That kind of car was almost exclusively driven by men, and Grace liked that about Jenny. That she drove a loud car that looked like it should be used for drag racing. Maybe Grace would buy a car like that someday. Or maybe a motorcycle. She’d like that. She’d wear leather pants and a shiny black helmet. She’d go anywhere she wanted. Fly across the country like a bird.
The idea took hold of her. It grabbed her and held her heart in a fist.
She could buy a bike. As soon as she paid Scott back. She could buy something cheap and go anywhere. Chicago. New York. Toronto.
Anywhere.
The idea of getting back to a big city loosened the fist squeezing her heart. God. She could fade back into the crowd. She could work during the day and then sink into a life apart at night. Where she never saw the same people and never knew anyone. And no one ever knew anything about her.
“God, yes,” she said and sighed. That was what she needed. To be unseen.
For now, she just wanted to get inside and take a shower and collapse. On a secondhand sleeping bag. Well, it was better than a park bench any day. There was a door that locked. Walls to keep her safe.
She glanced at Cole’s door as she walked to her own. She thought of knocking. Thought of simply announcing to him that she needed some stress relief. But she walked to her own door and went inside. She had something to do first.
Grace took out her cell and carefully dialed Scott’s number.
“Yeah?” he answered impatiently.
“What are you trying to do to me?” she ground out.
“Well, hello, Grace.” His familiar voice was tinged with an equally familiar self-satisfaction. “I thought you might decide to finally call.”
“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “Is that what this is about? A phone call?”
“No. This is about getting my money back.”
She bit back the curses she wanted to rain down on him and made herself speak calmly. “I already promised to pay you back. I have a plan, and—”
“Somehow when I found out you’d skipped town without a word, I doubted whether or not your promises were sincere.”
&n
bsp; “They were. I swear. I’m working, damn it.”
“In Wyoming?”
“Yes, in Wyoming! And if you want your money back, it’s probably not a good idea to tell the people employing me that I’m a thief!”
“Grace,” he said as he sighed, sounding exhausted. “You skipped town. You haven’t paid back a dime. And you haven’t worked in months.”
“I’m working right now, and I told you I have another job lined up in a few weeks. And I’m not a thief!”
“I don’t know what you think you are, but my eight thousand dollars is gone and you took it.”
Grace rubbed her hand over her forehead. “I told you, I didn’t mean to. You’d offered to loan me a thousand, and I thought the envelope—”
“I offered that loan when we were still together. Don’t play dumb.”
She swallowed. Whatever Scott’s faults were, he wasn’t stupid. She’d known when she’d “borrowed” that money that the loan offer probably didn’t still apply. That’s why she’d grabbed the envelope and slipped it into her purse without stopping to look at it. He’d never kept more than twelve or thirteen hundred dollars around before. It was just household cash, not a savings account.
“I believed you,” he said. “I didn’t want to think you’d steal from me, but now I find out you’re partying in a ski town—”
“It’s the middle of summer and I’m working! My great-aunt lives here and she gave me a place to stay.”
“I’ve never heard of this aunt before.”
“Yeah, we don’t hang out a lot. She’s seventy.”