Cole got into his truck and headed north, hoping he could manage to catch a girl who meant to disappear for good.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
THE DINGY FLUORESCENT LIGHTS twitched around her as Grace struggled to keep her eyes open. She’d been on three buses already today and the fourth one wouldn’t arrive until 1:00 a.m., which was… She flipped open her phone. Three hours from now.
Three hours. She could stay awake until then.
She eyed the dead coffeemaker sitting on the counter of the bus station. Bus room would be a more accurate description. But she couldn’t complain. The clerk had left the door unlocked when he’d gone, allowing Grace to stay inside instead of waiting on the curb. Once again, Grace wondered if that would’ve happened with the purple hair.
She decided to stick with brown and black for a while. As bad as her luck had been, she wouldn’t dare the distrust of strangers right now.
At least today had been the nicest bus ride she’d ever been on. She hadn’t expected Yellowstone to look like the landscape of an alien planet. Steam and geysers and strangely colored rock. And amidst it all, animals roaming everywhere, as if there weren’t tourists following just behind them, snapping pictures. Grace had seen elk, finally. More elk than she could have dreamed of, and now she saw the difference that Cole had laughed about. She wouldn’t mistake them for deer again.
And bison just wandering around as if it were normal. She’d even spotted a moose, and once, a fox trotting along next to the bus.
If she had any money to spare, she would’ve hopped off the bus and stayed. For days or weeks. She would’ve stayed and seen things she’d never imagined. The geysers erupting in the distance. The bears she remembered from old cartoons. Staring out the bus window, the signs in the park had been nearly painful to see, knowing she’d never discover what they named. Mud pots and waterfalls and lakes. Lookouts and rivers. Those things weren’t for her. She was only passing through.
But she was in Montana now. This was someplace she’d never been. That was something good.
But not good enough to offset the past few days. Nothing could make that better.
Grace dragged her duffel bag closer on the row of seats and pulled one end of it onto her lap so she could lay her head down. She stared at the torn edge of a promotional poster and told herself not to go to sleep. Not yet.
But she was so tired. Jail wasn’t exactly a restful haven. And fury and mortification had kept her awake since then. She still couldn’t believe Scott had actually done it. He’d had her arrested. Sent her to jail. This man she’d once shared a bed with had put her through the fear and shame of being arrested and strip-searched and processed like a felon.
That first phone call had been easy. She’d called Scott and told him exactly what she thought of him. “How could you?” she’d yelled. “I sent you money! I was doing what I promised!”
“I just got the money today,” he’d answered, sounding more subdued than she’d expected. “I didn’t think—”
“I told you I’d pay you back.”
“I know, but Willa got back and she came right over here to tell me you were lying.”
Grace hadn’t even been shocked at that. “What would Willa know about it?”
“She said you were driving around Jackson Hole in a nice Lexus, partying with—”
“No. No! That was my boss’s car! My ex-boss, because there’s no way I have a job now, since I was arrested in front of her, you asshole.”
“Grace, look—”
“I’m paying you back,” she’d said, the words breaking into a sob. “That woman was just pissed because I embarrassed her in front of Madeline Beckingham. I sent you money and I’ll send the rest as soon as I can. Please don’t do this. Scott…” Hating herself, hating him, she’d begged him to drop the charges. She’d wept and she’d begged him.
It had worked, anyway. And being out of jail was a sweeter victory than salvaging whatever pride she’d had left. She’d showered and packed and then taken the tattered rags of her ego and she’d run as fast as she could. She hadn’t seen Eve, at least, and Aunt Rayleen had held her tongue. Out of kindness or disgust, Grace wasn’t sure, but she’d been thankful for the reprieve from insults.
It already felt far away. Jackson Hole. A different world. She was alone in a state where no one knew her. She could walk out the door and disappear and no one would even know she’d been here. She would’ve found that comforting a few weeks ago. Now it scared her. As if she were barely tethered to the earth. One wrong move and she’d float into space and never be found.
Grace held tighter to the rough canvas of the bag. She wished it was 1:00 a.m. She wished she could go to sleep and open her eyes and be anywhere else.
The door whooshed open beside her, and Grace sprang upright with a gasp. She’d fallen asleep. The bus was here. The driver would—
“Grace?”
At the sound of Cole’s voice, she shoved the bag off her lap and lurched up.
“Grace?” His confused gaze drifted up to her hair, but he quickly shook his head. “Are you okay?”
“What are you doing here?” She hadn’t expected to ever see him again, and her heart sped to an alarming pace as she took in his scruffy jaw and weary blue eyes. When he stepped forward, she held up a hand in panic. “Did Jenny call you? Did… You were in California. What are you doing here? I—”