“Yeah,” Riley said around a big bite of lettuce. She was carefully avoiding the cucumbers as if they were poisonous snakes.
So was Matt.
“I’m going back up there to do some more exploring tomorrow morning, since I don’t have to work until late afternoon,” Amy said. “How long did you say you were camped out there?”
Riley went still, obviously shutting down. “I didn’t say.”
Amy nodded and met Matt’s gaze, which was warm and fixed on her. She didn’t want to think about why that made her feel warm in return, so she left them and went back to the kitchen. When the food was ready, she brought out the order, setting down Riley’s plate first. “You might want to-”
Riley began inhaling the burger and fries with vigor.
“-Take it easy,” Amy continued. “Too much on an empty stomach isn’t good.”
Riley didn’t slow down.
Matt moved over and patted the place next to him, and Amy caught Jan’s eye to let her know she was taking a quick break before sitting. “You been on your own for a while,” Amy said.
Riley shrugged.
“When I was living on my own,” Amy said, “it was a jar of peanut butter and raw ramen noodles for the week. Used to be able to get those for like nineteen cents each.”
Riley was halfway through her burger already. “On grocery Tuesdays, you can get other stuff cheap, too.”
“Grocery Tuesdays?” Matt asked.
Riley lowered her gaze and hunched over her food, like she’d accidentally imparted a state secret.
Amy’s throat tightened and she looked at Matt. “It’s when some of the grocery stores throw out their older stock to make room for the new stock.”
Matt’s gaze slid back to Riley, but he didn’t say anything more.
From the kitchen, Henry dinged the bell, signaling that Amy had another order ready. She sent Matt a did-the- best-I-could look and walked away. It was what she did with problems. Walk. Teenage life sucked? She walked. Her mom’s new husband giving her trouble? She walked. Her own guy trouble? She walked. It was her MO.
But this time, for the first time, she wasn’t proud of it.
Matt watched Amy go, something new unfurling in his gut as certain things began to click for him. She didn’t like being approached unexpectedly, or startled. She’d once survived on peanut butter and ramen. And she was slow to trust.
At some point in her life, things had been bad, possibly worse than he could imagine. It wasn’t any of his business, and it certainly wasn’t his job, but that didn’t stop him from aching for her and Riley both. Amy didn’t want his sympathy. He knew this. Riley didn’t want his sympathy either, but she was in trouble. He knew it deep in his gut. He’d like to help but he held no delusions on his ability to do that for either of them.
He didn’t have a great track record when it came to fixing people’s problems. In fact, he had a downright shitty record when it came right down to it. He turned his attention to Riley. Clearly she was on the run, maybe from someone abusive, or at the very least, she’d been sorely neglected. She’d practically licked her plate clean, eating everything except for the cucumbers. Couldn’t blame her there. “Better?”
She answered with a nod, though she did smile when Amy delivered the pie. The way to a woman’s heart… dessert. Good to know.
Riley waited until Amy moved onto another booth. “Your piece is bigger,” she said.
“So?” Matt said. “
“Yeah, that’s not why your piece is bigger.”
Matt ignored this. When they’d finished, he paid the bill. The salads hadn’t been on it, which meant that Amy intended to pay for them out of her own pocket, so he made sure his tip covered the cost plus, then led Riley back to the parking lot. He could feel her anxiety level rising. “You have two choices,” he said. “You can tell me where your friends live so I can drop you off there, or I can run your ID and figure out your secrets.”
He was going to do that anyway, but she didn’t have to know it.
“I’m of age,” she said. “I don’t have to give you my friends’ address.”
“Don’t have to… or can’t, because there are no friends?” he asked.
She stared at him, the silence broken by the sound of someone clearing her throat.
Amy. She was standing in the parking lot, purse slung over her shoulder, keys in her hand. “I got off early,” she said. “I have a spare bedroom, Riley. It’s the size of a piece of toast, but it’s all yours for the night if you’d like.”
“No,” Matt immediately said. It was one thing for
“No,” Riley said, echoing Matt. “I couldn’t do that. But thanks. I just want to go back to the woods.”
“You’re done with the woods,” Matt said. “No more illegal camping. It’s not safe, and I can’t have you out there.”
“And besides, you don’t
Matt opened his mouth, but Amy gave him a small head shake. To Riley, she gestured toward her car, and to his surprise, Riley got into it.
Amy turned to him, her expression one of grim determination. He could see that Riley had stirred something inside of her. Protectiveness, certainly, but memories too, and it didn’t take a genius to see that those memories made her sad.
His fault. “Amy-”
“I’m doing this,” she said.
Clearly, whether he liked it or not. And for the record, he didn’t. “When I asked for your help, I didn’t mean for you to-”
“I know. But I can’t leave her here, Matt. I just can’t.” There was something in her voice, something that twisted the knife deeper within him. “We’ll be fine,” she murmured, and slid behind the wheel of her car. He stepped between her and the driver’s door before she could shut it, crouching at her side. “Be careful.”
“Always am.”
He paused, but he had no further reason to detain them so he stood and backed up, watching her drive off. He didn’t feel good about this, about sending a possible juvenile delinquent home with the woman he had a thing for. He wasn’t sure what kind of thing exactly, but it didn’t matter at the moment. This was his doing, and if something went wrong, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
So he followed them. He parked on the street outside of Amy’s building and watched them go inside together. A minute later, the lights came on. While he watched from his truck, he called Sawyer, requesting a search for a missing persons report on one Riley Taylor.
If Riley Taylor was even her real name…
While he waited to hear back, Matt spent the time keeping an eye on the building, and maybe playing solitaire on his phone.
When Amy knocked on the driver’s window, she nearly gave him a coronary.
“If you’re not going home,” she said through his window, “you might as well come in.”
She’d showered and was wearing an oversized T-shirt and tiny booty shorts that revealed her mile-long legs. Her hair was wet, her long, side-swept bangs falling over one eye. She smelled like shampoo and soap-and warm, soft woman. He followed her up the stairs, watching her ass in those short shorts. She could’ve led him right off a cliff and he’d never have noticed.
Her place was a tiny two bedroom, emphasis on the tiny. The living room, kitchen, and dining room were all one room that was not much bigger than his truck. Small as it was, it was also cheerful. Sunshine yellow paint in the kitchen, bright blue and white in the living room. Clearly the place had come like this because he was quite certain that Amy wouldn’t have picked such vibrant colors. Amy was a lot of things-smart, loyal, fiercely protective, beautiful, edgy-but not exactly cheerful.
Proving the point, she gave him a blanket, a pillow, the couch, and a long look that he didn’t even try to interpret. “Thanks,” he said.
She nodded and turned away.
Then turned back.
