Page 49 of Quarter Miles (Runaway 3)

“You’re welcome.” Aria yawned and checked the time on her phone. “Okay, I’d better get home. I have to be back at five thirty. We try not to let the guests see us with our hands dirty.”

I signaled the waiter for our check, having him charge it to our room. Then we stood from the table and before Kat even had her feet, Aria had pulled her into another hug. “God, it’s good to see you.”

“You too.” Katherine squeezed her, then let go.

“What are you up to tomorrow?” Aria asked as we weaved past tables, making our way toward the exit.

“Not much,” Kat answered.

“I need to get some work done first thing in the morning but come and find me whenever you get up. Just tell the front desk to page me.”

“Okay.” Kat hugged Aria again, then waved goodbye as her friend walked through the lobby. Katherine stared at her until she disappeared behind a door marked Employees Only, her shoulders sagging as it closed.

“You okay?”

“I wish I hadn’t lost touch with her. With all of them.”

“You found her now. And you’ll always have Gemma close.”

Katherine hummed. Was that a yes? A no? I used to understand her hums.

“Should we go up?” My mouth went dry as I finished the question. There would be no more escaping the bed or the fact that what I really wanted to do was kiss her again. To worship her body until we both passed out.

“Actually, I think I’m going to take a walk.” Kat tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’ll be up in a while.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“I was going to go to the beach. I thought you didn’t like the smell.”

Was that why it had taken her so long to get that stamp for Grandma’s postcard earlier? Kat had probably escaped to the beach.

“The beach is fine.” Not as good as Montana, but it was a sight to behold. My irritation earlier hadn’t been with the smell but with how Kat had seemed to instantly fall in love with the place. “Lead the way.”

She crossed the lobby and the moment we walked outside, the evening breeze picked up the loose curls of her hair. She’d spent an hour twisting it into soft waves, a style I’d seen more times on this trip than I had in the past five years combined.

My God, she was sexy. The clothes. Her hair. The dark, smoky shadow on her eyelids and the peach on her cheeks. My attention was so fixed on her that I barely registered the stairs as we descended the long staircase off the deck and I tripped over a few, catching myself on the railing before I fell. The steps led us down the cliffs to the beach below and though there was much to see, my eyes were glued to the sway of her hips and the way her hair swung across her shoulders.

Finally, when we hit the sand, I looked out and let the power of the ocean hit me square in the chest. It really was magnificent, like Kat. When I stopped fighting it, when I pulled the blinders down, it was spectacular.

Our feet dug into the beach as we made our way across the sand. Then we stood at the edge of the surf, staring out at the dark water, its waves catching the silver moonlight in diamond glitters.

“I like the beach,” she whispered, so quietly I wasn’t sure she was talking to me or simply telling herself.

“I didn’t know you had a cat at the junkyard.”

“It was only a stray but I loved it. I named her Patch. She was my companion. Londyn and Gemma were always the closest. Londyn dated Karson so the three of them were together a lot. And Aria and Clara were inseparable. I was normally the odd one out and that cat . . .”

That cat had been hers and hers alone. “Why didn’t you bring Patch to Montana?”

“A wild cat on a bus?” She scoffed. “Yeah, that would have gone over well.”

“Do you want to get a new cat?” We had a ton of barn cats roaming around free because they kept the mice away. There were constantly litters of kittens. Or I’d take her to a pet store and get her one from there.

“Maybe someday.” She shrugged. “When I get my own place.”

“You know, you don’t have to move.”

“Yes, I do.”