“The engine sound was out of the ordinary. You getting up before me…wasn’t.” She lifted a shoulder, going for a casual shrug and not succeeding. Color filled her cheeks. “You always got out of bed first when we were together, and I trained myself not to notice. Guess I still don’t.”
For some reason, her admission made his chest ache. He rested his head against the seat and shut his eyes. “I’m going back to sleep.”
He wasn’t actually tired, but it seemed easier than facing her right now. Call him a coward—and maybe he was—but there was too much going on inside him, a jumble of thoughts and emotions. One minute he was pissed off beyond words at her, the next he wanted her so badly he ached, and underneath it all was this nagging hum of fear she’d escape him and he wouldn’t be able to find her again. He needed some time to sort that shit out and get his head screwed on straight before he could deal with her.
So, yeah, coward or not, he was going to feign sleep for the next fifteen minutes.
Chapter Eleven
There wasn’t much to the town—a gas station, a small mom-and-pop grocery store, a post office, and a motel. Really, it wasn’t so much a town as a pit stop clustered around the on-and off-ramps of the state highway that led to Atlanta. Sage had seen hundreds of other places like it during her travels.
Arnold pulled the RV up to the pumps at the gas station, then turned in his seat. “You two sure this is your stop? Not much here. I don’t even see a police station to report your accident.”
Sage stiffened at the mention of police. She couldn’t help it. The last thing they needed was to contact the police for a whole host of reasons. Not the least of which was, technically, that she was a fugitive. She wasn’t wanted for a crime—well, other than identity theft—but there were people in law enforcement who would love to find her.
Vaughn noticed her unease. He noticed every-freaking-thing. He cupped her elbow with his hand and pulled her up to stand beside him. “Right now, all we want is a hot shower and a soft bed for the day, so this is perfect.” He motioned out the window at the motel across the street. “We’ll figure the rest out tomorrow.”
“Thank you so much,” she said to Edna as he guided her toward the door.
As soon as the cold air hit her, she started to shiver again. And just as she was starting to warm up, too. But the temperature seemed to have dropped in the twenty minutes since Arnold and Edna had picked them up, and she was suddenly so very grateful to the couple for their generosity. “We should give them something for helping us.”
Vaughn said nothing in response, but when they circled the RV to where Arnold was pumping gas, he held out a hand for a shake, thanked the man, and tried to offer some money.
Arnold vehemently refused. “You two take care of yourselves. And each other.” He gave Vaughn a little salute, smiled up at his wife who was sitting in the window, then went inside to pay for the gas.
“They’re adorable,” Sage said, and a hollow ache opened up in her belly as Vaughn steered her toward the motel. Even if there was a day sometime in the future she could finally stop running, she’d never get what Arnold and Edna had. She was too…damaged. Life had sharpened her once rose-colored glasses to a cynical edge, and she didn’t believe in love anymore. She knew it existed, saw it in others, but she didn’t believe in it for herself. She wasn’t capable of loving any more than she was of being loved.
No, that wasn’t true. She definitely could love and was pretty sure she’d been falling hard for Vaughn before she’d been forced to leave DC.
At the motel, Vaughn requested a room for a night, and the bored-looking kid behind the desk barely glanced up from his phone long enough to hand over the keys. Just as well. She didn’t particularly want people noticing or remembering her.
The room was nothing special. A typical hotel set-up—two queen beds, a dresser, TV, and a little table with two chairs. But it was clean, the air smelled fresh, and it had a shower. She couldn’t ask for much more.
“I call dibs,” she said as soon as Vaughn opened the door. She didn’t wait for his response and made a beeline toward the bathroom. She felt disgusting, grubby. It reminded her far too much of her months living on the streets, and she wanted nothing more than to be clean again. While she couldn’t do much about the nasty state of her clothing since she’d been unable to reach her bag in the car, she could at least clean her skin.
And she didn’t want to think about the two thousand dollars she’d left behind in that bag. All of her savings. Her escape plan.
Damn.