“Honestly, I’m too tired to refuse you on principle.”
The walk to the underground garage where I keep the cars I prefer to drive myself is silent. My driver is tolerable, but once in a while, I want to get behind the wheel. Eliza is nervous, looking over her shoulder at the two security guards following us.
“Don’t mind them. They’ll be in another car.” My security chief might hate it, but I’m not sharing my alone time with Eliza with anybody else.
Her forehead creases and she rubs her arm. “Do they follow you everywhere?”
“Most of the time,” I say cautiously. I don’t want to rattle her.
“Back home—I mean, when you stayed at the cabin,” she corrects herself, “they weren’t with you.”
“They hovered in the area.”
She flinches and now I hate myself for not coming clean sooner. “Not around the house, don’t worry. Just close enough to drop in in less than two minutes.”
“That sounds very close,” she bites. “I wish you’d have told me I had eyes on me all that time.”
I round the car and get the door for her, holding my hand out. She eyes it like I’m handing her a hot poker, but the Porsche is too low for her to sit in that tight dress and high heels without help.
Her soft hand lands in mine and I hold on to the lifeline, soaking in the surge of electricity going up my arm. When she wants to pull it away, I don’t let go. “I never let them come too close. The team only knew my location.”
Relief softens the lines of her face, and she nods. “OK.”
“Which airport?” I ask her as we climb the ramp that leads outside the building.
Eliza clears her throat and folds her hands over her lap. “Penn Station, please.”
I’m confused, why would she…? The answer hits me in the head with the bluntness of a brick. She traveled all this way only to help my sister for a few hours. “I’m getting you on a plane. It’s too far.”
“Don’t waste your money on me. I don’t want it.” She bristles. “I left my truck in Portland anyway.”
“I’d spend as much as it takes to know you’re safe.”
Eliza gulps and shakes her head. “I can handle it.”
After some back and forth I comply. She’s getting annoyed and she hates me enough as it is.
So much time thinking about Eliza since I returned, and I have no idea where to start. “Thank you for the tea.” I go for a safer topic.
Eliza doesn’t say anything, looking straight ahead at the cars dragging along us.
“I love it. It reminds me of Silver Lake Falls, of the dock,” I admit. “Of you.”
Pain flashes across her light brown eyes and I know I can’t keep beating around the bush and let Eliza go without telling her that nothing I said that night was true.
“I’m sorry”, I tell her, voice thick with emotion. “The things that came out of my mouth had nothing to do with you and everything to do with my messed-up head. I regret saying that to you as much as I regret having to leave.”
Eliza sits straighter, her jaw set. “I bet Alicia was happy to have you back sooner,” she replies evenly, unaffected by my apology.
“What?” The goddamn pictures from the gala. “Don’t believe what you see in the news. She is nothing to me.”
She peers out the window, not meeting my eyes, and it’s a struggle to keep my hands to myself.
“I panicked and got tunnel vision. It was hard to get out of that state.”
“Not even for a goodbye?” The hurt in her voice is raw.
I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. “I was a mess.”
