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Grace nodded, though she kept her glare straight on Cole as Eve moved away.
She hadn’t been saying that, had she?
“I’m in the middle of a business conversation, Cole. What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me? You’re leaving?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re leaving Jackson,” he said, more certain of what he’d heard now. His pulse tripped and tumbled. “After what you said last night, you’re just standing here talking about taking off.”
“What did I say last night?”
He couldn’t believe this. It was happening again. Promises and lies and then a casual goodbye as if he barely even had a right to that.
“Cole—”
“You said you were going to stay.”
“I did not. I didn’t say anything like that.”
“You’re kidding, right? Do you not remember anything we talked about last night?”
She crossed her arms and looked at him as if he was the bad guy. “Of course I remember. I whined about my life and then I said I was going to change it. I didn’t say anything about staying in Wyoming!”
“Staying in Wyoming,” he murmured, not quite able to draw enough breath. She said it as if it was the most absurd phrase ever spoken. The most ridiculous idea ever posed. Staying in Wyoming. With him. “Right. Of course. Why would you ever stay here? Unless, of course, Eve Hill needed help. Then you might stay. Or if your aunt offered you a place to live. Or if you had nowhere else to go. Other than that, why would you even think of staying, Grace?”
She shook her head. “I don’t get what you’re upset about. I’m going to Vancouver. I told you that before.”
“Yeah, you did. And then last night, I thought… Jesus, what does it matter? You’re going. That’s it, right?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Eve thinks she might be able to find me a job.”
“Well, then, you’d better run as fast as you can, Grace. You’ve got a job waiting for you out there. Anything else? Or is it just the job? Nothing more meaningful than that? Just like this vacant apartment in this shitty little town. One little dot on the map to keep you going. One more meaningless physical connection to the earth since there’s nothing else holding you down.”
Her eyes blazed for a moment, showing amber in the depths of brown. But she shook her head and blew out a slow, deep breath. “I’m sorry if you misunderstood me.”
“I didn’t misunderstand shit. I see you, Grace. I see you and I thought I liked the real girl inside you. Last night, you were honest. For once. And I thought I liked you. But now you’re back to lying and running. You’re back to fear.”
She glanced around as if she were afraid someone might hear. She stepped closer and lowered her voice. “I’m not afraid. I’m looking for something real.”
“A job?”
“Yes, a job! And hope. A future. Eve thinks maybe she has an in with a scouting company. So, I can do the stuff I’ve been doing for her.”
“Listen to yourself. You want to go all the way to Vancouver in hopes of what? The same job you actually have here?”
“This isn’t the place for me,” she said on a furious whisper.
“Why?”
“You already said it yourself. I don’t belong here. I don’t fit in.”
“You don’t belong anywhere,” he snapped.
Grace gasped and stumbled back from him.
“You don’t want to belong. You have no idea who you’d be if you fit in. People accept you here, Grace. You want to talk about Wyoming like it’s some backwater, but people like you here. So if you don’t fit in, it’s because you’re throwing your arms out and yelling that you won’t be made to. Stop pretending like it’s everyone else. It’s you.”
