Big D: Senior Year (Three Daves #3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and turning it around to look at the blank back page before flipping it again and running his fingers down the list of instructions.
    “We should be right around… “Marcy glanced from the road to the papers. “Joe! What did you do? It’s all yellow.”
    “I’ve been eating Cheetos since we left campus; what did you expect?”
    “God, Joe!” Marcy grabbed the yellow-splotched papers and thrust them back to Jen and David. “Can you guys find it?”
    Jen grabbed the papers and looked, but was repulsed by the gooey, yellow residue covering it. “Joe!”
    “You’re so disgusting,” Marcy grumbled.
    “Thanks, Marce. That makes me feel real good about myself.” Joe crunched on another Cheeto.
    “Why do we even hang out with him?” Jen said to Marcy and then looked at David, who seemed to be holding back a laugh. “Glad you think this is funny, but I’m not touching that stuff.” She shoved the papers onto his lap.
    “I could use a little breakfast, anyway,” David said.
    “Ew,” the girls moaned in unison. Joe turned around to give David a crusty high five.
    While Jen and David bent over the directions and called out instructions to Marcy, Jen noticed the skin on David’s fingers was dry to the point that his cuticles were cracked. “You could use a serious manicure,” she told him.
    David ran his thumb along the base of his fingernails. “I guess it’s from working with all of those chemicals.”
    “Don’t you wear gloves or anything?”
    “I do, but they suck the moisture right out.”
    “I’ve got lotion in my purse. After we get Marcy rolling on seventy-two, you’re getting a treatment.”
    During the last leg of the trip, the four of them were quiet, zoning out with their own thoughts and listening to a random selection of Marcy’s music. As promised, Jen massaged lotion into David’s rough, dry hands. While she worked the cream into each finger and cuticle, she thought about the way these hands had once touched her. The way they’d known exactly where to go and what to do.
    Tiny pinpricks rushed up her arms in tickling goose bumps. She flicked her gaze toward David and caught him staring at her. Something in his eyes told her his mind had traveled in the same direction. They exchanged small, shy smiles, and then Jen jerked her attention back to David’s calloused skin, shifting her thoughts to unsexy things like eczema.

Chapter 4
    David took pictures of Jen, Marcy, and Joe in front of the Lincoln family home, the Lincoln-Herndon Law offices, and the Old State Capitol building in Springfield. At the Great Western Depot, from where Lincoln had departed Springfield for the White House in 1861, Jen scribbled a quote from his farewell address. It would make an excellent ending to their report: To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.
    Jen had thought of the road trip as a corny joke, but as she stood in these places where the great Abraham Lincoln had himself once been, she felt an awed respect for history. Their last stop was for David’s project at the new Illinois State Capitol building. Its magnificent silver dome was the centerpiece of the town.
    The CIU crew took a free tour to see the House Chamber and the Senate Gallery where Illinois law was made. They also got a peek at the governor’s office. After the tour, Joe, Marcy, and Jen collapsed onto a bench in a long hallway, facing a mural featuring Marquette and Joliet. David stood farther down the hall, examining a different painting. When he caught up with the others, he said, “I want to run back upstairs to check out a couple of things. I won’t be long.”
    “I’ll go with you.” Jen pulled herself off the bench, feeling like she ought to at least keep him company since she’d dragged him along on the excursion.
    On the second floor, they read the captions beneath each former governor’s portrait. Then they trotted up to the third floor for a closer look at the stained glass dome and the bronzed