Page 36 of Trusting the Grumpy Mountain Man
I finish pumping as quickly as possible, pay, and peel out of the gas station, accelerating to catch up with the Prius now several minutes ahead. Traffic thickens as I push Mason's truck harder than he'd appreciate, desperate not to lose her.
There. Three cars ahead. The silver Prius signals for the highway on-ramp. The highway that leads back toward Nevada.Toward Whisper Vale.
She's heading back to find me.
I follow at a distance, not wanting to frighten her by suddenly appearing in her rearview mirror. Once we're on the open highway, I gradually close the gap, heart pounding with each mile. When I'm directly behind her, I flash my lights.
Her brake lights come on as she checks her mirror. The Prius slows, then pulls onto the shoulder. I follow suit, parking behind her.
For a moment, neither of us moves. Then her door opens, and she steps out, looking back at the unfamiliar truck with confusion. I exit Mason's truck, and her expression transforms from confusion to shock to something I'm afraid to name.
We stand there, twenty feet apart on the shoulder of a highway somewhere between her world and mine.
"Jax?" She takes a tentative step forward. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to find you." I close the distance between us. "Judge Martinez got your message."
"My message?" Her eyes widen. "How did you know it was me?"
"'Fuck the department'?" I can't help the smile that breaks through. "Not exactly standard bureaucratic language. I’m a bad influence on you."
She laughs, the sound cutting through the tension between us. "I may have been emotional when I called him."
"Riley." I stop a few feet from her, suddenly unsure. "The program's being shut down. Two weeks notice."
"I know." Her expression turns serious. "That's why I was coming to find you."
"You were?" Hope surges in my chest.
"I couldn't leave things the way we did." She takes another step toward me. "I couldn't let them destroy something that works so well just because it doesn't fit their checkboxes."
"So you told your boss to, what, exactly?"
"I went over Margaret's head." Her eyes shine with determination. "Straight to the director with my original report and video evidence of the program's effectiveness. I spent twodays compiling testimonials from former participants, outcome statistics, everything I could find."
"You did that? For the program?"
"For the program." She takes another step closer. "For the kids. For you."
My throat tightens with emotion I can't suppress. "I told you to take the promotion. To forget about us."
"And I decided that was the stupidest advice I've ever gotten." She's close enough now that I can see the gold flecks in her brown eyes. "I quit, Jax."
"You what?" I stare at her in disbelief.
"I resigned from the department." She says it simply, as if leaving her career isn't the biggest sacrifice I could imagine her making. "I couldn't work for an organization that cares more about liability than actual results."
"Riley, your career... the promotion..."
"Wasn't worth it." She reaches for my hand, her fingers warm against mine. "Not if it meant betraying everything I believe in. Not if it meant losing you."
The last words hang in the air between us. I search her face, looking for any sign of regret or uncertainty. There is none.
"I was coming to Sacramento to find you," I admit. "To tell you I was an idiot. That I never should have pushed you away."
"You were protecting yourself." Her thumb traces circles on my palm. "Protecting the kids. I understand that now."
"I was scared," I admit, she deserves the truth. "Scared of what I feel for you. Scared it would hurt too much when you left."
