“Okay,” Tracy said, feeling sick to her stomach. Jacob stepped forward and gave her a hug. She hugged him back and said, “Bye, Jacob. Drive safely.”
“Will do. Bye, Dude.” Jacob got into his car and waved goodbye to them out of the driver’s window as he headed down the drive to the highway.
“When did Devereux tell you?” Cash asked her, not moving.
“Wednesday,” Tracy said, looking up at him as a couple of droplets of rain hit her.
“Wednesday?” Cash repeated with a frown. “Talk about being left in the dark. Were you planning to tell me?”
“Cash, of course I was.”
“Or were you going to ghost me again like you did after our first night together?”
“I didn’t ghost you. I thought you’d ghosted me the next day.”
“No.” Cash shook his head. “Don’t turn this around on me, Tracy. I’m not the one taking off toall four corners of the state.”
“I’m conflicted about it, Cash,” Tracy said. How could she explain that she feared he’d simply go along his merry way when she told him?
“Conflicted?” He chuckled, but it wasn’t a happy one. “Did you tell Kirk you were conflicted?”
“No.”
“No,” Cash repeated and nodded.
“Remember I told you I wanted to write children’s books and work from home?”
“I remember offering you the job of running the lodge…onThursday.” Cash turned to her and frowned.
“I could do that, Cash, and write my books.”
“Kirk told you about the assignments on Wednesday. I offered you that job the very next day. That would have been the opportune time to tell me you were leaving town instead of accepting the lodge job.”
“Your lodge won’t even be started by the time I leave.”
“So, you’re planning on going.” It wasn’t a question.
“I have to make a living, Cash.”
“I understand. But if I knew I was getting ready to leave El Paso County and didn’t know when I’d be back, I would have told you.”
“I didn’t know if you’d care, Cash.” Tracy’s throat ached and her eyes stung.
Under a day’s growth of beard, Cash’s jaw clenched. “I don’t know either, Tracy.” At the harsh tone in Cash’s voice, Dude whimpered.
“Where did you see me going tomorrow?” Tracy asked.
“I said you could stay as long as you wanted. I didn’t see you going anywhere.”
“Then you should have said something, Cash.”
“You should have, too, dammit.”
Cash threw his mug. It hit the blacktop side road close to where he’d plucked her off the ground while riding Captain. The mug smashed into pieces like Tracy’s heart. Her stomach hurt, her hands trembled, and her knees shook.
“I don’t know how to make this right, so Dude and I will leave.”
“Good timing,” Cash growled as rain fell in torrents. “Here comes your ride.”
