Page 26 of Hide My Heart
“Nate, it’s me, Amber. Listen, my battery’s low. I’m up near Coeur d'Alene and need a place to hide for the night. Can you give me the address to your Uncle Joe’s summer place and meet me there with Beck?”
“Meet you there? Right now? It’ll be dark soon, and the roads are slippery.”
“I have nowhere to go.”
“Did you get away? Where’s Hunter? You should call the police.”
“I can’t! I stole his truck, and I might have killed him.” The fear in her voice ices my veins.
“You what? Should you call the police?”
“No!” she explodes. “He might still be alive. I don’t know, but I need the address. Hurry.”
I give it to her and tell her where she can find the spare key. “But, Amber, there’s no electricity. He turns off the place in the winter. Can’t you come back here?”
“I don’t have enough gas in the tank, and I have no money. The police might be after me. I have to—”
My phone beeps three times, signaling the end of the call.
Damn!
I slap my forehead. What has Amber done?
Did she really kill Hunter?
Should I call Detective Dalton?
But she’ll hate me if the police find her there, and Dalton already thinks she’s a suspect in the robbery in cahoots with Hunter.
I better play it cool and go up there and check it out for myself. If Hunter’s still alive, he’s going to be pissed and Amber will be in real trouble.
One thing’s for sure. I need to take Beck from my mother. It isn’t going to be easy, because she can’t wait to show him off at church, of all places.
I pack my bags and stick them in the trunk, then go in and eat a hearty portion of Irish stew. I don’t know when my next meal will be, but I can’t let Amber stumble around Uncle Joe’s cabin by herself.
For one, she’ll have to build a fire to keep warm. There are oil lamps to light, and the water is turned off to keep the pipes from freezing.
My knee jitters, as I gobble up the stew. Mom bustles around the kitchen all happy and cheerful at the thought of tweaking the townspeople’s noses.
I don’t know why she cares. Guilt slithers through my stomach at the lies I’m telling her. She’s going to be so embarrassed once the truth comes out.
Mom is so excited you’d think she won the lottery. “I’ll change Beck’s diaper and get him snuggled up in his snowsuit, and then we’re ready.”
My gut squirms, and I rub down the burning sensation in my chest. It all goes to show how much Mom wants me to marry and have children. Our line ends with me.
How do I get married and start a family when I don’t have a steady girlfriend or anyone to fall in love with?
Amber has obviously moved on without me, not that we were ever boyfriend and girlfriend. She’s just the girl I shared my plans and dreams with. We both yearned to see the world.
I haven’t moved a foot out of Divine, and she’s been all the way to California.
While Mom is in her room with Beck, I load the diapers and formula into the trunk of my car.
“Okay, we’re ready,” Mom announces with a bundled-up Beck in her arms.
I grab the diaper bag and heft it over my shoulder. “Let me take him.”
“Oh, I forgot to put on my lipstick,” Mom says as she passes by the mirror near the entrance. “Why don’t you put him in the car seat and I’ll be right out?”
