Sarah stared out the window, and Eli focused on the road. With the rain down to a drizzle, she felt more comfortable picking up her speed. What she really wanted was a warm bed, lots of covers, and maybe even a fire to keep her warm, but she knew that was impossible tonight.
They pulled up to the house, and Eli parked as close as she could to the front door. Her house was much like the Hargraves in that people parked wherever in front of the large, covered deck—except hers wrapped around the entire house. She got out of the truck and pocketed her keys. She grabbed Sarah’s guitar, handing it over to waiting hands before she grabbed the suitcase and carried it inside.
Sarah followed dutifully. Eli took her straight up to the room she’d booked and set the suitcase down. She didn’t always give the helping hand, but she felt Sarah first had been through enough that night, and second deserved it for some odd reason. Eli moved to the door as Sarah looked around the room.
“The kitchen is open, and you are free to use and eat whatever is there. Breakfast is at seven-thirty sharp. Is there anything you don’t like to eat?”
“I’ll eat anything.”
“Good.” Eli’s shoulder pressed into the wood, but she was finding it hard to push off the door frame and leave the room.
“And the bathroom?”
Eli stood up straight, looking at Sarah probably for the first time that night. She seemed much smaller in person than she did on video and far less confident. Her lower lip was pulled between her teeth, and Eli could see where it was a bad habit, no doubt. Her hair, rather than its usual light brown, had been dyed blonder, and cut to hang at her shoulders rather than down her back. It was new and different and did odd things to Eli’s insides.
“Right across the hall.”
“Thank you.”
Nodding, Eli still didn’t move. She wasn’t sure why. She’d analyze it when she was out in the fields later, maybe, if she had enough brain power to think it through. Sarah reached up and pulled her beanie off, wringing it between her hands.
“Was there something else?” Sarah asked.
Eli cleared her throat. “Uh, no. I’m headed out for my heifer check, but I’ll be back in about an hour.”
“Okay.”
“So the house is yours.”
Sarah nodded and tossed her beanie onto the bed. When she faced Eli, she had a thin smile on her lips. “Thanks, uh…for coming to get me.”
“Any time.”
Eli slipped from the room, not looking over her shoulder, as much as she wanted to. She didn’t want Sarah to think she knew who she was or like she was being some strange fan who ogled more than she should. Eli grabbed another cold water from the fridge, switched out her keys and headed to check on her babies.
* * *
Sarah plopped onto the edge of the bed, relief flooding her. At least it seemed like Elijah, sorry, Eli, hadn’t recognized her. That meant at least the house would be a safe place, but she wasn’t sure it was going to be exactly relaxing. Eli, while she had been willing to answer questions, had been quite short with her.
Though, she supposed, she’d be decently short if she was staying up late and if she needed to still go out and check heifers—whatever that meant. She flopped onto her back and stared at the ceiling. At least the bed was comfy. That was something to make her day better, even though she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be sleeping in it any time soon. Her adrenaline and nerves were still running like crazy, and she had no real way to calm them down. Except…
Turning, Sarah eyed her guitar case. If she was the only one in the house, she could play easily enough. Flicking the locks, she brushed her fingers over the wood and then the strings. She pulled it out and sat on the edge of the bed again. With the guitar on her thigh, she strummed until it was in tune.
But she had nothing to play. No song came to mind. For the first time in years, she couldn’t think of anything she wanted to play. Eli came to mind, the way Eli had looked at her, the way her smile hadn’t quite reached her eyes except for that first moment in the Hargraves’ kitchen. That had been interesting.
Rubbing her lips together, Sarah flopped onto the bed again, her guitar next to her. The room was beautifully done up. Tasteful, modern, yet not cookie cutter. The dark wood on the sleigh bed was a perfect match for the obviously refinished dresser and vanity. They weren’t new, they didn’t completely match, but they went together to complete the room in a way she would never have thought of.
Eli was an interesting person, at least intriguing if not stand-offish. Sarah wished they had met under different circumstances, when she was less anxious, because she hoped she would have been able to focus better on Eli herself rather than the mess Sarah had found herself in.
Eli had been almost as she had envisioned she would be, minus about thirty years and a different sex. Sarah had wrongly assumed she was staying with an older couple who were trying something new. She had no idea how old Eli was, but elderly was not it. She had a soft rounded face, brown eyes that kept flipping from cold and aloof to depths of emotions flashing so quickly no one could read them.
Not that she was good at reading people, anyway. Kara always teased her about that. So did her sister, for that matter. Sarah was the most socially inept of all her friends and family. She largely kept to herself, focused on her music and her passions—which really was just her music for the last five years rather than anything she had done before.
Sighing, she closed her eyes, but her mind was a whir of thoughts and feelings, and she couldn’t figure out a way to tamp down and quiet them. She faced her guitar and ran her fingers over the strings. She remembered every painful moment of learning to play, the blisters, stretching her fingers so they could reach when they shouldn’t because the guitar she’d been handed down was way too big for her tiny body.
With a huff she moved back to staring at the ceiling. What the hell was she supposed to do in the country for two weeks? She didn’t want anyone to know who she was, so that meant no playing music when other people were around. She might be able to get away with just playing guitar and not singing, but Sarah knew as soon as she started singing, that was going to be the end of it all. Her cover would be blown.
Lightning flashed in the distance, and she barely heard the rumble of thunder as it echoed. At least the storm was off in the distance. Pushing herself to stand, she moved to the bathroom to check it out. She always wanted a hot shower after a long day of traveling. Maybe that would ease and relax her mind, because not sleeping for two full days was about to knock her on her ass.