew in opposite directions. I went back to my city. I put my thick glasses back on. I chopped off my wild waves. I slipped back into my safe, boring office suits.

I went back to being the Evelyn everyone expected me to be. I sat there for a long time. Trying to figure out if he had actually recognized me. Five years of dead radio silence.

Six short months. Chapter 5 To sever all ties with my old self, I used a fake name from day one of that trip.

The RV rental guy offered an employee discount if I paid cash and rented it under his name. I agreed to save the hassle.

Two years ago, I fell down the stairs, broke my nose, and had minor reconstructive surgery. Even my old college classmates barely recognized me anymore. My face. My vibe.

My identity. My name. Everything was different. I was nothing like that older girl from five years ago. He definitely didn't recognize me. As for those ambiguous words he said?

Context is everything. They were perfectly normal office speak. I was just overreacting. My judgment was spot on. Everything went back to normal for the next few weeks.

I gave Christian regular financial reports. He would randomly call me into his office to assign tasks or ask about budget details.

Our interactions were strictly superior to subordinate. CEO to Finance Director. Professional and polite. I settled into the rhythm.

During meetings, I could argue with him over a specific data point without my pulse spiking.

I could even relax and laugh along with the rest of the room when someone cracked a joke. That short, sweltering trip was just a glitch. A break from our normal lives.

It was a tornado. Hot and destructive when it hit, but fading fast until it felt like it never happened at all.

One morning, I walked into the office and found a young woman standing by the desks. Long black hair. White dress. Innocent and gorgeous.

She introduced herself politely. "Hi, Evelyn. I am Piper. I will be interning here for a while, so I wanted to come say hello." I gave her a polite nod.

She smiled shyly and walked out. My two subordinates practically tripped over each other to spill the gossip. "Evelyn, do not get on her bad side.

We asked who referred her, and she said it was her brother, the CEO! Turns out she is an orphan his family adopted.

She grew up in his house." "Now I get why the CEO came all the way to Seattle when he has so many companies in New York. He is here to pave the way for his precious little sister!

Oh man, I am a sucker for the adopted sibling romance trope. They look so good together!" "Right? I totally ship them…" Their voices dropped to whispers.

I frowned down at my jacket. A smudge of red mud stained the elbow. I had no idea where it came from.

I thought for a second, then dug out my pilled office cardigan and pulled it on. Christian called me to his office later that morning. Piper was there again.

She sat on the sofa, sipping juice, speaking to Christian in a soft, sweet voice. Sunlight spilled through the window, catching her perfectly. She radiated youth.

Christian motioned for me to come over. He gave me a brief rundown of her background. "She is looking at two options. Marketing or Finance.

Marketing involves too much networking and drinking. I want her in your department." I listened quietly.

I was trying to figure out if he wanted me to actually mentor her, or just babysit her for a fake internship. "What do you think?" He paused.

He looked up and locked eyes with me. "Can you take one more?" My breath hitched. That familiar jolt spiked through my nerves.

His face was completely neutral, like he was just having a normal work conversation. Chapter 6 I forced down my hammering pulse. "…I can