He wanted to believe she’d simply made a run to the store, but his gut told him this was more serious than Lula running out on a quick errand and forgetting to close the door. When he stepped out back and saw the Christmas gnome shattered on the concrete, his fears were confirmed.
Carter had no idea what had gone wrong. He only knew he had to find Lula and make everything right again. It didn’t matter if he was on the verge of becoming a millionaire. All the money in the world wasn’t worth losing their second chance.
10
Lula
I’ll be on the next plane out. I’ll be on the next plane out. Carter’s words drummed through her head, making Lula feel like her skull was about to split in two as she steered down the back alley and emerged onto the Old Town Highway. She didn’t know where she was going, only that she had to get away from Carter.
Away from his lies and his deception and those soft brown eyes that had looked at her like she was all he would ever need, only to turn around and prove she was nothing compared to the latest adventure on the horizon.
Lula pulled in a strangled breath and swiped the tears from her cheeks.
She should have known better. It didn’t matter how real and right every moment with him had felt. She should have guarded her heart and held strong until she was sure he’d really changed. Instead, she’d fallen even harder than she had the first time, and now she felt like the ground had disappeared beneath her feet. She was free-falling through her misery without even her work to keep her sane.
It didn’t matter that the Christmas Eve holiday dolls were one of her biggest money-makers of the entire year. She couldn’t stay at the shop for another moment. She couldn’t look Carter in his lying eyes while he pretended to be committed to a life with her, all while planning his next getaway.
“Bastard,” she sobbed as the traffic signal turned red. She pulled to a stop with a sniff, trying not to fall completely apart until she was out of town.
The sidewalks were filled with people out shopping and celebrating, and she didn’t want anyone to see her in tears. As soon as Carter left town, she’d be the laughingstock of Lonesome Point all over again. She didn’t want to make a scene on top of it.
She held her chin up, ready to keep a stiff upper lip until it was her turn to pull through the intersection. But no sooner had the vehicle stilled than the truck’s engine suddenly sputtered and died. Lula blinked in confusion and tried to start the engine again, but there was no response, not even a crank or grind. Her truck had simply died, going from perfect working condition to dead as a doornail in two seconds flat.
With a barely suppressed growl of frustration, Lula hopped out, intending to flag down someone to help her push the truck to the side of the road.
But then she heard Carter’s familiar voice, calling her name from behind her. Before she could rethink the wisdom of the decision, Lula was dashing down the sidewalk in her high-heeled Mary Janes, shouldering her way through the crowd and heading right on Baxter Street.
Baxter connected to the alley behind the shops on the west side of the highway. A vague plan was forming in Lula’s head—one that involved creeping in the back door to Mia’s shop and hiding in the stockroom until she’d lost Carter—but she barely made it halfway down the street when her path was blocked by a line of holiday floats. The parade didn’t start for an hour, but the floats were already swarming with people stringing lights and putting on last minute touches. People who turned to stare as Lula came running toward them, heels clacking on the pavement, with Carter not far behind, shouting for her to stop.
With a whimper, Lula dodged to the left, into the abandoned parking lot of a darkened, two-story office building. Her toes were screaming and her ankles were twinging, but she pushed herself to run faster. She couldn’t face Carter, not now, when all her romantic dreams were so recently dead and her heart was smashed to pieces, like the gnome she’d hurled to the concrete as she fled her shop. She had to keep ahead of him, just long enough to find a place to hide.
She rounded the corner of the office building and hurried back toward the sidewalk, intending to cross the street and get lost in the chaos of the carnival. But then she saw the fenced-in Dumpsters to her right and aimed her body toward them, slipping through the gate and closing it with seconds to spare as Carter called out again behind her.