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“Up and run?” I echoed, confused.
“That’s Grace’s plan for when things got to be too much for her,” Shay told me unsteadily. “So, if you care about her at all, I need you to do me a favor and make sure she doesn’t do that. Tell her she can’t ghost us.”
Chapter 6
Grace
My back ached, but I kept a smile plastered on my face. I was exhausted, but I already had my share of the rent and utilities paid. Now I was just working toward a down payment on a car. I was sorely tempted to go to another dealership to buy one, so I wouldn’t risk giving Kyle a commission for it.
But I had a goal, and I could see the finish line. Sure, it would take more than a week to get it, but it was something that I could see. Plus, it helped me avoid a strained conversation with Shay.
Elle bumped into me from behind, drawing me out of my thoughts. “Your boyfriend’s here,” she hollered over the thrum of music.
She blatantly pointed at Cam, and I cursed. He sat at the bar, looking slightly frazzled. His hair had this messy quality to it, suggesting he had spent a good amount of the day running his hands through it. The sleeves of his button-down were rolled up to his elbows, and he had the top few buttons undone so I could see the undershirt he wore. There was nothing accusing on his face, but his expression gave me a hint about how his week had been.
I put a beer in front of him, and he waved it away. “I’ll be outside at closing. Don’t dodge me,” he shouted over the music.
I deflated, but nodded. Cameron didn’t look angry—he looked depressed. Given our situation, it was understandable. I just wished he hadn’t decided he had to confront me about it.
I didn’t have a solution for him, or for Adam. Darius had gone completely ghost. I couldn’t blame him. Kyle had wrecked everything, and I hadn’t really attempted to fix anything.
Though if I was honest, it was because I was afraid that Darius would have the same reaction Adam did. I didn’t know if I could handle it. It was hard enough to swallow from one man. I couldn’t hack it from another. I was afraid that was what Cam was here to do.
I tried my best to drag my feet with cleaning, even after having worked a shift at the car lot. Elle wasn’t having it. “If you don’t hurry the fuck up so I can go home, I will kick your ass,” she announced grumpily as she came out of the bathrooms. She went to the back door to chuck the garbage. “I want to go to bed.”
I whined, but I quickly finished up before she could come back in. We clocked out and divided up the tips between us before finally walking out into the parking lot. Predictably, Cam was waiting in his little sports car. Though he’d fallen asleep.
Irritated, likely because I was jealous, I knocked on his window. I didn’t get any satisfaction from startling him awake. He rolled the window down and blinked up at me. “Sorry. I’ve had a long day.”
“It’s cool. But this is kind of dangerous. You probably shouldn’t make a point of sleeping in parking lots,” I pointed out. “It’s a great way to get robbed.”
He stretched as much as the small interior of the car allowed. “I’m all about the stupid decisions,” he admitted. He relaxed back in the seat and eyed me. “Want a ride?”
“Home?” I asked. “Or are you propositioning me?”
Cam’s brows went up, and he looked like he was considering it. “I’d take you to the apartment in a heartbeat and fuck you until you couldn’t move, but Adam’s in a weird place, and I don’t think I could do it without him getting involved.” He didn’t wait for me to respond. He just sighed and started up the car. “It’s better that I just take you home.”
I wanted to argue, but it felt like I didn’t have the right to. I just rounded the car and got in beside him. At least Cam reached out. He had thrown no sort of blame at me.
He said nothing as he eased out of the parking lot. He obviously started taking me toward my apartment. It left a sinking feeling in my gut. “I’m sorry,” I offered uneasily. “I didn’t intend for it to go this way.”
“Didn’t you?” he asked, voice gentle. “That was the original plan, wasn’t it?”
I swallowed hard and nodded. “I changed my mind.” I turned to the window, not sure I could face his judgment. “I realized if I told Kyle, it would all come to a screeching halt. He would tell our parents and they would be right about every negative thought they have ever had about me.” My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat, trying to fight back the burn of tears. “I don’t want them to be right.”
“Did he tell them?” Cam asked, quiet, like he felt the weight of my emotions. “Is that why your exit plan was to just disappear?”
That got my attention, and I twisted in the seat so I could face him. “What? Where did you hear that?”
“Shay said you got a second job,” he mentioned, his attention on the road. “She also said she hadn’t seen a lot of you this week.” He tapped on the steering wheel, pointedly looking ahead. “I’m guessing that it’ll take some time and money to ghost everyone. That’s why you haven’t done it yet, right?”
“If I wanted out, if I was going to vanish,” I started, trying to not be bothered that he knew that was an option, “I wouldn’t stillbe working at the bar, I wouldn’t have gotten a second job at the dealership, and I would’ve left by now. I’d find a cheap hotel and I would’ve been gone before Shay got home from work.”
Cam slammed on breaks and shot me a wide-eyed look. “You’d just drop everything and be gone?”
“That’s the beauty of ghosting people, Cam. You just up and disappear without a word,” I told him.
“You don’t get to fucking do that, Grace,” he snapped, keeping us parked in the middle of the road. At this hour, there weren’t many people on the road, but there was a short honk behind us before another car zipped around us. It was enough to get him driving again. “You don’t get to fucking leave.”
