Page 72 of Quarter Miles (Runaway 3)

Kat couldn’t have gone far, but if she was racing down the highway, a ten- or twenty-minute lead meant it would take me hours to catch up. That was, if I even started in the right direction. At least one thing in my favor was Kat?

??s propensity to always drive the speed limit.

Had she started home? Kat could be miles on her way to Montana. Maybe she’d changed her mind about California after all, though I doubted it. She could have taken that quarter and let it decide.

They were all options, but I didn’t punch Clear River or Temecula into the navigation. My gut said Kat was with Aria.

So I was headed toward Welcome, Arizona.

Chapter Fifteen

Katherine

“Damn, girl,” Aria said. “I’m sorry.”

“I hate him,” I lied, my fingers tightening around the wheel. We both knew I’d never hate Cash.

Over the past thirty minutes, I’d told Aria everything that had happened today. Everything I hadn’t when I’d found her at the hotel with my suitcase in hand to say goodbye.

Aria had known something was wrong, but rather than push me to talk or let me leave, she’d stuck close. Loyalty was my second favorite quality of hers, the first being her ability to listen. As the Cadillac flew down the highway, she sat in the passenger seat, attuned to my every word.

We were on the highway that would eventually lead us to Arizona. Maybe after twelve hundred miles I wouldn’t feel quite so broken.

I’d set out on this trip to get over Cash. To put the hopes and dreams of an us in my rearview mirror. Maybe one day I’d stop loving him, but what hurt the worst was that I’d lost my friend.

My best friend.

He was the one I ran to on bad days. He was my safe haven. When I’d gotten food poisoning from grocery store sushi, he’d been the one holding my hair back as I puked for twelve hours. When one of our guests had sent me a scathing email about his bad experience with allergies at the resort—as if I had some control over the pollen in the air—Cash had let me cry on his shoulder and mourn the loss of my impeccable five-star Google rating.

His absence was like a gaping hole in my heart.

But at least I had Aria.

After I’d left Cash standing in the room, the truth tainting the air, I’d hurried to the front desk to page Aria. She’d come into the lobby with a smile that had brought me to tears. I’d hugged her, told her I was leaving and that I was so happy to have found her again. I’d apologized for the last-minute change of plan but I wasn’t leaving her with the Cadillac.

I needed it to make my escape.

Without asking why I was seconds away from an emotional breakdown, she’d grabbed my free hand and hauled me to the second floor, winding through a maze of hallways until we reached Mark’s office. I’d waited in the hallway while she’d gone inside to talk to him. When she’d come out, she’d looked at me and said, “Let’s go.”

On the way out of town, we’d stopped by her home so she could pack a bag and ask her neighbor to water her plants.

She seemed used to taking time off. To stepping away. Maybe this trip of mine wouldn’t have been such a disaster if I’d taken more vacations before this. Maybe I would have realized much sooner that I was replaceable at work and that the family I’d clung to wouldn’t bother to call for days, not even Gemma.

The open road ahead did nothing to give me a sense of freedom. Instead I looked down the double yellow lines that divided the pavement and felt lost. Alone. Where was I going? Arizona was a start, but then where? What was I doing with my life?

I just wanted . . . I wanted to go home. I wanted to rewind this week and go back to the days when I wasn’t so angry at Cash I could barely breathe.

“You okay?” Aria asked.

“No.”

“Want me to drive?”

I clutched the wheel. Having it under my palms felt like the only thing in my control at the moment. “No, thanks.”

Her phone rang in her hand and she narrowed her eyes at the number. “Um . . .”

“What?”