Tank
Ican’t stop looking over at her. She’s a temptation like I’ve never felt before. I should be keeping my eyes on the road, not the way she uses her hands to talk or the way she puts her hand over her heart when I talk to her.
Ava is fiddling with the purse she has hanging around her shoulder, and she pulls out a cell phone. “By any chance, do you have a charger?”
I grip the steering wheel tighter and look at her. “Uh, how long has your phone been dead?”
She looks at me funny. “About ten hours into the train ride. Why?”
I clench my eyes, wandering if her ex, Beau, has already discovered her location. If he tracked her location for ten hours, he would know what train she left on and where it was going. Fuck. “I know you’re not going to like hearing this.”
She turns in the seat, drawing one leg up, and faces me. “What?”
“You’re not going to be able to use your phone.”
She’s so quiet I look over at her, and her mouth is hanging open. I figured she’d be upset she’s not going to have a phone, but that’s not it. She puts her hand to her mouth. “Oh my God, I’m so stupid. They probably tracked me, didn’t they? They know where I’m at... or at least where I was going.”
I reach over and pull her hand from her mouth, wrapping mine around it. I don’t know what it is about her, but I constantly want to soothe her. “It’s going to be okay, Ava. You’re safe. I promise you that.”
She nods, flexes her hand, and keeps it in mine.
Her phone is in her other hand, and she drops it in the cupholder. “You probably think I’m stupid or something.”
“No I don’t. It’s not like it’s a normal thing you’re going through right now. I don’t expect you to know exactly how to handle it.”
She seems happy with my answer but still gives the discarded phone a dirty look.
“I’ll get you a new phone while you’re out.”
“No! It’s fine. I don’t need it.”
I don’t argue with her. We drive into town and stop at the superstore. She’s out of the truck before I can get around to open the door for her. People stare as we walk in, and I can’t say I blame them. Ava is young and beautiful. I’m sure people are wondering what she’s doing here with me. I grab a shopping cart as we walk past them, and I push it to the center of the store.
We get to the clothes, and she grabs my arm. “If you want to go and look at something else, I’ll pick out a few things real quick.”
I’m shaking my head before she gets it all out. “Not happening. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
She blinks in surprise and dare I say happiness before the smile drops from her face. As soon as it’s gone, I wish I could figure out how to get it back. Having Ava smile at me is really nice.
She looks away from me. “Yeah... because you promised your sister you’d keep an eye on me.”
I clamp my mouth shut. I’m about to claim her here right in the middle of the store and tell her it has nothing to do with what I promised my sister and everything to do with this uncontrollable sense of need to protect her. It’s so much more than a promise I made to my sister. But instead of telling her all that, I murmur, “Yeah, something like that.”
It’s either my imagination or something, but I swear she doesn’t seem to like my answer. “Come on. You’ll need some shorts, jeans, T-shirts, boots, uh... underthings. You need any of that face shit?”
She laughs as she picks through the clothes. “Face shit? What’s that?”
I shrug. “You know... makeup or whatever.”
She stops with that and turns to me. “You think I need makeup?”
“Fuck no, I don’t. But I want you comfortable here, and if you want it... you’ll get it.”
Her eyes burrow into mine, and I know there’s no way I can hide my attraction to her—hell, I don’t even try. But I’m not going to succumb to it.
She grabs a pair of shorts and a T-shirt off the rack and lays it in the cart. “There we go.”
I roll my eyes at her before grabbing the shirt and shorts and noting the size. I then go through the rack and start picking out more shirts, shorts, and jeans. “No, Tank, that’s too much.”