“I didn’t mean to piss him off. But I’m sick of running. Aren’t you?”
Carly-Anne shrugs. “I don’t mind. Better than being homeless.”
“We live in motels,” I say, squeezing the mini bottle of shampoo in my hand. “When will we ever get to stop?”
“Probably never. If we stop, we’ll get caught.”
“I’m so tired. I want a different life.”
“Was the guy worth it?” Carly-Anne asks as I wash my hair. She is the closest thing I have to a friend. She’s been with us for a few years and I want to believe I can trust her.
“Yes,” I say, turning from her as tears fall down my cheeks.
“Good,” she says sadly. “Because we’re all gonna be paying for that little stunt for the next year.”
Four months later…
Carly-Anne was right. Tim takes it out on us all for months. And now it’s going to get worse.
I finally get up the nerve to take a pregnancy test, knowing I am more than late. It’s been four months… four months of me living in denial. It’s getting harder to hide the truth. And I already know the answer. I don’t need this test to confirm anything.
Still, looking at the results terrifies me. Carly-Anne knocks on the door. “What does it say?”
“I can’t look.” I turn the knob, letting her in the motel bathroom. Then I hand her the test.
“Sorry honey,” she says. “It’s positive.”
Tears fill my eyes. “I have to run away, I have to go back.”
To him. Reed. I can’t stop thinking about our one perfect night.
Carly-Anne bites her lip. “Fox Hollow is across the country, Rainey. It would take weeks… longer. And Tim won’t let you go.”
“I could run away. We both could.”
“Why would I do that?” she asks.
“Because it would be a chance at a new life. A fresh start.”
“I’m all used up, Rainey. No good man would want me.”
“You’re twenty-two years old, Carly-Anne. Hardly used up.”
“This isn’t about me. This is about you, and this baby.”
“Tim says we have to leave for Nebraska in the morning,” she says. “We have that load we have to drop. Every day late is less money we make.”
“Maybe we can convince Tim to head back west. To Fox Hollow. Maybe—”
“Maybe you hold off on telling him. If we’re patient, we might get closer and you could leave then.”
“You’d help me?” I ask.
Carly-Anne bites her lip. She has long, bleached blonde hair and bright blue eyes and yet her confidence is shot. Her life has been as bad as mine, only she is stuck with my brother now.
“I don’t want to upset Tim.”
“Why not? He’s been awful ever since that night.”
“Because he is all I got in this world, Rainey. I don’t have this ideal man to hold onto like you do. I’ve never met a man like Reed in my life, and the way things are going, I won’t. But this life is better than the streets. Better than selling my body.” She wipes away a tear, then reaches for my hand. “I want to help you, I do. But not if it means losing Tim.”
I stare at the two pink lines on the test, knowing my life is forever changed.
Reed’s life too.
Carly-Anne isn’t going to help me if it means costing her a place here. And if I run away, they might go to Fox Hollow to find me. Eventually Carly-Anne will crack.
I love her, but she loves Tim more.
I have to run away. Before it’s too late.
Reed may not want me after I left like I did… but he might want this baby.
His baby.
Reed
Four months later…
“Did I tell you about the drama at the hospital?” Jasper asks as Jodie delivers us each a beer. He’s been at Merryton Hospital a lot the last week, as his dad is recovering from heart surgery. He’s hoping this might finally encourage him to get a live-in nurse.
“No, what happened?” I take a long swig. Nothing has been the same in Fox Hollow since Rainey left with her brother. She left with half my heart.
And damn, I tried finding her. Tried for months. But I had nothing to go on. They paid in cash at the bar, and the gas station in town didn’t get a clear read of their plates on the video cameras. They vanished into thin air.
“A woman was found outside the Fox Hollow woods, over on the east side of the river. She’s like eight months pregnant and unconscious. Flown to the hospital last night. Fucking insane.”
“Isn’t that practically how James found Marcie?” I ask, thinking of our friends who don’t live too far from me. “In the woods with a baby?”
Jodie shakes her head. “So sad. Hope she wakes up soon. And that she remembers who she is.”
“Damn,” I say. “Can you imagine?”
Sometimes though, I wish I could wake up and forget everything from before. Forget that one perfect night with Rainey. On the outside, I probably appear fine — like I’ve moved on. My woodworking business keeps me busy and I’ve planted a thousand fucking flowers on my property since she left — but inside, I feel like I lost my person.
No one would understand. How could they? How can you lose something you hardly ever had?
“Was there an ID on her or anything?” Jodie asks. “Seems so crazy to be completely off the grid.”
The words spark a memory.
Rainey in the sauna, mentioning her family… how no one could find her if they tried. How she was off the grid.
My heart pounds. Could it be?
“What hospital is this?” I ask.
“Merryton,” Jasper says. “Why?”
I swallow. “I think I know who this is.”
“Was do you mean?” Jasper asks.
“It’s Rainey,” I say. “She was coming back for me.”
Jodie and Jasper exchange a look that says I’ve really lost it.
“Dude, I know you think you loved that girl… but she’s gone,” Jasper says.
“And planting a
