“Interesting friends you keep,” he said when she took a breath in, her face relaxing after the tension moments before.
“She’s been useful.” She gave him a side glance. “Although you didn’t seem to mind when she was rubbing herself against you.”
“Careful, Mer. If I didn’t know you better I’d think you might be jealous.”
She choked. “Believe me, Travis, I’m not jealous. You can hug and grope whoever you want, I could care less. Just try not to do it in front of me. I think I have to bleach my eyes to unsee it.”
He wasn’t buying it for a minute. With a smug smile, he walked to the car and unlocked it, opening the door for her. “I’ll work on it.”
The door slammed shut, and he whistled to himself as he reached the driver’s side and climbed in. He turned the ignition. A high screeching ring ripped the silence before the engine started and then hummed.
“What did you think? Will it work?” she asked. It took him a moment to realize she was asking about her on-air plea for information about her daughter.
He shrugged. “You did good. Now we wait. Review those files Meems gave us to see if we can find anything else to help. But first, since we’re in the area, let’s stop at the police station and file a report on your stolen car and update the missing persons report. Then we’ll swing by and get my car before heading to your place.”
The car let out another high-pitched squeal as he pulled away from the curb. “Let’s just get it returned before it falls apart.”
…
After spending another hour at the police station completing more paperwork and hiking back to the car, Meredith was drained. Not helped by the temperature inside the car barely hitting ten degrees cooler than the upper nineties outside, despite the air-conditioning blasting on high.
It would be a relief to sit inside a car that actually had climate control. And was made in the present century.
With the back of her hand, she wiped the moisture from her forehead and pulled the damp fabric of her dress away from her body. A glance at Travis showed him not suffering in the slightest. Not even a bead of sweat trickled down that stern face.
Figured.
He hadn’t broken a sweat earlier, either, when Annabeth practically performed a lap dance on him. It irked her to find that so far, she was the only one who hadn’t recognized Travis.
But then the purpose of today’s show pushed center in her mind, and she didn’t have to think about her reaction to Travis.
Her guilt weighed heavily on her.
Sure, she had never been much for public displays of affection, or for heaping on the praise and adoration ad nauseam. She’d wanted Darcy to be strong. Independent. To not need someone else’s constant approval.
Something that might have backfired in some instances, like Darcy’s resistance to Meredith’s suggestions about having more of a social life. Why had she thought Darcy needed anyone’s approval to live her life? That she needed anyone, really, other than herself?
But a sick feeling had been growing over the past couple of days. How much of her own actions had been for Darcy’s benefit, and how much had been for Meredith’s? An attempt at maintaining emotional distance from another person who might leave her like everyone else?
Had she kept her daughter at arm’s length out of fear? Which in the end had been all for naught, because Meredith’s pain at possibly losing Darcy when she moved away hadn’t been any less. And now that she might lose her forever, she was seeing the folly in her actions.
It wasn’t until Travis put the car in park that she realized where they’d stopped. The county golf course?
“Why are we here?” She’d been under the impression they would be swinging by Claire’s, where she’d hoped to give a quick wave thanking his sister for the use of her car before getting into Travis’s and heading on their merry way.
Travis pushed the car door open and got out. “Claire had a golf lesson. We arranged to meet here.”
r /> He scanned the parking lot, which was swarming with people taking advantage of the clear skies for an early Friday afternoon of golf, despite the miserable heat. He stopped and nodded. “There she is.”
Meredith stepped out and followed his gaze to the picnic area next to the clubhouse. There, on a rolling hill sitting on blankets, she spied a few people with hands waving in the air. In their direction.
She squinted, trying to make out who was waving.
Allie. The brunette whom she now knew to be Travis’s sister, Claire. Along with an older woman with bright Orphan Annie red hair, who she knew was Allie’s grandma. And lastly…Rick Denton.
Her stomach twisted into a knot. Undoubtedly, none of them were members of the Meredith Sanders fan club.
“Is there a problem?” Travis asked.