How to Save a Life(50)

“Jo…”

“You shouldn’t be here,” I whispered and hurried away.

I put Evan’s ticket in the window, still feeling Patty’s eyes on me. I inhaled deeply several times, willing my nerves to stop their twitchy jangle. Excitement, terror, hope: I was a f*cked-up cocktail of emotions.

I managed to wait on other customers, but I felt a constant pull toward Evan. I wanted to be near him. My eyes sought him out, drinking in the sight of him, unable to believe he wasn’t a ghost that would vanish the moment I looked away.

I took his order to his table and set the plate down slowly. My hands fiddled with the ketchup bottle, moved salt and pepper shakers so they’d be in easy reach. Anything to prolong the moment.

“Why are you here?” I whispered.

“I told you—”

“Don’t mess with me, Evan. I didn’t call you. I don’t have your number. I don’t know where you’ve been or…” A terrible thought dawned on me. “Wait, you were supposed to serve five years. It’s been four. You didn’t…?”

“I got out because you needed me,” Evan said.

I stared. “You mean, you busted out? How did you find me?”

“This isn’t a good place to talk. I see that now. Can we meet somewhere? Somewhere safe?”

“Safe?” I blurted. “There’s no such thing in this town.”

As if to illustrate my point, Warren and Ron walked in. Both guests at last night’s drug-dealing dinner party. They took seats at the counter and Patty came over to serve them. As she poured coffee, her chin jutted in my direction. Warren and Ron turned heads to follow her gaze and give me and Evan a onceover.

Shit. My heart dropped to my stomach and I hurried away to tend to other customers. I forced myself to saunter by the counter and bullshit some small talk with Warren and Ron. Acting calm and steady while my heart hammered in my chest.

I avoided Evan’s table until I had to drop off his check. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t safe here and he needed to get the hell out of town. To leave and not look back…

“I’m off at four,” I muttered out the corner of my mouth.

His sweet smile brightened his face, sucking me backward in time. “Where?”

“Behind Miller’s Inn. You know it?”

“I’ll find it.” Evan pulled out a battered brown leather wallet and laid some bills on the table. “I’ll be there, Jo. And I can’t wait to see you.” He pushed back his chair. He left without a glance back.

“Who was that?” Patty asked the nanosecond he was gone, joining me at his table to watch through the window. Evan walked away, denim jacket in hand.

“Some guy I used to know in high school,” I said, sounding as bored as possible. I gathered up Evan’s breakfast plates. “Haven’t seen him in years. Random.”

“Oh yeah?” Patty said, her dark eyes boring into mine with her stony Medusa glare. “He a good friend of yours?”

I snorted. “God, no. He just got out of prison, for crying out loud. Back in high school he was the class freak. Spent time in the local mental ward.” I pointed a finger at my head and made circles in the air. It felt ugly as hell but I had to protect him.

Patty narrowed her eyes—the snakes zeroing in. “He’s awfully good-looking, don’t you think? For a loon?”

“Order up!” Hector called from the window.

I crossed to it, Patty on my heels. The smell of grease and ham was making me nauseous.

“A loon, exactly,” I said. “Not surprised he ended up in prison. I told him to move on and he is.”

I didn’t wait for a reply, but headed to my table, hoping I’d satisfied Patty’s curiosity. This dude wasn’t a threat and I was still loyal to her drug-addicted, woman-beating * of a son.

But Evan was here.

He came for me. I called out to him and he heard. He came for me.

I banished the ridiculous thought, along with the hopeful flutter of my stupid heart. He tracked me down the old-fashioned way: The Internet. It was silly to think something supernatural was at work. All that stuff he’d told me in high school about his prophetic dreams seemed distant and muted. Impossible stuff I’d believed because I was so wrapped up in him and desperate to be loved. He could have told me the sky was falling and I’d have believed him.

That’s bullshit and you know it, came a thought dressed in Del’s voice.

I pushed it away. In any case, it was too dangerous to meet with him. This town was too small. We’d be seen. Word would get back to Patty or worse, some of Lee’s * friends. If Lee got wind I’d so much as looked at another man, let alone met him behind a condemned hotel, I’d be dead meat.

So would Evan.

But when four o’clock came, I wanted to tear off my apron and nametag and run to Miller’s Inn. Fear slowed my steps. Fear wanted to turn me around and go home, not keep walking toward Miller’s Inn where Evan was waiting.

Evan…

I stopped and sagged against the wall of the corner drug store, slumped under the weight of time. Those days with Evan were a fading dream dimmed by the thousands of days making up four long years. The first week he was gone, I cried myself dry. Then survival demanded every ounce of my waking strength and I hadn’t wept since. I wanted to weep now. I felt great gusting howls well up in me, but I pushed them down.