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“Asshole,” I muttered to the bed sheets. It felt good saying it out loud. It gave me a little more strength than I had moments before. Speaking truth to words.
I wished I had that six-pack right about now. Or a bottle of good whiskey. It was almost tempting to walk back into town and have a few drinks at Flop’s.
Almost.
I pulled out my phone to call Momma, then remembered she was still volunteering at the bingo hall. She wouldn’t be home for another two hours.
Instead, I re-read the text from Jayce. It didn’t sting as much as it had the first four times I’d read it. My better judgement was telling me to brush my teeth and call it an early night, but the sinking pit in my stomach made my fingers fly across the screen keyboard.
Jayce replied almost instantly.
Charlotte: Want to forget what you said earlier, and come screw my brains out until I feel better? I don’t care if it’s only physical.
Jayce: As much as I want to, it’s too dangerous.
Jayce: Sorry, Peaches.
I winced. It was the response I had expected, but it was worth trying anyways. Now I just felt like the desperate fool who couldn’t handle rejection.
I fell back on the bed and groaned. Tomorrow was going to be awkward. Maybe I could play it off as a joke with Jayce. Hopefully he still made an extra sandwich for lunch. Without any money, that might be my only meal tomorrow. Heck, the payment for the next week in the motel was due tomorrow, too. I might be living out of my car pretty soon.
And paying ten bucks a day in parking fees, too.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, a hard knock came on my door.
37
Charlotte
I froze in bed, too scared to move. Moments later, the knock came again. I shifted to look out the window, but my curtains were drawn.
Thrown into an uneasy situation, my brain automatically created a list of who could be at my door this late. On the harmless end of the spectrum was Billy coming to let me know that cold beer had magically arrived in the lobby. But that wasn’t as likely as the other, more dangerous end of the spectrum. It could be the sheriff coming to complain about my unpaid car parking fees, or snooping around to pin some new crime on me so I’d be stuck in this town even longer.
Or it could be the Copperheads.
A tingle went down my spine as that thought grew roots and buried itself in my psyche. The Copperheads had figured out what we’d done with Carl. Or they’d figured out that Jayce and I slept together last night. I wasn’t sure which was worse.
The knock came again, harder and angrier this time.
I could hide. Lock myself in the bathroom and pretend like I wasn’t home. But it was futile—I’d just gotten back to the motel minutes ago. They would have seen me come inside. They’d knock down the door and then they would bereallyangry. Upsetting them might change a bad situation to worse.
I walked to the door, numb to my fate and hoping I could feign innocence.
When I opened it, Jayce stood there.
“Didn’t think you were gonna open up, Peaches.”
The fingers gripping my heart relaxed. “Why didn’t you announce yourself!”
“Kinda tryin’ to keep quiet. Didn’t want to go yelling and disturbing Billy at the front desk.”
I frowned. “What’s wrong? Why are you here?”
He fixed me with his cobalt gaze, curious and intense. He didn’t need to say a word.
He’s here responding to my text message.
“You said it was too dangerous,” I said.
