Page 9 of Finding Hayes
three
. . .
Hayes
“Open the goddamn door, Sav,”I said for the third time.
Seeing her upset had always done strange things to me.
I heard the click of the lock, and I pulled the door open. It was cold as hell outside, and she’d left twenty minutes ago, so she must be freezing if she’d been sitting out here in a car with no heat.
Crying.
Savannah Abbott was crying.
I could count on one hand how many times she’d cried in all the years I’d known her.
She was always a bright light, even when shit was raining down on her. That’s why I’d been so surprised that she’d walked away from me so easily. I hadn’t expected it. Not in a million years.
Maybe I didn’t know her at all.
I bent down, because the sound of her sobs was too much. I placed a hand on her back and moved close to her ear so she could hear me.
“Let me give you a ride, Shortcake. It’s cold out here.”
She gasped a few times before wiping her face and turningto look at me. Honey-brown eyes locked with mine. They were puffy and wounded, and she just shrugged. “It’s just been a day. And now my car broke down. I’m just?—”
She didn’t finish the statement.
She didn’t need to.
She was sad and tired, and I understood it.
Without thinking, I shifted forward, sliding one hand beneath her knees and one behind her neck, and I pulled her out of the car.
I expected her to freak out.
Slap me. Yell at me.
But she did none of that. Instead, she just buried her face in the crook of my neck as I carried her to my truck. I set her on the passenger seat, pulled the seat belt across her body, and buckled her in.
She didn’t fight me.
“I need to get my keys and my purse and my suitcase,” she said, her words shaky.
I nodded before moving to the driver’s seat and turning on my truck and cranking the heat.
I jogged over to her car and grabbed everything she needed. I noticed her bumper was barely holding on when I opened her trunk, and I knew this car was old as shit and on its last leg. By the condition of it, I guessed she didn’t have the finances to put into it yet. This money from Abe would help her, and I was glad he’d left it to her.
I placed her suitcase in the back seat of my truck and climbed into the driver’s seat, handing over her keys and purse.
I drove out toward Abe’s place, and she was quiet as I turned down the dirt road and glanced out at the water on my right, just as I saw her swipe at fresh tears.
“It’s all right to be sad. You were close to him. I’m sure it’s a lot to process.” I pulled into the long driveway and made myway toward the old farmhouse.
“His dream was to renovate this place someday. He wanted me to come do it, and we talked about how we’d do it together one day.”
I put the truck in park and turned to look at her. “Did you say that’s what you do for a living?”
