Page 39 of Quarter Miles (Runaway 3)

I’d thought this trip was for Kat to take a break from working twelve-hour days and to reconnect with an old friend, but as the days had progressed, the unease in my gut had begun to brew like an angry storm.

I was losing her.

My gut screamed that I was losing her.

The water from the shower stopped and the curtain scraped across its rod. “Bye, Grandma.”

Without waiting for her response, I ended the call and tossed the phone aside. Then I wadded up my jeans and shirts and picked up my boots, taking them to the closed bathroom door. “Kat?”

“Yeah?” she called back.

“I’m going to go back to my room. Take a shower.”

“O-okay.”

“Do you want to meet for dinner?” I held my breath, unsure if I wanted the answer to be yes or no.

Before Grandma’s call, I would have insisted, but her warning, the way this trip had been going, something had me on edge. Maybe I’d been pushing Kat too hard.

Like my grandmother had said, it wasn’t about me.

I stood, waiting for her answer. The water from the shower dripped and dripped. Finally, she said, “No.”

No.

What the fuck had we done?

I walked out of her room and into mine, knowing things would never be the same.

Chapter Eight

Katherine

Pathetic. Idiotic. Reckless. Pretty much any way I studied what had happened between me and Cash yesterday, there wasn’t a positive adjective to be found.

Cash had kissed me.

Cash had kissed me everywhere. I should have been elated. I should have been laughing and happy. For years, I’d dreamed that he’d take notice and just kiss me.

Wish granted.

Except now I felt like a fool.

Thank God I’d disappeared to the shower to hide my happy tears yesterday.

I’d used the five-minute shower after we’d had sex to compose myself. To have my quick, squealing fit of joy. Cash had worshiped me. There was no other way to describe it. He’d made my body come alive.

As I’d stood under the spray, I’d worked up the courage to tell Cash how I felt. To tell him I wanted more than his friendship.

I was grateful that he’d left before then. I hadn’t had to witness him re-dress and leave. He’d saved me from an extravagant rejection. Part of me wanted to be furious with him. Mostly, I was ashamed.

Did he know I had feelings for him? I’d thought my hug from the first night had tipped him off, but maybe I’d guessed wrong. Maybe he’d just been in a strange mood. But if he didn’t know I had feelings for him, why come to my room yesterday? Why have sex with me? Mind-numbing, toe-curling, soul-shattering sex.

The right thing to do would be to talk about it, but we hadn’t spoken. Not one word since he’d left my room. There’d been no hello in the hotel lobby this morning. When I’d come down to check out, he’d been in the lounge area adjacent to the front desk—bag packed, ball cap on and ready to leave.

/> I was too scared to bring it up. Reliving painful experiences through conversation wasn’t my favorite pastime and Cash walking out on me yesterday had been excruciating.

Yesterday’s drive had been awful. Horrifically awful. It paled in comparison to today’s.