Hadley & Grace(83)

Jimmy flags down their waitress and repeats the question. “Have you heard of a town named McCook?”

“Sure. It’s about three and a half hours south of here.”

“Can you pack our food to go?” Jimmy says.

Hadley looks at him, tears of gratitude filling her eyes. Then she looks at Grace, and Grace nods, causing Hadley to lose it, the tears escaping to stream down her cheeks.

“Thank you,” she croaks.

“I love her too,” Grace says, her hand absently going to her stomach, betraying her fear despite her brave words.

“We’re going to get First Base?” Skipper says, his face lit up, feeling like a bona fide hero at having had a part in it and looking like one in his uniform.

“That’s right, Private,” Jimmy says. “Time to roll.”

Skipper practically leaps from the booth.

“The private and I are going for supplies,” Jimmy says with a wink at Grace. “We’ll meet you soldiers in the car.”

“Where are you going?” Grace says, uncertainty in her voice.

Jimmy’s eyes flick to the army-surplus store across the street. “Need to pick up some hardware. Don’t want to greet Hadley’s husband and her brother-in-law without any firepower.”

Grace shakes her head.

“Babe, trust me.”

Grace says nothing, and Jimmy turns to leave.

Hadley’s skin prickles. “Jimmy, wait.” Jimmy turns back. “Grace, what is it you’re not saying?”

It’s weird seeing Grace around Jimmy. As strong as she is, she defers to him in a way Hadley can’t get used to, her southern roots showing like a bad dye job.

“Spit it out,” Hadley says. “I know you have this whole he’s-the-man-and-he’s-my-husband thing going on, but something’s on your mind, and since you’re a heck of a lot smarter than your husband—” She stops to look at Jimmy. “No offense, Jimmy, but she is.” Jimmy nods. “You need to stop acting like the good wife and tell us what it is.”

Grace kind of scoff chuckles, like Hadley got her with a good one, but her cheeks flush, either embarrassed at being called out or angry. Hadley can’t be sure and frankly doesn’t care. Mattie is three and a half hours away, and this is no time for worrying about bruised egos.

“It doesn’t feel right,” Grace says, her mouth setting in a thin line.

“What doesn’t feel right?”

“How do we even know it’s Mattie who’s talking to us?”

“Good point,” Jimmy says. He holds out his hand for the PlayStation. “What’s something only Mattie would know?”

Hadley looks at Skipper, and the answer comes to her. “What did Skipper save from under Mattie’s bed?”

“A spider,” Skipper contributes excitedly.

“Good job,” Jimmy says as his thumbs fly over the screen. “Bad luck to kill spiders.”

Spider pops up almost instantly on the screen.

Hadley lets out a whoop. “It’s her. It’s her.”

Grace still looks uncertain.

“What?” Hadley says, irritated and impatient. “It’s her. She just proved it.”

“I still don’t trust it.”

Hadley wonders if she doesn’t trust it because she’s scared and wants to back out, the balance shifted with the new life inside her.

“Here’s the thing,” Grace says slowly, as if still working out the thoughts as she says them. “McCook is probably the size of a postage stamp, right?”

All of them nod, even Skipper. Every town they’ve driven through since leaving Denver hasn’t been larger than a few blocks wide.

“And Mattie’s been trying to reach us for hours, sitting in a black muscle car with out-of-state plates behind some silos.”

“Yeah, so?”

Jimmy’s the one who answers. “So why hasn’t anyone asked her what she’s doing there?”

“Exactly,” Grace says. “I grew up in a small town. And there’s no way the foreman of the silos or a security guard or a nosy neighbor wouldn’t have called the local sheriff to tell good old Bob, Joe, or Hank that some tricked-out mafia car is hanging around.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I don’t trust it. They know she’s there.”

“Who?”

“The cops? The feds? I don’t know.”

“But then why haven’t they picked her up?”

“That’s the question.”

“Because they’re waiting,” Jimmy says.

“For what?”

“For us.”





61





GRACE


It was an excruciating drive, the tension ratcheting up with each mile until, by the time they reached the exit for McCook, Grace felt like her head was going to explode. As the sun went down, the clouds closed ranks, and now a steel wool sky conceals the stars and the threat of rain looms. Jimmy drives carefully down the main street as Grace scans the town, suspecting every car and van of holding agents lying in wait.

Jimmy holds her hand. He took it when they pulled off the highway, and she was so distracted she didn’t think about it, and now it is too late to pull it away, his long fingers curled around hers, both reassuring and disturbing at once. Things always seem so promising when Jimmy is around, yet they never seem to work out.