The urge to scream boiled in Snow’s chest. As confident as she’d been in her speech to Vivien, the fear that Caleb would never believe her was suffocating. The thought put her feet into motion. Snow flew out the back door and ran down the alley in time to see Caleb’s Jeep drive down Main Street. She patted her pockets for her cell phone, forgetting she’d left it in her purse.
Plowing through the front door of the store, she nearly knocked three customers down in her haste to reach the counter.
“Where’s the fire?” Lorelei asked, stepping out of the way before Snow could barrel her over. “And where did you go? I’ve been running the entire floor out here by myself.”
Snow ignored the questions as she grabbed her phone. She called Caleb’s cell, but after one ring the line went to voice mail. She tried again with the same result.
“Dammit.” This couldn’t be happening. Every second he drove might as well have been a hundred miles.
“What happened?” Lorelei asked, her normal smart-aleck nature gone. “Take a breath and tell me what’s going on.”
“He’s gone,” she said, holding her phone in both hands as if it were her only connection to Caleb. “My husband is gone and I don’t know if he’s coming back.”
Chapter 25
Caleb drove with no destination in mind, running on autopilot while his mind was back at the store, standing in Snow’s storage room as his heart was being ripped from his chest and volleyed back and forth between the two women who claimed to love him. If there had been another man, where was he now? Was it over? Was he the reason Snow ended up in Ardent Springs? She never did explain how she got here. No one wanders into a speck of a town that they’ve never heard of before.
She’d been adamant that she hadn’t left him for another man, but if Snow was telling the truth, then his mother was lying. Why would his own mother lie to him? Then again, she’d lied to him for a year and a half. Months of anger, panic, and flat-out worry about his wife and she’d known all along. How could she watch him go through that?
But then how could his wife ask his own mother to lie for her? She was so concerned about her own parents not being burdened with her secret, but she never gave a second thought to how he’d feel when he learned how much he’d been betrayed.
By both of them.
One gave him life, and the other gave his life meaning. But they’d both lied. Last time Caleb checked, you didn’t lie to someone you loved.
Surfacing from his thoughts, Caleb realized he was headed for the interstate. Coming up on Cooper’s garage, he veered in and parked at a pump. If he was going to keep driving, he’d need a full tank.
Turning off his brain, he followed his instincts and pumped the gas.
“Hey there,” Cooper said, coming up behind him. “You out battling the crazy shoppers today?”
“No,” Caleb said, locking the pump handle to run on its own. “Just taking a drive.”
Cooper learned against the pump. “You don’t look good, man. What’s going on?”
With a shake of his head, Caleb said, “I wouldn’t know where to start.” Then a question popped out of his mouth. “Do you remember when Snow came to town?”
“Sure,” the mechanic said. “I’m the one who towed her in.”
“Towed?”
“Her car broke down on I-65, and she managed to get it up the exit ramp. Brody over at the PD found her and called me.” He crossed his arms. “Poor thing needed a new transmission, and I was backed up for days. Miss Hattie happened to be here getting her oil changed, and she gave Snow a place to stay. By the time I got her up and running, she’d decided to stay.”
“Was she alone?” Caleb asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer, but unable to hold his tongue.
“She was when I found her. I wondered why she never put herself on the market around here, but I guess since y’all were doing the long-distance thing, that explains it.”
“Yeah,” Caleb said, sliding the nozzle back into the pump. “That explains it.”
So she’d been alone when she landed in Ardent Springs. That didn’t mean she’d been alone the night she left him.
And she had left him.
As he stared east toward I-65, anger and hurt churned in his gut like something rotten brewing in the late-day sun. Maybe it was time Snow learned how it felt to be the one left behind. Only this time, there would be no happy reunion .
“Thanks for everything, Cooper,” Caleb said, climbing into his driver’s seat.
“Anytime,” the mechanic answered, giving a brief wave.