Page 47 of Until the Sea Runs Dry

He took out his wallet and handed her some bills. “Sorry, I don’t carry much cash on me.”

Jane tried not to gape at the wad in her hand. There must have been several thousand there.

“Thank you. I don’t know how, but I will pay you back every cent that you’ve spent on me,” she said, and meaning every word.

His eyes pinned her to place. She couldn’t read the expression in them, but he stared at her so intensely, sweat started to gather. Finally, he simply shook his head, ignoring her comment.

“Do you know what store you want to go to? I’m leaving for work in a minute so I can’t drive you myself, but I can drop you off. Daryl should be here in a few minutes.”

“I was hoping that I could borrow a car? Whatever is the cheapest one that you have?”

Her question threw him. “Are you sure you’re ready for that? How do you even know if you can drive?”

She had already given this some thought.

“There’s only one way to find out.”

* * *

A few moments later,she sat behind the wheel in his SUV.

It was the cheapest car he owned, though that wasn’t saying much. It was clearly not an average SUV, not with the kind of specs it came with.

And it was made by Rolls Royce.

Just the cabin alone — a cocoon of leather, wood, and gleaming metal with deep-pile lambswool carpets — was enough to make Jane take stock. She didn’t need to know anything about cars to know that this was top of the range luxury.

She was starting to regret her decision to borrow it, not wanting to be responsible should anything go wrong.

“What is this car?”

“It’s a Cullinan.”

“And this is the cheapest one you’ve got? Just out of interest, how much was it?”

“They gave me a discount. I think it came in at just under $300k in the end.”

Jane swallowed drily. “A bargain, then.”

He flashed a grin at her. “I thought so.”

In the time that she had known him, he hadn’t smiled at her much. The big grin he bestowed on her now created butterflies in her stomach.

“I hope you’ve at least used it a bunch of times.”

“This will be my fourth, I think.”

“Right. I don’t suppose you have an Uber account, do you?”

“You’ll be fine. If something should happen, I have several other cars left.”

Sitting in the passenger seat, he looked less confident when Jane took a while to familiarize herself with the mechanics.

After shifting the seat around until she was comfortable, she checked the wheel, the gears, and the dash — for what, Logan wasn’t sure. “Are you sure you know how to do this?”

“Not at all,” Jane replied with her own grin as she turned the key that he had already slipped into the ignition.

The engine roared to life, purring beneath her feet as she put the car into drive. She checked the mirrors, then eased the car out of the garage and onto the drive as easily as if she were walking. She didn’t even think about the action of driving: it was all coming naturally.

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