Page 26 of Trailer Trash

“I know there’s absolutely nothing you could have done to justify what happened to your babies, Neely Kate.”

If he only knew everything . . . And I suspected hewouldknow before this was all said and done. He certainly wouldn’t be giving me compassionate looks then. “You don’t know . . . you don’t know.”

“So tell me,” he said quietly.

No. I wasn’t ready to lose him yet.

We reached Texarkana an hour later, and Jed said he needed to stop for gas. When he pulled in front of a gas pump at a truck stop, I told him I had to go to the bathroom. He watched me get out but didn’t say anything.

I headed inside, casting a glance over my shoulder. I couldn’t figure out why he was here. It didn’t make sense. Jed was one of the best-looking men I had ever seen, so I couldn’t believe he was in this just to sleep with me. At the same time, I couldn’t let myself think he actuallycared. I’d been fooled by men before, which was what had gotten me into this desperate situation in the first place.

Rose texted again while I was peeing, but I ignored it. Pretending I didn’t see her texts would only make her more anxious. Iknewthat. Even so, I wasn’t ready to deal with her, and I wasn’t sure I ever would be. The guilt was already as thick and choking as toxic smoke. Rose had done everything she could to show me that she wouldn’t judge me. While I didn’t disbelieve her, exactly, I simply couldn’t live with the alternative.

Chapter 9

Jed had beenin the middle of a heated phone call when I’d left the building, but he’d hung up before I reached him. From the way he was leaning on the top of the car, it hadn’t ended well. He looked like he was pissed.

“Are you okay?” I asked as a gust of wind kicked up my dress and blew my hair into my face.

Jed straightened, his gaze landing on my face, and he gave me a soft smile. “I am now.”

I half-expected him to say it with a leer, not that he’d ever looked at me that way before, but his smile was genuine. It melted the frost of my earlier despair. Maybe having Jed with me was a good thing. I gave him a playful grin in return. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He hung the gas nozzle back on the pump and walked around the back of the car toward me. “It means I’m starving, and now that you’re back, we can get something to eat. What are you hungry for?”

I pointed at the truck stop behind me. “They have pizza inside.”

He shook his head. “I want real food. Are you up for stopping somewhere?”

“It depends,” I said slowly. “I can’t go anywhere too expensive. I have money, but I don’t know how long I’ll be gone . . . I need to make it last.” Then I remembered the bus stop. “Not to mention I owe you for your bus ticket and mine.”

He put his arm around my back, a gesture that felt more comforting than it probably should have, and steered me toward the passenger door. “We’ll work out all the details as we go,” he said as he opened the door for me yet again.

I climbed inside, and he shut the door behind me.

“Who were you talking to earlier?” I asked as soon as he got into the driver’s seat.

He turned on the car and steered us back onto the highway. “It’s not important.”

I decided to push it. “It looked important.”

He turned to glance at me. “It was Skeeter. We didn’t see eye to eye about something, but you don’t need to worry about it.”

“Was it about me?” Had Skeeter told him to spy on me?

He reached over and grabbed my hand, linking our fingers together. “No. In the grand scheme of things, it was about me, and it was a long time coming.” He shot me a look. “Mexican? Chinese? Steak?”

I was still in shock that he was holding my hand. This time he didn’t just squeeze it and pull away; he held it like it was something precious. This was by far the most intimate touch we’d ever shared. It suggested familiarity and fondness, not lust and desire. This was dangerous ground.

He mistook my silence and said, “Or we can get pizza, if you’d prefer.”

Should I remove my hand from his? For better or worse, I liked it. “Well, wearein Texas now. Maybe we should get Tex-Mex.”

“Tex-Mex it is.”

It didn’t take us long to find a restaurant, and it was early enough for dinner that we didn’t have to wait for a table.

After we ordered our food, Jed sobered. “How are you doin’ after talking to Kate?”

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