Chapter 22

After about twenty minutes on the road, Elijah finally got comfortable enough to talk to the kind couple who had welcomed us into their mansion on wheels.

We found out that their names were Clarabelle and Graham Dempsey. He was forty-two years old and she was thirty-seven. They met at a play that their local community players had put on, and fell in love when they were in their twenties.

I rolled my eyes as she gushed about their love story.

I wasn’t interested in that because I couldn’t tell her about ours.

But … the more she talked, the more I noticed how goddamn perfect her teeth were.

Wait.

I gave Elijah’s shirt a gentle tug as he listened to her drone on and on about how they met, and he held up a finger quickly and as respectfully as he could, to stop her for a moment.

“Sorry,” he said to her with an apologetic grin. Leaning down he looked at me and raised an eyebrow, “What’s up, Mais?”

“Did you bring them?”

“Bring what?”

I pushed my tongue against the inside of my upper lip to better explain my question without words, and his face drained of color.

I shook my head, “It’s okay. I needed new ones, anyway.”

“I’m really sorry, Maisie,” he muttered miserably. A sigh escaped me as I let my head rest against his shoulder. It was the only way I could ever let him know that there really had been no harm done.

Elijah believed actions more than he did words.

We both did.

That’s why, when he came back for me, I knew that he had truly meant to, and it wasn’t just something he promised in passing.

I slid my hand into his and held it as the camper rode smoothly along the road. It was then that I realized silence had taken over Clarabelle and Graham.

Leaning slightly around Elijah, I could see Graham watching us curiously through the rear-view mirror. When I settled back against the cushion, I noticed Clarabelle giving us an odd look.

Lowering my eyes quickly, I let go of Elijah’s hand and scooted away from him putting at least two inches between us.

“What’s the matter?”

I didn’t look at Elijah right away.

The tone of his voice already told me that he thought it was him, and nothing would prove otherwise unless I showed him that it wasn’t.

I shook my head as I cleared my throat.

“Is it okay if I put my legs on the couch?” I asked Clarabelle.

“Sure,” she replied happily as she got to her feet. “Just let me grab a towel for you, okay?”

With my eyes still on the wall beside me, I nodded in agreement as I wrapped my arms around myself and shifted slightly.

Today, I felt the pain even more than when I had opened myself. Things always did manage to hurt more the day after, but I wasn’t sure if it was my body’s pathetic attempt to heal itself, or because I hadn’t had a chance to properly tend to my cuts and my wound.

“Maisie?”

I glanced at Elijah’s hands.

He sounded so confused by my putting space between us, and I had no way to explain it to him in front of strangers.

Flashing him a quick smile, I turned my attention back to Clarabelle as she reappeared with a towel.

“Here you go,” she said cheerfully as she held it out to me.

I got to my feet and almost stumbled when Graham took a turn. Elijah reached over and held me steady as I whipped out the towel then set it back down where I had been sitting.

Tucking my legs up beneath me, I finally understood just exactly why she wanted to get me a towel.

My feet were dirty.

Still caked with dirt and stained with grass from the hunt last night.

I can’t wait to get to Mr. Mike’s place. The first thing I’m gonna do is take a shower, I decided as I began to pick at my fingernails.

As I felt Elijah’s eyes settle on me, I leaned my head against the wall next to me and swallowed a sigh.

He’d have to understand, not everyone who stopped to help us really cared one way or another about how deeply we loved each other.

___

“Are you sure you don’t want separate rooms?” Graham asked us uncertainly for what seemed like the tenth time in a row.

I shook my head. “Thank you, Mr. Graham. One room is more than enough.”

He exchanged a glance with his wife, who shrugged. Once he had finished checking us into a hotel just off the highway, he slid a keycard toward me.

“We’ll leave bright and early.”

I nodded as I glanced down at the hastily written number, mumbled a thank you, then started down the hallway.

At first, I wasn’t sure why he stopped since I knew Kingston couldn’t have been that far away, but when he pulled into the parking lot, Clarabelle explained that he hadn’t slept for the better part of a day.

Turned out they weren’t from around here. They were cruising through the state to destinations unknown, and had been on the road for a few days.

When we finally made it to the elevator banks, I pushed the button to call the car down to us, then waited with Elijah at my side.

I could still feel his apprehension at my moving away from him in the camper, and I would do my best to explain it without making him upset.

The doors opened slowly, almost as if they were deliberately attempting to provoke the young man beside me.

When they finally opened, I stepped to the side and made a sweeping gesture with my hand to alarm to allow him in first.

The doors closed.

The silence lingered.

Until it didn’t.

“Are we going to talk about what happened in there?” he asked in a tempered tone.

I ignored him.

Instead, I looked at the distorted reflection of myself against the metal elevator doors and leaned forward. Sticking my forefingers into my lips, forcing my mouth into a grin.

Ugly, ugly, monster.

“Mais?”

I let my mouth snap back into its usual semi-permanent frown before I looked at him over my shoulder.

Before I could begin to attempt to explain, the elevator dinged and the doors opened, beckoning us out.