Hadley & Grace(34)

“Perfect. Then I have a proposition for you.”

His left eyebrow lifts in curiosity as he squints with distrust through his right.

“I need to cut out of here with my baby but without the others.” She stops, waits for his reaction, and, when he gives none, continues. “The lady I’m with can’t drive on account of her ankle, so I’m thinking you might be able to give them a lift. I’ll pay you.”

“Where would I need to drive them?”

“I’ll leave that up to her.”

Reaching into her pocket, she peels off five one-hundred-dollar bills from the roll she placed there this morning and holds them toward him. “The beginning of your new-tooth fund.”

He gives her another lopsided grin as he takes the money, and as Grace makes her way back to the pool, she wonders how things might have turned out had Hunter not been caught, if he had gotten away with his joyride to see his girl, if his life might have turned out happily ever after, or whether guys like him and girls like her are destined for lives that simply don’t work out.

“Where have you been?” Mrs. Torelli says as Grace plops into the seat beside her.

Miles is now on Mrs. Torelli’s lap. He is bundled in his jacket, and she is clapping his hands in front of him, a game he seems to enjoy, and Grace wonders why she’s never thought of doing that.

Mattie has disappeared, and the boy is back in the pool. He stands on the step in his boxers and a sweatshirt, his face tilted up at the stars and his hands raised above his head as if trying to catch them or lift them.

“He’s special,” Grace says.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mrs. Torelli snaps, and Grace realizes she’s taken the comment the wrong way.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I mean he sees things in his own way. Jeez, you’re prickly.”

“Me? That’s hilarious coming from you, Miss Warm and Fuzzy.”

“What did I do?”

“Nothing,” Mrs. Torelli huffs, still clapping Miles’s hands together but with so much force Miles is no longer smiling.

Grace blows out her breath and shakes her head, unsure what she’s done to piss the woman off other than to save her butt yesterday, this morning, and then again this afternoon.

Hunter walks from the office and into the courtyard to take down the umbrellas. One by one, he carries them to the shed beside the parking lot.

“Do you have a pen?” Grace asks.

“Front pocket of the diaper bag. Why?”

Grace ignores her. From the now very organized diaper bag, Grace takes out the pen and one of the bundles of hundreds.

She hesitates, her eyes catching on the gun, whose muzzle is sticking out between the diapers. She pulls Mrs. Torelli’s backpack closer and moves the gun from the diaper bag into the front pouch of the backpack.

“What are you doing?” Mrs. Torelli says.

“I don’t like guns.”

“Well, neither do I.”

“Yeah, well, if you get caught with a gun in your husband’s name, it’s no big deal. If I get caught with it, it is. Did you call him?”

“Yeah. He’s fine. He has no idea the money’s gone. He played golf all day.”

Grace nods. It makes sense. The office is closed until Tuesday, and there’s no reason for him to go in. The FBI hasn’t arrested him, which probably means they can’t without the money.

She angles herself away from Mrs. Torelli.

“What are you doing?” Mrs. Torelli says again, bending to try to see.

Grace shifts to further block her view.

“And you’re the one calling me prickly,” she says with a harrumph.

“You are prickly, and this is none of your business.”





25





HADLEY


Hadley watches as Grace sneaks quiet as a burglar into the motel office with the bundle of cash. She disappears into the back room, then returns a moment later, the bundle gone.

She doesn’t get this girl; she really doesn’t. At McDonald’s, Grace ordered two Extra Value Meals instead of three combos to save money, and now she’s giving ten grand to a motel clerk who looks like a drugged-out felon.

Grace returns to her chair.

“Why’d you do that?”

Shrug.

“That’s ten thousand dollars.”

Nod.

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Not really. Not for a second chance.”

That’s all she says, as if that explains it.

Hadley stands the baby on her lap so he can try out his legs. He pushes against her with determination, and she smiles at his strong little will. A lot like his mom, she thinks with a glance at Grace.

She wants to ask Grace who gave her a second chance and why she needed it, but Grace has turned away, her gaze on the pool, making it clear, once again, she doesn’t want to talk. But then, a minute later, she surprises Hadley by saying, “Why did that woman we borrowed the car from say, ‘I hope you get there in time’?”

Hadley smiles. “I told her your husband’s unit was passing through Barstow and that he had never met his son. We were supposed to take your car, but the transmission blew, and we couldn’t rent one because your credit is bad and I don’t have a license.”