“Do you think they’ll be able to check that at the gas station?”
The guy scratched his chin.“Rufus is no mechanic, but he’ll have antifreeze.The auto shop is over in Hickory Hill—about fifteen miles from here.Do you know it?”
Kind of.I’d driven through there a half hour before the warning light came on, and it was in the wrong direction.I didn’t want to go back toward Maine, not when I’d put so much effort into getting away from there.And would I even be able to afford a repair?I did some quick calculations—we’d driven over four hundred miles since we left New Hampshire, so the hole in the radiator couldn’t be that big, right?As long as I carried spare bottles of coolant in the car, we’d be able to keep going through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.A thousand miles, and I’d be able to breathe again.
“I actually need to meet a friend in Baltimore this evening.”If the stranger thought I might be missed, then maybe he’d be less likely to murder me at the side of the road, right?“He can help me find a mechanic.”
Men would respect another man they’d never met over a woman standing in front of them; Ridge had taught me that much.And yet I’d spent years trying to earn that respect.Years trying to keep him happy at the expense of my own well-being.
In the end, it had taken one simple kiss for me to see the light.Saylor’s new husband, Kevin, had come to pick her up after our training class, and I’d watched from the shadows on the other side of the parking lot as he helped her to load Snowy the husky into the back of their SUV, then opened the passenger door.Before she climbed inside, he’d kissed her forehead.That was it.Just one forehead kiss when he thought nobody was watching, but it showed me everything I was missing.Kindness.Support.Love.I’d been living in denial for years, believing I was unworthy of a man’s attention unless the house was spotless and dinner was waiting on the table when he came home.I’d played my part, but I still never got a forehead kiss, just a possessive hand around my wrist when we were out in public.
And I’d only gone to the training classes in the first place because Shiro hated Ridge.Such a smart dog.I’d had to train him well enough that he didn’t growl every time Ridge came near, otherwise Ridge would have taken him on a one-way trip to the veterinarian.
“Then stay on this road,” the stranger told me.“The gas station’s on the right, a small place with a blue canopy and a six-foot yellow chicken outside.”
“A six-foot chicken?”
“The feed store is on the same lot.Rufus’s wife runs it.Real nice lady.”He nodded toward Shiro.“Always has a bowl of doggie treats on the counter.”
“Thank you for your help.”
He tipped an imaginary hat.“You have a good day, ma’am.”
Good was relative, wasn’t it?But it couldn’t be worse than the last few months of my marriage to Ridge.
CHAPTER6
JUSTIN
“So where’s the ring now?”Brax asked three days later.
After the fight, Melanie had taken a cab to the airport, and Justin hadn’t heard from her since.But she must have spoken to people in New York, because the news had trickled down the social grapevine and reached Brax’s ears at mid-afternoon today.Rather than interrogate Justin over the phone, he’d picked him up at seven, then gone to collect Grey Meyer, and now they were in the VIP area of an uncomfortably hip DC joint filled with men who made the wheels of government turn and beautiful women wearing shoes that looked eye-wateringly painful.Three of the women had already tried approaching Grey, and he’d given each of them a subtle shake of the head.He’d been forced to tone down his debauchery since being elected to Congress.Voters on his side of the aisle didn’t tolerate scandal.The final person at their table was Ava, Grey’s chief of staff, a no-nonsense British import who took it upon herself to act as chaperone.
“The ring is still in the HVAC duct.Do you think I wasn’t supportive enough?”
“Buddy, you paid for her to move to New York to get the job she wanted,” Brax said.“She was a second-rate masseuse before she got involved with you.”
“Not second-rate.I mean, she was great at getting the kinks out of my shoulders.”
Grey smacked his head.“Way to miss the point.Which is that she didn’t have the drive or ambition to make the move until you handed her everything she needed on a plate.Are you still paying the rent on the Brooklyn apartment?”
“I can’t leave her destitute.”
“How much does she earn now?”
“We’ve never gotten into that.”
“And you were planning to get married?She probably makes more than you do.And if you want my thoughts, her ‘doting girlfriend’ mask began to slip right after we advised you to get a prenup.Without it, she would’ve bled you dry.”
Grey wasn’t wrong; Justin just hadn’t wanted to see it.Brax had been half joking when he mentioned signing a prenup, but Melanie’s reaction rang enough alarm bells that Justin had asked his lawyer to draw up the paperwork, despite her protests that, “We shouldn’t need a piece of paper when we love each other.You do love me, don’t you?”
Ava put a hand on Justin’s.“Look, I know that officially, I should be on Team Sisterhood, but she was taking the bloody piss.Stop being a doormat.”
“I’ve been telling him that for months,” Brax added, and she shot a withering glare in his direction.
“Your opinion is tempered by the fact that you spent a decade married to a psycho.It doesn’t hold much weight.”
Grey tried defending him.“His second wife is remarkably normal.”
