Ivy ignored her. “I’m hungry. When are we having our SpaghettiOs?”
“I’m going to fix them right now.”
Supper didn’t take long and she had Ivy in bed soon after they had finished their meager meal. Tory took a couple of Advil, curled up on the sofa, opened a book, and read for a while. But it didn’t take long before fatigue settled in and her eyelids began to droop.
Closing the book, she headed for bed, grateful to be sleeping on a mattress instead of the seat of the car.
* * *
Morning came way too early. Rolling out of bed with a groan, Tory showered and dressed, then got Ivy up and ready for the day. She was determined to keep this job. Iron Springs, the nearest town, wasn’t a place Damon would ever look for her.
She wondered what had happened to him after she’d left him tied up that night. He’d always been resourceful. She was sure he’d found some way to escape before too long.
She had driven for hours that night, finally pulling into a cheap motel. After that, they had moved from one town to another, always searching for someplace safe, never satisfied they had found it.
Now she was back in Texas, figuring Damon wouldn’t think she’d return to a place he had found her before, and this time she was way off the grid. She paid everything with cash, not credit cards. The cell phones she used were disposable. The only person she ever called was her best friend, Lisa Shane, whom she phoned about once a week.
At first she had missed the techno world of texting, email, Facebook, and Twitter, but little by little, she had accepted the loss as a necessity. Going one step further, when she finished talking to Lisa, she tossed the cheap plastic phone so even if Damon somehow got hold of Lisa’s cell, he wouldn’t be able to find her.
It was costly, but Lisa was her last connection to the life she had left behind. They were best friends and Tory was desperately in need of a friend. Her greatest hope was that sooner or later Damon would get tired of looking for her. He’d give up and go back to his life in Phoenix. Sooner or later she and Ivy would be safe.
Which reminded her how much she needed to keep this job.
The morning was still early, but she needed to get going. She glanced up at a knock on the door. Tory walked over and looked through the peephole, saw Josh on the porch. She pulled open the door.
“You got a minute?” he asked.
She glanced over to where Ivy sat at the kitchen table. “I’ll be right back, sweetheart.” Walking out on the porch, she closed the door. “What is it?”
“I have a neighbor friend, an older lady named Clara Thompson. She loves kids. I was thinking maybe she could stay with Ivy while you were working . . . you know, just for the next couple of days.”
“I don’t know her. I can’t leave Ivy with someone I don’t know.”
“I figured you’d say that.” He stepped back. “Mrs. T., come say hello to Tory.”
A silver-haired woman walked toward her, smiling as she climbed the steps with plenty of vigor for a lady Tory guessed to be in her late sixties.
“I’m Clara Thompson. Josh phoned last night and asked me to stop by this morning. He said you had a sweet little girl. He thought you might need a sitter for a couple of days.”
Clara Thompson had kindly blue eyes and a warm, sincere smile. She looked like the grandmother Ivy had never had. She’d been a baby when Tory’s mom had died in the same car accident that had killed her husband. Unfortunately for Ivy, Jamie’s mother had no interest in kids.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’d love to have you sit with Ivy, but the truth is, until I get paid, I can’t afford—”
“Oh, no, dear, I don’t expect you to pay me. I love children and now that my three are grown and moved away, that big house gets mighty lonely.”
A sitter would be the answer to her prayers, and Mrs. Thompson seemed really nice. With the exception of Damon, Tory had always had good instincts about people, and Josh seemed to trust the lady.
She glanced up at the sky. Yesterday had been perfect weather, but clouds were drifting in, hinting at rain.
Just then Ivy opened the door. “Aren’t you going to work, Mama?”
“Ivy, honey, this is Mrs. Thompson. She’s a neighbor.”
Mrs. Thompson smiled down at the little girl. “Hello, Ivy. It’s nice to meet you. I have two great-granddaughters about your age, but they live in Houston so I don’t get to see them very often.”
“You’re a grandma?”
“That’s right.”
