Run, Rose, Run(62)

“That’s not what I meant,” she protested.

“Did you know that I used to sit outside that crappy motel room of yours until you fell asleep? You thought you were so brave to stay there. But the whole time I was out in the parking lot like a guard dog. Protecting you.”

AnnieLee inhaled sharply, as if she’d been punched. Of course she hadn’t known. But what made him think he had the right to make her feel bad about something she’d never asked him to do? Instead of gratitude, she felt only anger.

“Well, you were on the clock, weren’t you?” she said. “I’m sure Ruthanna paid you for your time. So the more hours you were watching me the better, right?”

Ethan turned away from her then. “Wow,” he said. “I really don’t know what to say.”

AnnieLee kicked a toe into the gravel. “Maybe you don’t enjoy your babysitting job anymore. Maybe you want to quit.” Even as the words came out of her mouth, she couldn’t believe she was saying them. She didn’t want him to quit. She didn’t know what she’d do without him.

Ethan took a step backward. His dark eyes grew darker. “If I quit now, you’ll have to find your own way home,” he warned.

But she couldn’t back down. “Great,” she said, tossing her head back. “I’ve missed bumming rides from strangers.”

He took another few steps away. “AnnieLee…” he began.

“Just go.”

She could tell that he didn’t want to go any more than she wanted him to. But they were each stuck inside their own anger, and neither of them was going to give in.

“Go on,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I’ve done a lot of worrying about you,” he said. “But I’ll try to quit that, too.”

Then he walked away, climbed into his truck, and peeled off, spraying gravel behind him. And AnnieLee trudged back out to the road, pasted a bright, fake grin on her face, and stuck out her thumb.





Chapter

52



Give me a chance, girl, open your eyes now, I’m not the enemy here

I’m a soft heart to lean on

A shoulder to cry on

Two good lips to kiss away tears



Ethan carefully folded up the lyrics he’d written on the back of an envelope. The song was a good one. But could it ever be true? Would AnnieLee ever really give him a chance?

Today he highly doubted it. He hadn’t wanted to drive away from her, but she’d challenged his pride and forced his hand.

He thought back to the night he’d watched AnnieLee charm her way onto the Cat’s Paw stage. If he’d known the havoc she’d wreak on his heart, would he still have introduced himself?

He could practically hear his grandma tsk-tsking him from heaven. Yes, you would have, because when it comes to love you don’t have the sense God gave a goose.

He picked up an old rag and began oiling the fretboard and bridge of the guitar he’d finished right before leaving for LA. He was trying to keep his mind open and empty, but the lyrics he’d tucked away kept swirling around in his thoughts.

Demons, demons, we’ve both had enough of our own

Demons, demons, we don’t have to fight them alone



“I like that a lot,” said a voice. “It’s catchy.”

Ethan spun around, startled by two things at once: that he’d begun to sing out loud without realizing it, and that Ruthanna Ryder was standing in his driveway, dressed as if she was about to have Easter brunch with the queen.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, gazing up at the little apartment above his workshop. “So this is home, huh?”

Ethan smoothed his hair back and put aside the guitar. “For now,” he said.

“I thought I paid you better,” she mused.

“Please,” he said. “You pay me plenty. I don’t want anything more than this.”

She turned her cool green eyes back to him. “But desire, Ethan, is where it all begins. If you don’t want more, you don’t get more.”

He looked away. He wanted plenty of things, when it came down to it. But a bigger apartment wasn’t one of them.

Then Ruthanna’s face softened. “It looks like a nice place,” she said. “Anyway, I had to come over because I broke the peg on my mandolin.” She pulled a vintage instrument with a Florentine cutaway out of her handbag. “I thought you could fix it.”

Ethan took the mandolin from her and knew instantly that this wasn’t at all why she’d come. The instrument was student quality. She had a dozen better ones. This meant that she’d come because she’d spoken to AnnieLee, and the repair was only the excuse.

“Can you fix it?”

“Sure,” he said. “Of course.” He set it gently on his worktable.

Ruthanna folded her arms across her chest and looked at him. “So,” she said, “you quit, huh?”

Ethan didn’t bother defending himself by pointing out that AnnieLee had basically dared him to quit. “I don’t think I should be her…whatever I was…anymore. It turns out we don’t get along.”

“Sounds like a lovers’ quarrel, if you ask me,” Ruthanna said, looking at him sideways.