Page 92 of With Love

Adrienne

I’m woken by the sound of the motel door closing. Opening my eyes, I see Owen moving around the room. He places two cups of coffee down on the table and looks over at me.

“Morning. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” he says.

“That’s ok,” I answer him.

He brings my coffee over to me. Even though it doesn’t taste very good, it’s still exactly what I needed. Owen sits down on his bed and holds his cup out to me.

“Cheers.”

“Cheers,” I laugh slightly.

“So, what are we doing today?”

I answer by shrugging my shoulders.

“Are you ready to get out of here?”

“Maybe,” I answer, as he tries to hide excitement from his face.

“I was thinking that we can drive down south, maybe to Florida. I can get a job for a little while. Enough to get us some money and we can finally make it to Curacao.”

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong? That’s where we were headed a few months ago.”

“I know, but everything has changed since then, Owen. When I said “maybe” I was thinking more of heading to see Courtney or something like that.”

“Who is Courtney?”

“Oh! I didn’t even get a chance to tell you with all of this blowing up like it did. Marshall took me on a tour of our past to help me try and remember some of my life. Wow, I don’t even know where do begin! I learned so much!”

“How about if you just tell me about this Courtney person,” he says, a hint of attitude in his voice.

“Okay. One of the places that we went was to the Hamilton Foundation.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s amazing. It’s my foundation. Courtney used to own it and she signed it over to me a few years ago. It’s a center for orphaned children.”

“Oh, okay,” he responds.

“Anyway, she was one of my best friends,” I say.

He doesn’t say anything for a minute or two and his silence is making me angry.

“I just don’t know if it’s a good idea to go back to the city. We could be easily located there.”

“Who are you more worried about finding us? Marshall or Lock?” I ask him, my question thick with bitterness.

“What?” He sounds shocked that I talked to him like that. “Lock. Obviously. God, Adrienne, I don’t want everything that we went through to be for nothing.”

He moves over to my bed and sits next to me. He turns so he is facing me and I do the same.

“If he finds us, if he finds you…” he begins.

“I’d never forgive myself for what he’d do to you. I love you,” he reaches up and places a hand on my cheek, quickly diving in for a kiss. He wraps his arms around me as I try pushing him away, but his strength keeps my arms from being able to move.

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