The noise is what takes him the longest to ease into. Once he does, once he can pick out his surroundings from beneath the roar of the machine, he lets himself relax into it.

She takes them through the long road that winds about her place. He's actually never explored her town in full, only visited parts of it: the shops, the church, the carousel. Little rows of flowers. The cows, he's never seen before. Not the orchards, either. They blur by. The wind carries every directly scent to him, from the grass to the fruits and a smell that he currently doesn't know to place as the exhaust fumes. It's different. It's been awhile since he's experienced anything so outside the realm of what he knows.

More than that, Nadine is obviously enjoying herself. He can't recall ever seeing her this thoroughly delighted. Hard not to absorb what she's feeling, too.