When I turn to face him, he drops his grip. “You’re sleeping in your car?”
My damn heart seems to beat more so in my throat rather than in my chest, and it’s only compounded when I look into Noah’s concerned eyes. Moreover, I hate the way he’s looking at me—pure pity.
I stare at Morgan, who’s averted her gaze to the ground. If she was aiming to humiliate me, she really should own it.
“I’m not sticking around in Pinebrook long. It doesn’t make sense for me to get a place.”
“You’re not?” Morgan latches onto that first part.
I shake my head. “I like to travel.”
Noah has yet to say anything, he just keeps looking at me.
Morgan’s expression shifts. The tension in her brow tightens, well-manicured arches drawing in as she asks, “You didn’t want to find temporary housing?”
I wrinkle my nose at her attempt to sound concerned about mynot-so-longstay.
Noah still hasn’t said anything.
“I don’t make enough at the diner, and my hours got cut, so it’s not really an option at this point. It’s okay though, I’m used to it. It’s how I’ve been able to travel around the country for so many years.”
Morgan leans forward, peering into my car, and giggles. “I could never, but you certainly seem like the type that could. Well, we better get gas. Hope you stay warm the next few nights. It’s going to be cold. Noah?” She’s angled her body toward their side of the gas pump, eyes flicking between me and Noah, who’s now taken up staring at my car.
“You can’t stay in that.”
“Um,yes, I can.” I kick a piece of gravel with my boot and watch it skitter across the parking lot. Who is he to tell me I can’t? I’ve done this for years. Years!
“I can’t in good conscience let you. Call it my background in law enforcement or the ranger in me, alone at night, in the cold—it’s not safe.”
“She said she’ll be fine, Noah. Stop hounding her,” Morgan says, and for once, I agree with her. I’m not sure why he’s so worried. “He’s such do-gooder, this one …”
I give Morgan a tight-lipped smile in agreement. I’ve gathered this. Especially once Noah came to check up on me in the hospital when he didn’t have to. Or somehow snagged me a piece of cake. He seems like the guy to go above and beyond, never crack under pressure, and certainly isn’t too keen on letting me sleep in my car right now.
“I’ll be fine. You two look like you’ve got somewhere to be.” I pull open my car door and slide in.
“Lily. Wait?—”
Before he can continue, I shut the door and twist the key in the ignition. The car gives a weakwhirrbefore fading into silence. My stomach churns, heat rising to my cheeks despite thecool air seeping in from the cracked window. A scoff echoes off the rusted pumps, and I avoid looking at Morgan. I can already picture her annoyance that I’m not out of the way yet.
I try once more. This time it’s a rapid clicking that fills the air, mocking me.
“Come on,” I mutter, fisting the steering wheel.
Noah approaches my window, and I sigh, offering him a quick shrug, then twist the key again and again. The same whirring and clicking follow.
My heartbeat quickens. Of all the times for my car to break down, in front of all the people. It would be my luck. At this exact moment of Noah thinking I was crazy to live in my car, I just had to go a prove him right by it not starting. Unreliable piece of?—
My door opens, and Noah ducks down to look inside my disastrous vehicle. I live out of here, and while it’s clean, it’s not clutter free. I attempt to pull the door shut, but he leans a muscled arm on the doorframe, and I choose to study a button on the sleeve of his uniform.
“Why don’t you come with us for now, and I’ll get a tow truck out here to pull it to Tommy’s, the local mechanic.”
“Tow truck?”I can’t afford that.“What am I going to do, just leave my car here?”
“Do you have any other option? You can’t stay at a gas station in a vehicle that won’t crank, Lily.”
His tone is stern, and something in me wants to crawl out of my skin with the command in his voice. Typical law enforcement—always with a hero complex. I don’t need him. I’ll be fine … right?
I glance at the darkened road ahead that’s progressively had less and less traffic, the uneasy realization sinking in …
