Touching Down(14)

There was a click on the other end. Just when I was expecting an automated message about this number no longer being in service, his voice greeted me instead. “Hello?” He didn’t sound like he’d been asleep.

“Grant?” I exhaled with relief. “It’s—”

“What’s the matter, Ryan?” In the background, I heard some noise like he was moving around quickly.

“I don’t know.” Too much adrenaline was coursing through me, my heart still throbbing. “There’re people, lots of them, outside.” I could only speak in broken thoughts and sentences.

“What people?” The background noise came to a sudden quiet.

My mind searched for the word. The very word that was on the top of my mind, but I couldn’t pull from the hard drive. Moments like this drove me crazy. They made me feel like I’d already lost my mind, and that only made finally latching onto the word that much more difficult.

“Ryan?” Grant’s voice was sharp, worry making it so.

“The press.” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I knew I’d arrived at them. “They’re here. Dozens of them. Asking me a bunch of questions about you.”

There was a minute of silence, the only noise the sound of my heart echoing in my eardrums. Then it sounded like he’d lowered the phone before popping off a few colorful words.

“I’ll be right there.” His voice was surprisingly collected. “Just stay where you are. I’ll come around back and call you when I’m outside.”

“Wait . . . no. Grant?”

But I was too late. The phone had already gone dead.

When his text came saying he was waiting out back, the clock on the wall suggested that fifteen minutes had gone by, but it felt like I’d just exhaled and Grant was here. I could still hear the buzz of the media out front, and I could just make out the faint rumble of his truck out back. When I’d checked into the motel two days ago, I’d been apprehensive about having two ways to get in and out, but in this instance, it felt like more of a blessing.

Never mind the fact that I couldn’t leave.

Cinching the tie of my robe tighter, I moved toward the back door quietly. I unlocked the door and opened it to find Grant’s truck about as close to the building as it could get without damaging it, the passenger door already thrown open.

“What are you doing in a bathrobe?” Grant looked fresh from a shower and was in an old pair of jeans and an inside-out T-shirt. He didn’t have any shoes on. He’d obviously left his hotel in a hurry. “Never mind. Just jump in and let’s get out of here.” When I stayed where I was, silent and still, his brows pulled together. “Ryan, come on.”

My body gave a sudden tremble, which Grant must have interpreted as me being too nervous or scared to move because he started to slide down the bench to come help me.

“I can’t leave,” I whispered.

“It’s fine. We can get you some clothes later, but we need to get out of here before they figure out we’re back here.” Grant kept sliding out of his truck.

“I’m not leaving, Grant.” My voice wasn’t a whisper this time. “I can’t.”

He stopped moving, his brows drawing together. “Why not?”

My lungs filled. “Because I can’t.”

When I looked into the motel room then back at the truck, Grant’s expression went blank. One moment later it cleared, his brows drawing together.

“I am one dumb fucker, aren’t I?” He huffed as his head shook. “You’ve got someone in there with you, don’t you?” He only waited a moment. “Don’t you?”

My silence must have confirmed it for him. Or maybe it was my expression. “Grant—”

“Don’t, Ryan. Just fucking don’t.” He scooted back behind the steering wheel, glaring out the window. “You called, and I showed up two minutes later like the idiot I am.”

My mind was struggling to find the right thing to say to him, the right way to explain everything, but nothing would come.

“Good-bye, Ryan,” was all he said, refusing to look my way before gunning his truck down the back alley, passenger door still wide open.

I couldn’t say it back. I wouldn’t.

Not yet.





“THANKS FOR COMING over.”

Cruz smiled at me as I carried a couple of cups of tea into the living room. “I was planning on being here either way, so no problem.”

“After this morning, all of those people and cameras and questions, and then Grant . . .” I handed him his cup before settling onto the couch beside him with mine. “I guess I just needed someone to talk to.”