8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

T wenty minutes later the four were on the road, headed toward Jackson, TN. Dale had offered to let them stay at his house after Clark had sufficiently wooed him. Who knew having a shared interest in fishing could make all the difference? More proof that Clark could be charming!

Clark and Dale chatted amiably in the front seat while Dottie remained hunched down in the back with Cleo. When they arrived at a small house in the middle of the city, Dale parked the truck and rental car on the long driveway next to the house. Dale got out first and held the door open for the ladies in the back. Without any street lights or much of a moon it was almost pitch black outside, and Cleo was grateful for Dale’s help handing them down. He helped Dottie first, but as Cleo was taking his hand she noticed that Dottie had left a bag in the truck’s cab.

“Dottie!” she shouted. Dale froze at the word and glanced up at Cleo, then quickly over to the woman beating a hasty retreat. Dale turned back to help Cleo while she grabbed the errant bag to give to Dottie.

As Cleo waited with Dottie at the door, Dale slowly ascended the steps, his keys jangling in his hand, until he was standing next to them on the porch. Studying Dottie, he finally asked, “Is it you?”

Dottie’s head had remained down, but at his question, she darted a glance at Dale’s face before returning her gaze to her feet. No one moved or spoke for several moments before Dottie’s shoulders sagged in defeat. “Hello, Dale.”

“It is you. Dottie McIntire?”

Cleo peeked at Clark, who returned her gaze. Her eyes said, Should we do something? and his answered, Yes, but what?

Before they could intervene, Dale asked, “I didn’t know it was you. Hyacinth only said an old friend of hers needed a lift.”

Dottie seemed frozen in indecision. Her eyes were trained on Dale, but she didn’t say a word. A spell wove itself around the pair, tangible enough to almost touch. Cleo balled her fists at her side to keep herself from reaching out to pop it.

The spell broke anyway as Dale glanced away. He opened the door and ushered the travelers inside. Cleo entered to a small kitchen that sat directly in front of them with a living room off to the left. Dale led them down a hallway to the right with two bedrooms. Cleo was relieved at the sight of the single bed in the guest bedroom. Dottie would take that, and she would happily find herself a couch somewhere.

Dottie shuffled into the guest room and closed the door silently behind her. Clark and Cleo shared another glance and then Dale showed them the couches in the living room, where they would bed down for the night.

“We can’t thank you enough,” Cleo told him. “Truly, this is so very kind of you.” Dale ran his hands through his thinning hair, his gaze drifting over the room but avoiding Cleo and Clark as if embarrassed, and left saying something about getting pillows and blankets for them to use.

Cleo was busy gathering her things in her arms as Dale returned and set a stack of sheets and blankets and pillows next to her on the couch. “There’s a bathroom in the hallway on the right, just past Dottie’s room. Please make yourselves at home.”

Hoping to get some information out of the soft-spoken man, Cleo said, “We hope we haven’t woken anyone up with our late arrival.”

“Nah, I live here alone,” he replied. “My dogs will be glad of the extra company.” A bark from a back room seemed to affirm that statement.

What did that mean–that he lived alone? Was Dale no longer married? Cleo would have to do some more digging tomorrow.

Cleo used the bathroom first and then gathered the sheets Dale had left to make up both couches into beds. She was snuggled under the covers when Clark returned and handed her his phone.

“You got another text from that number,” he told her.

Bea! Cleo read the message, her stomach plummeting at the news. Clark’s brows pulled low.

“Not good?” he asked.

Cleo sighed. “It’s pretty bad. Jameson’s father is threatening to sue mine for breach of contract, my father has people out looking for me, and no one knows where Jameson is.” She didn’t think her father’s people had caught her trail, but who knew? They were very good at what they did.

“Breach of contract? As in, you were contractually obligated to marry this guy?”

Fluffing her pillow Cleo answered, “Well, no, but the marriage was…sort of in conjunction with a business deal our fathers had that may not go through now.”

Clark growled a little. “These people hardly sound like the kind you’d want to be in business with, let alone married to, so maybe that’s a good thing?”

Cleo bobbed her head. “It will cost my father quite a lot of money, though.”

In a tone laced with sarcasm he said, “Will that really be so hard for him? He’ll only have a few million less than before, if I don’t miss my guess.”

Cleo’s eyes found Clark’s, and the mocking in his turned instantly to sympathy when he saw the pain in hers. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t very nice of me.”

Cleo laid her head on her arm while Clark turned out the light. She knew she’d made the right decision when she left her wedding, but she hated knowing that it had come at a high cost, to her father as well as others who would be affected. She was angry with them and felt betrayed, yet feeling that way also made her feel guilty. She was used to pleasing others, not making waves. She’d made a tsunami when she left. And to think that she would’ve probably gone through with the marriage, had she not gotten that letter the day before.