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Twenty minutes later he came out, gray sweats resting low on his hips, and rubbing a damp towel over his shaggy hair.
“Amazing how much better a shower can make you feel,” he said.
Sissy couldn’t help letting her gaze sweep over him. There was no helping noticing the changes in him since she’d last seen him and not just the ones anyone would have seen. He’d put on some muscle, really filled out since the last time she’d seen him without a shirt. It fit better than the skinny teenage physique she remembered. Not that hers had been any better.
He glanced her way and seemed to realize she had no other clothes.
“I’ve got some clean t-shirts and shorts in my bag if you’d like something to sleep in. We’ll see about getting you some other things to wear tomorrow or the next day, but not here. I want to get some rest and hit the road. We need to get as many miles between us and here as we can before we stop again.”
She hesitated, having a hard time taking her eyes off him, then forced herself to focus on his face. “I would like a shirt please. If you’re sure you don’t mind.”
“Sweetheart, you’ve forgotten. I don’t offer if I mind.” He pulled a shirt from the bag and tossed it at her. She caught it just as another item came flying her way. Not expecting the second item she wasn’t able to catch it. A pair of shorts. Sissy picked up the shorts and looked at them, then at him and tried to imagine him wearing them but couldn’t. Somehow it just seemed out of character.
She took the clothing and carried it into the bathroom, moving slowly because her entire body seemed to have gotten stiff and sore in the time she’d been sitting on the bed. When she came back from the bathroom, Cole lay stretched out on the bed closer to the door. His hands stacked behind his head and his eyes closed. A pistol sat on the bed beside him and only the light on her side of the nightstand remained on.
She climbed into bed, wondering how much sleep she would get and how early they’d be leaving. The last thing she remembered was wondering if Cole still smelled as good as she remembered.
* * *
Troy stood in front of Sissy, towering over her, and shouting how dare she waste his time. She curled into herself, bracing for the blow she knew was coming. Sissy clenched her teeth, determined not to cry out this time. He seemed to like it when she cried or screamed.
“It’s okay, sweetheart, wake up. He’s not here.” The voice was soft, but insistent.
Sissy curled into a tighter ball. She didn’t trust the voice.
“Celia, wake up.”
That wasn’t Troy. Troy never called her that. Only one person had ever called her Celia. She’d hated it when Cole had first started it, but he’d said if she wouldn’t call him Bubba, he wasn’t calling her Sissy.
“Celia. Wake up now.”
Something shook her, pulling her from the last remnants of sleep. She opened her eyes and sat up, finding Cole up and dressed to leave.
“Come on. I want to hit the road. You can sleep more in the truck if you want.”
She slid out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. She needed to change before they hit the road.
Five minutes later, wearing the same clothes she’d worn yesterday and her face washed clean of makeup, she emerged from the bathroom, the clothes she’d slept with in a tight bundle in her arms Cole stopped in front of her and, with gentle fingertips tilted her head back so he could get a good look at her face. Sissy didn’t want to think about what it looked like. She’d seen it in the mirror and once was enough for her.
“It’s a good thing we’re getting out of here now. If we run into that bastard now, I’d kill him for this.” Cole skimmed a feather light thumb across her cheek just below where she knew the skin was split. “All right, sweetheart, in the truck. I’ve already taken my things out. You have anything you want me to carry?”
She grabbed her handbag, stuffed the bundle of clothes inside and clutched it against her chest as she shook her head and followed him out the door. He led her to the passenger’s side of a crew cab pickup and helped her up into the seat before closing the door and going around to climb into the driver’s side.
“You want coffee or sleep?” he asked as he started the engine.
She glanced at the dash where a small clock in the corner of the screen read just after five.
“Sleep, at least for a while. We just went to bed a few hours ago. How can you be awake and ready to go already?” She tilted the seat back and curled on one side as he backed out of the parking space.
“Training.”
Sissy wanted to ask where you got that kind of training, but something stopped her. Instead, she curled on her side, stacked her hands, and tried to use them for a pillow but sucked air between her teeth at how bad it hurt to lay her face on her hands.
“Here, use this for a pillow,” Cole twisted around and pulled something from the back seat and handed it to her. It was the jacket he’d been wearing the night before.
“Thanks.” She balled it up and placed it under her head, setting her face down gently on the soft lining. She drifted off to sleep to the gentle vibrations of the truck and the once familiar and still comforting scent of him.
ChapterFive
