Nowhere To Run

Of course, he might just be a nice, friendly guy who felt sorry for a stranded mother and daughter, Marie thought.

She huffed quietly. Yeah, right. And Roy Jenkins was just a misunderstood bad boy who had accidentally gone afoul of the law. If she had learned anything from her lonely childhood and disastrous time with Roy, it was that men could not be trusted or relied upon. Especially not good-looking, seemingly nice ones.

Seth drove toward Gumption on back roads, careful to avoid what little late evening traffic there was on a week night. His adult passenger had scooted down in her seat and was hiding her face with her raised hand. Therefore, as he pulled up to the pizza parlor, he chose a parking place as far away from the rest of the cars as possible.

“Here we are. How’s this?” he asked, taking care to keep his tone light and easygoing.

“Fine. It doesn’t look crowded at all.”

“That’s because this is early in the week. Friday and Saturday nights are much busier. Some places around here don’t even stay open in the evenings except on those two days.”

“Wow. That’s amazing. Back home the restaurants are busy all the time.”

Seth circled the truck to open her door for her. “And where would that be?” he asked nonchalantly.

“Alaska,” Marie quipped. “Fairbanks.”

Patty’s eyes widened. “Mama…”

She smiled. “I know, I know, honey. It’s not true. It was just a joke, okay?”

Seth didn’t think the child looked convinced, but he let the moment pass. Sooner or later, one of them would slip and reveal the truth. Until that happened, he couldn’t let down his guard for an instant. His heart told him that Marie and her little girl were innocent of any wrongdoing, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He’d been careless in the past, and it had cost him dearly. This time, he was determined to root out the truth before he permitted “Mrs. Smith” to leave Serenity.

Marie had decided that it would be best to remain inside the restaurant to eat, rather than take their meal to the city park, as Seth had suggested earlier. She was hungry and the pizza smelled delicious, but she was so nervous that she could hardly choke it down.

Worse, Seth and Patty were chatting away and seemed to be becoming fast friends. The child’s trusting nature was very worrisome, especially where that enigmatic man was concerned. On the surface, he seemed perfectly normal, yet there was something about him that made Marie’s nerves tingle with unexplained warning.

She had tried repeatedly to pray for the Lord’s guidance and had found it impossible to keep her mind from wandering with unanswered questions and baffling suspicions. Had she been so traumatized that she was unable to trust even the most casual acquaintance? Or was God warning her to stay alert despite a seemingly innocent situation?

Either alternative was possible, she finally decided. And until her car was repaired and she was free to continue her flight, there wasn’t a thing she could do about it except cope as best she knew how.

“You’re not eating much,” Seth remarked with a smile.

“I’m not all that hungry, I guess.”

“Well, Patty and I are,” he replied. “We’re saving our crusts for Babe. See?”

“I’m sure she’ll enjoy them,” Marie said, glancing at her daughter with a wistful smile. “We probably should be getting back to the motel. Patty’s up way past her usual bedtime.”

Seth stifled a yawn. “Yeah. So am I. But then, I get up at dawn and work hard all day, so I need my beauty sleep.”

“Where do you live?” Marie asked. “In Serenity?”

“Sort of. I have a place out in the country, near Heart. It used to be a bustling town, even after Serenity was named the county seat back in the 1800s. Later, as people got cars and began to move around more easily, the heart of Heart kind of withered and died.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Times change. Places change. It’s just the way things are.” He paused and Marie noticed how seriously he was looking at her before he added, “Take you and Patty, for instance. I get the idea that you’re not going back to wherever you came from.”

“Really? Why would you think that?”

“Mainly because you have so much stuff crammed into your car. It looks more like you’re making a permanent move than taking a simple vacation.”

“Maybe.” She stared at her half-eaten slice of pizza rather than look at him and take the chance he could read her thoughts. “I haven’t decided.”

“What made you head this way?” Seth asked quietly.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed sensible.”

“Yes. Especially if you’re running away from someone or something down south.”

Her head snapped up, her gaze locking with his. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? Well, if it’s not that, then why are you so afraid of being seen? And why did you practically beg me to hide your car while it’s in the garage?”

“I did no such thing.”

His grin was lopsided and his eyes bored into hers as if he was positive he was right and was gloating about it.

“Don’t look so smug,” she added. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“No, I don’t. But I’d like to. If I’m going to stash your car for you, don’t you think you owe me an explanation for why it needs to be kept out of sight?”

“Absolutely not.”

Seth’s eyebrows arched. “Okay. But if I had some idea of why you were in such a hurry to leave town, I might be more inclined to hurry the repairs.”

“Are you threatening me?”

With a nonchalant shake of his head he shrugged off her question. “Not in the least. I already told you it might take a few days to get the parts. Remember?”

“Yes, but now that I think about it, you didn’t say you’d install them right away. Promise me you will.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m asking you to. And because there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.” Her eyes narrowed. “Is there?”

“Of course not. We at Serenity Repair are always prompt and efficient. You can ask anybody.”

“I’d rather ask you. Will you do the work in a timely manner, or are you going to stall?”

“Now, why would I do that?” he asked, sobering and staring back at her as if he had suddenly discovered she had three heads or something equally as bizarre.

Marie’s lips were pressed into a thin line. “I can see no reason why you should,” she answered. “I’m not looking for romance or a meal ticket, so if you’re trying to court me, you can forget it.”

When he chuckled, she was taken aback.

“Court you? Lady, that’s the last thing on my mind.”

“Then why take us out to eat? And why all the questions?”

“Maybe I’m just trying to be friendly.”

She huffed in self-derision. “In that case, I apologize for misjudging you. I’m not used to men paying me this much attention for no reason. Just so you understand, a pizza and a little repair work on my car won’t get you anywhere with me.”

Seth laughed again, this time more loudly and with evident glee.

“I hardly think it’s that funny,” Marie insisted, scowling across the table at him.

He managed to get control of his high humor and reduce his laughter to a wide grin before he said, “Forgive me. If you knew what I’ve been thinking you’d probably be laughing, too.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Nope,” Seth said, still smiling. “You’ll just have to trust me the way you want me to trust you. I have no amorous intentions. I promise.”

She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not, considering the fact that he was practically insisting he didn’t find her attractive.

Well, that was what she had wanted, wasn’t it? And since she’d had the opportunity to state her views implicitly, there was no way he could misconstrue her reasons for agreeing to let him treat her to supper.

Still, there was something odd about the man, a hidden part of his psyche she’d only glimpsed in an occasional unguarded instant that came and went in a flash. Whatever that ominous-feeling insight was, it was too brief for her to interpret.

Seth’s constant probing of her background was nevertheless unsettling. Granted, he might be no more than an interested bystander, yet he asked questions like a professional inquisitor, never missing the opportunity to slip in another query and never taking his eyes off her face when she answered. It was almost as if he knew more than he was letting on.

Her breath caught. There was no way this man could be in cahoots with the people who were pursuing her, was there? Of course not. He might be nosey, but he wasn’t a dangerous criminal the way those other men were. No one could possibly have known she’d break down in Serenity and end up stopping at that very garage for assistance.

She shivered as more of the truth settled in her befuddled brain. If someone had sabotaged her car, as Seth surmised, they had known she would have car trouble. It was only by the grace of God, literally, that she had made it as far as Serenity and had managed to find temporary sanctuary.

Peering at Seth from beneath the brim of her cap, she studied him carefully. There was a hard edge to his personality, an undefined cautiousness, a strength that lay behind those smoky blue eyes no matter how wide his smile was or how casual his conversation might be.

Was she imagining things because she was so tense? she wondered. Or was the good Lord enabling her to glimpse reality in order to know how best to proceed?

She had trusted Roy once, and look where that had gotten her. She’d be twice the fool if she placed her future in the hands of a stranger like Seth. Then again, he did seem to care what happened to her, or he wouldn’t have taken it upon himself to keep her car where it couldn’t be seen in passing.

The fact that he had done that, before she had asked, was the biggest puzzle of all. It was as if he had been on his guard all along.

That was why she had felt such an immediate affinity for him, she concluded, shocked by the turn her thoughts had taken.

Her eyes widened and she stared across the table. Of course. It was suddenly all too clear. Seth had empathized with her plight because he, too, was deathly afraid of someone or something.

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