“Do you want some company?”
“No, thanks.” She turned and walked away.
Cain had hoped tonight would be the start of something good in his life, instead he’d ended up with Betsy walking away. Something about the way she took each step reminded him of other situations he’d found himself in through the years.
A couple rows over, Betsy paused and turned to face him. “Hey, Cain.”
“Yeah?” He leaned back against the tailgate of his truck.
“You haven’t been back in town but a couple months.”
“So?” He had no idea what that had to do with anything, and he didn’t aim to open his mouth on that fact. Might get himself in even more trouble with her tonight.
“A lot has happened since you left Crayton years ago. Mostly good. Some bad.”
He noticed she was unconsciously rubbing her wrist again. She seemed to do that a lot. Plus, the tone of her voice had tensed. Wherever this conversation was headed, there was no sign of a smile being included.
“Such as?” he asked.
She pulled her hair back and tightened it with a scrunchie from her pocket. Opened her mouth to speak, then turned and walked away. “Never mind.”
“Not good enough, Betsy. You started this conversation.” He straightened from the tailgate and stepped further into the glow from a halogen parking lot light overhead. “Now finish it.”
She stopped and looked back over her shoulder as the light from the neon Joanie’s sign caught her in the splash of its movement. On and off. Shades of green and blue and yellow. Brighter, then darker, then fading into a final burst of color before beginning the neon dance once again.
“Finish it? Okay. I cried the day I realized you’d left town. You see, I was just a naïve high school girl who thought we were friends. You didn’t even take time to say good-bye.”
“Betsy, I?—”
“You say I’ve always been the one. I doubt that.” She tilted her head and chastised him with her raised-eyebrow smirk once again. “I really, really doubt that.”
For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out how their kiss had evolved into this. And he sure didn’t like the serious tone the whole event was taking. Not many people were allowed to rebuke him, even fewer were allowed to walk away from the confrontation without a fight. But right now, he felt like he was being dressed down by the best of them, so he’d stand and listen. In his opinion, who they’d been in their teens had nothing to do with who they were now. At least, not entirely.
Ripping off the scrunchie, she shook her hair free and let it fall. “Don’t worry though, you haven’t always been the one in my life. Everything hasn’t always been sunshine and roses, either. I learned the hard way not to count on anyone but myself.”
She turned and walked toward the entrance. Her boot heels were quieter on the pavement now as she crossed the parking lot. Softer than when she’d followed him outside.
“I wish you’d never come back to Crayton, Cain. I’m not the same person you left behind,” she said as she opened the restaurant door and disappeared inside.
He had no idea what he’d expected to hear. But certainly nothing could have prepared him for her words. Caught off guard, he was utterly speechless. His gut told him someone had hurt her badly. Could he have prevented it if he’d chosen a different career? Maybe. Maybe not. But there was nothing he could do to change what had happened.
A bigger question was whether he could do anything to move the past to the side. Would she even give him the chance to show her how the future could be different? That he wasn’t like whoever had hurt her. Hell, truth be known, he wasn’t even close to being that high school graduate who’d driven away from Crayton and never looked back.
There’d been a lot of times during his DEA career when he’d watched victims or their family walk away from devastating trials or meetings. Whether they reached out to shake his hand or give him a torrent of angry words, he’d always stayed professional. But there had a been a few times when people had walked into his arms and cried. Sobbing in relief. In anger. In fear.
Right now, all he wanted to do was take Betsy in his arms and let her cry. But that wasn’t going to happen, so he might as well head home. As he jumped into the cab of his pickup, he caught sight of a white Stetson laying in the passenger’s side floor bed.
Shadow!
Cain clicked on the overhead light and set the hat on the dashboard. One of many call signs they’d used when working a case together. Only he wasn’t on a case, he was on leave from the DEA. He scanned the perimeter for the response. Maybe the other agent had simply left him a gift as a hello.
Across the street he saw a quick-moving penlight. Cain responded by clicking off the overhead light, then eased out of the pickup and quietly closed the door.
Shadow was here and wanted to talk. That meant trouble for someone. Nothing about this could turn out good. In fact, this whole night had turned into one hell of a snowball rolling downhill.
CHAPTER FIVE
Cain skirted the parking lot in front of Joanie’s before walking to the overflow lot across the street. A cold chill crossed his shoulders, and it wasn’t the winter wind or the snow in the air causing the sensation.
