“Could we please change the subject?”
“We better,” Cordie said. “I’m out of tissues.”
“And I’m finished crying over him.”
“That’s good to hear,” Sophie said.
“I think we should celebrate your promotion,” Regan told Sophie.
“Let’s do dinner next week,” Cordie suggested. “But before Thursday. I’m starting a new diet then.”
“Why Thursday?”
“It’s the day I chose, and I’ve circled it on my calendar. I’m psyching myself up. I start Thursday, no matter what.”
“Maybe we could do it Wednesday night,” Regan said.
“The flag’s going up,” Sophie said. “That’s the five-minute signal. I’m going to push my way up front. Are you going to run?” she asked Regan.
“No, I’m walking. One mile up and one mile back, and then I’m done.”
“What about you, Cordie?”
“I’m doing a one-mile combo. Walk and crawl.”
“I’ve decided I’m going to run, not walk,” Sophie said. “And I’m going the distance too. All six miles.”
Regan smiled and Cordie began to laugh. Their reaction didn’t sit well with Sophie.
“You don’t think I can do it, do you?”
“No, I don’t think you can,” Cordie said.
“I know you can’t,” Regan said. “Sophie, you’re not a runner.”
“I am now. Let’s meet at the finish line. See you there.”
They watched her squeeze her way through the throng oblivious of the glares as she pushed ahead.
“I’ll bet you ten dollars she doesn’t make it farther than a mile.”
“Half a mile and she’s finished,” Regan said.
“Hey, look. That new frozen custard shop is open. See? Across the street. Maybe after, we could stop in.” And then she, too, blended into the crowd.
Regan had looked across the street when Cordie pointed out the custard shop, but her attention turned to a couple walking out the door. Both of them had ice-cream cones. They were holding hands as they strolled along. The woman was around nineteen or twenty, and the man she was with was at least fifty.
“Another sleazebag,” Regan muttered.
Her reaction was instantaneous. She felt disgust. Then she shook her head. Aiden was right. She really did need to get over this ridiculous obsession. Until she walked in their shoes, she couldn’t possibly know what their situation was or what was in their hearts.
Yes, it was definitely time for a change of attitude. She would start working on that right away. And yet, despite the best intentions, she couldn’t make herself stop watching the couple as they made their way across the street.
And that’s why she noticed him. He was a big, muscular man, and he was coming up fast behind the couple. He knocked the older man off his feet as he ran past. The young woman shouted something, but the runner never looked back. He was dressed for the race in a black running suit, but with the heat and the humidity, she thought it was odd that he was wearing a jacket. She also noticed he was carrying a pair of binoculars. The man quickly disappeared into the crowd.
She jumped when the starting gun fired, then turned and joined the people moving onto the trail. She stayed at the back of the crowd and tried to avoid elbows as she walked along.
The rude man with the binoculars was nowhere in sight. She didn’t give him another thought. She wouldn’t let herself think about Alec either, but that was easier said than done.
Chapter Forty-five
Alec had kept her keys. Now, why had he done that? It wasn’t like him to be so forgetful and not realize he had them in his pocket. Maybe he’d kept them so he would have an excuse to go back to the hotel. That’s what the shrinks would tell him. His subconscious wanted to see her again.
And so did the rest of him.
Alec stayed up half the night thinking about his future. About three in the morning he finally figured it all out. His future was with Regan… if she would have him. “Moving forward” took on a whole new meaning to him now. He didn’t want to go anywhere without her.
He made a couple of decisions about the job too, and he felt pretty good about them, but he fell asleep thinking about Regan and wondering how he would ever be able to convince her to love him.
The next morning, after he showered, he decided he ought to get cleaned up before he went to the hotel. He shaved and then put on a clean pair of jeans that only had a couple of holes below his knees. He opened one of the packed boxes and found a clean, though wrinkled, short-sleeve T-shirt and even took the time to tuck it in.
He happened to glance in the mirror while he was putting his gun in his holster and realized he should have gotten a haircut. His hair was sticking up all over the place. He shrugged. It was too late to do anything about it now anyway.
It was raining when he drove to the hotel. He was walking into the lobby when Gil caught up with him.
“What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t you hear me honking at you when you were crossing Michigan? I got caught at the light,” Gil panted.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
“Alec, I might have something for you.” He glanced around and then said, “Maybe we ought to find someplace private.”
“I was just going up to Regan’s office. We can talk there.”
He used Regan’s key to get up to the third floor. Gil started explaining as soon as the elevator doors closed. “I finally heard back from that patrolman down in Florida, and he had some interesting news.”
The doors opened on the third floor, and both of them stepped into the corridor. It was empty and as quiet as a confessional on Friday night.
“So what did he tell you?”
“The accident happened over a year ago, closer to two,” he said. “And it was bad, just like I told you. A five- car pileup. I was worried the patrolman wouldn’t remember much about it, but he told me it was so gruesome he’ll take the memory to his grave.
“There was this ten-mile stretch of two-lane highway outside of Tampa. Walker Madison was driving a sports car, and the engine had a lot of power. Evidently he was passing this truck, and this late-model sedan pulls out behind him and follows him. A guy named Gage, Eric Gage, was driving, and his wife was in the passenger seat. Walker gets around the truck and back into his lane without any trouble at all, but Gage’s sedan didn’t quite make it. There are some conflicting reports. The patrolman said one witness swore the truck driver wouldn’t let the sedan in, that he deliberately sped up. There was another possibility that the sedan clipped the truck trying to get back in. Anyway, there was a terrible crash,” he explained.
Alec noticed Gil was talking faster and faster now, and his face was getting red. A knot was forming in Alec’s gut. He had a really bad feeling about what he was going to hear. “Go on,” he urged.
“The truck lost control, spun, and flipped. The sedan was totaled, but the driver, this Eric Gage, didn’t get so much as a bruise. His wife wasn’t so lucky. The patrolman said they had to pry her out of the passenger seat. He said it looked like the car had folded in on her. Sometimes he says he can still hear the screams. The wife was unconscious and barely hanging on by a thread. It was the husband who was screaming. The patrolman said he went crazy, pulling at his hair and sobbing that he should have let her drive like she wanted, and it should have been him in that seat. He got more and more out of control the longer it took to get his wife out of the car. The paramedics had to sedate him, and because of his size, it took three men to strap him down to the gurney. He was out of his head, all right,” Gil said. “And do you know what the patrolman told me he was trying to do?”
“What?”
