No Ordinary Home. Mary Sullivan

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СКАЧАТЬ man could carry on whole conversations with his unruly eyebrows.

      That raised brow said everything he wouldn’t utter in front of the woman. They’d been best friends for more than fifteen years. Austin could almost read Finn’s mind, imagined every word he wouldn’t say out loud.

       Are you for real, Austin? We’re on the road, on vacation, and you pick up a stray? You can’t stop yourself from helping people, can you? Not even on vacation.

      Ready to defend his actions, Austin halted at the quirk of Finn’s lips, because the man was glancing from his scratched cheek to the small woman beside him.

       Again, man, really? You let that little thing get the better of you? Some cop you are.

      Austin wanted to say she was stronger than she looked, but shame had him holding his tongue. And a certain odd loyalty to the woman he’d only just met. Then his humor kicked in and he grinned and shrugged.

      Finn grinned, too, and the tension between them eased.

      It would be a shame to let a woman, a stranger, come between a pair of good friends.

      Even so, at the moment, Austin’s loyalty was to Gracie, because of her hunger and poverty. Finn had never known a day of need in his life. Austin had. He understood desperation. He totally got despair.

      To his credit, Finn had held himself back from asking what had happened while he’d waited for Austin inside the diner.

      “As soon as Gracie is finished we can go.” Austin turned his attention to her. “Where’re you going from here?”

      She shrugged. He didn’t like the thought of her on the road, even if she was tough enough to handle anything that came along. He wondered if she fully understood the dangers to a woman alone in these places.

      If she’d robbed a different kind of man, if it had been late at night with fewer people around, she might have been in more trouble than she could handle. And behind the building, no one would have heard her scream. The thought chilled him. She might be stronger than she looked, but hunger had left her depleted.

      “Where did you sleep last night?”

      She shrugged again. He grasped her wrist and repeated the question.

      She put down a spoonful of rice pudding and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. She’d been raised to have manners. He’d noticed her speech was good, her grammar correct, better than his. She hadn’t been raised poor. He’d bet on that. So, what was her story?

      “I know you’re feeding me and I appreciate it,” she said, tugging on her wrist until he let go, “but where I sleep is nobody’s business but my own.”

      “You made it mine when you stole my wallet.”

      “She what?” Finn leaned forward, expression fierce. “Why haven’t you called the cops? Instead, you’re feeding her?”

      Austin raised a hand to placate his friend. “She stole my wallet, but I caught her and got everything back.” Finn looked angry enough to spit bullets. Or maybe that should be tranquilizing darts. After all, the guy was a veterinarian. Naw. The way he was staring at Gracie was pretty lethal. Austin figured he’d better appease him. “She apologized—didn’t you, Gracie?”

      She nodded. She’d returned to her pudding and her mouth was full. Good thing. It prevented her from lying. Or maybe she lied easily. He knew nothing about her.

      “Where are you headed?” he asked again. “Where are you sleeping tonight?” Last thing he needed was a woman depending on him—he’d had a bellyful of that, more than one man should have to bear in only thirty-one years—but he couldn’t help worrying. The world was a dangerous place, especially for a woman on her own.

      “I’m trying to get to Denver. I’m hoping to hitch a ride from here to the nearest town.”

      She was heading to Denver? So were they.

      Finn must have seen the wheels turning in Austin’s mind because he shook his head. “No. No, no, no. Stop thinking what you’re thinking, Austin.”

      Finn had sat through enough of Austin’s griping sessions to know exactly how hard Austin’s life was with his mom. Finn’s eyebrow shot up again. Don’t take on another needy woman, man.

      Sensing the tension, Gracie’s head shot up. “Are you heading to Denver?”

      Austin nodded.

      She swallowed the last gulp of her milk. “Can I hitchhike to the next town? I’ll be no trouble. You can drop me off there and I’ll find my own place to sleep. I promise,” she said, her voice full of both desperation and hope. “Just give me a ride that far. I can make my own way to Denver later. I’ll be no trouble. Honest.”

      Finn groaned. Austin knew why. They’d been best friends since high school, and he knew Austin inside out. He knew there was no way Austin would—could—say no.

      “Okay, but only as far as Casper. We’re stopping there so Finn can visit a friend.” They could drop Gracie there. The last thing, the very last thing Austin needed was a woman hanging on to him.

      * * *

      GRACIE SAT IN the back seat of Austin’s old SUV doing sums in her small notebook. She wouldn’t pay him back for the gas since they were going this way anyway, but she would pay him back for everything she’d ordered at lunch.

      She remembered to add the extra dollar for rye toast.

      This ride to the next town would give her ankle a chance to heal. Things couldn’t have worked out better.

      Fascinated by the bantering between the men in the front seat, she eavesdropped shamelessly. She’d been on the road so long she didn’t know what a normal friendship felt like. Thinking back, she couldn’t remember having had one.

      The friends she’d had as a child had all been adults and transitory, coming and going as careers and jobs changed.

      These men had a strong friendship. She sensed how deep and real it was and it filled her with envy.

      Finn talked; Austin listened. She’d learned this lesson about relationships—in many, one was the talker and the other the listener, one the social butterfly and the other happy to take a back seat.

      “No way will they lose this year,” Finn said. “Even on their bad days, they’re miles better than the Broncos.”

      She’d lost track of the conversation, something about sports teams, but she’d missed which sport they were discussing, distracted by a gurgling in her stomach. She rubbed it.

      In the rearview mirror, Austin glanced at her. She settled her hand back into her lap. The man didn’t miss much. Good cop. That was all she needed, to have this guy pester her with an I told you so.

      “They’re an awesome team,” Austin said. “Even if they did lose this year. They could go all the way next year.”

      If he said I told you so, he would be right. She should have eaten less food more slowly.

      Finn СКАЧАТЬ