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“Mmm-hmm. Did you sleep with her?”
“What? No.” The abrupt change of subject threw him off, but the denial was automatic.
“You want to, though.” This wasn’t a question, so he didn’t have to respond. “What else did she tell you about this husband of hers?”
Tom cast through his memories of his weeks with Lexie and came up with … “Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Absolutely nothing. She talked to him on the phone sometimes, but she never said a word about him.”
Come to think of it, that was a little strange.
“Does she wear a ring?”
“No, but I just figured that was because of the ride. You know, that she wouldn’t want to bang it up or lose it in some campground shower or something.”
Taryn started laughing then, and he came close to hanging up on her. He would’ve done it, but he wanted to know what she was laughing about.
“Are you ever going to shut up and tell me what’s so funny?”
She wheezed into the phone. “I love you to pieces, but you can be such a moron. Let me spell it out for you: Lexie doesn’t have a husband. She was just pissed off at you for being such a jerk that you implied, three minutes after you met her, that she wanted to get into your pants. So she made one up.”
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“I do know that. Women who are married talk about their husbands. Trust me, I have a lot of married friends, and three-quarters of their stories are Frank-this, Bob-that, I-told-Rich-to-such-and-such. They can’t shut up about them. I bet you fifty bucks Lexie isn’t married.”
That was a bet he’d be happy to lose. “What’s the point? I’m not going to see her again. I don’t even know where she is.”
“Yeah, hon, you do. She’s on the TransAmerica Trail, heading east. How hard could it be to find her? All you have to do is stay put and wait.”
She had a point.
But he wasn’t going to wait for Lexie to catch up. He missed her, yeah, and he wanted her. Married or not, though, she was much better off without him in her life.
“I can hear you, you know,” Taryn said.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Yeah, but I can hear the wheels grinding in that thick skull of yours. You’re talking yourself out of going after her. You know, someday, you might want to think about doing something to make yourself happy again. Because it’s already been six years, and six years is a really long time to mope.”
God, not this again. “Taryn—”
“Don’t get me wrong. I believe in you. I think you have it in you to keep up the moping for a good couple of decades, maybe even for the rest of your life. It’s just, you might want to cast about in your memories and see if you can come up with a list of things you actually did wrong to deserve eternal torment. Because I can’t think of a single one. The way I remember it, you were the good guy. You deserve a little happiness.”
“I’m hanging up on you now.”
“Yeah, right, okay. Forbidden subject. I get it. Take care of yourself, little brother. Go find your girl.”
He cut off the connection, dropped the phone, ran both hands through his hair.
Then he got on his bike and started riding east.
9
Dillon, Montana, to West Yellowstone, Montana. 1,325 miles traveled.
One hundred forty-eight miles. That was how far he rode before he finally gave up and admitted he had to know for sure.
