Page 43 of Saltwater Memories
Chapter 16
Her first thought was to hide in the restroom. Amanda was in there for a few minutes before she realized how silly it was –eventuallyshe’d have to come out, and Lenny might see her. She needed to get away from the ball entirely.
Will had responded to her text. “What’s wrong? I wish you would tell me what happened. I’m sorry if I upset you, can we talk?”
How could she possibly tell him what was going on? If she told him about Lenny being in the mafia…no, she couldn’t. And Will hadn’t done anything wrong. It was all her.
He’d been a perfect gentleman – just as he was to his parents (whose mortgage he paid), and his sister (whose education he supported), and to old Mrs. Holland (who he cared for and chauffeured around).
Will had treated her with kindness, and how did she repay him? By taking advantage of him and using him to spy on Lenny.
She tried to form a response to his message, but she couldn’t think of what to say. She was having a hard time thinking at all – she needed to get out of this bathroom stall and get back home.
Amanda tried to clear her head. So what if she’d seen Lenny? He wasn’t going to attack her out in the open.
Probably.
Plus, she had a mask on. What was the chance that he recognized her?
Amanda was more worried about seeing Will. What would she tell him? What if he asked her to dance again? The way he’d pulled her onto the dance floor, his hand on her waist…
She snapped herself out of it. It was time to leave.
She left the restroom and popped her head around the corner. There was no sign of Lenny, and she spotted Will at the far corner of the ballroom. He seemed to be caught in a conversation with an older looking couple.
Perfect. She quickly walked to the coat check, got her jacket and left the building without anyone noticing her.
The further she got from the ballroom, the less frenzied she felt. By the time she got to the bus stop, she was confident that Lenny hadn’t followed her; it would have been too hard for him to blend in without her noticing.
Once seated inside the bus, she decided that it was safe to take her mask off. She also knew that it was time to respond to Will.
She let out a sigh and pulled her phone out of her purse. The first three messages she typed out were silly; she deleted them immediately.
What was she trying to say? She couldn’t tell him the truth. He couldn’t know about Lenny.
Yet what evenwasthe full truth? If it was just a problem with Lenny, she could’ve told Will that she wanted to leave. She didn’t have to leave Will, too.
No. It was something else. It was the way Will looked at her, the way his hands ever so lightly led her on the dance floor. The way he did so much for his family and that old woman…
Plus, even though Rupert didn’t care that she was going out with another guy, it felt wrong.
Yeah. That was it. It wasn’t the fact that she’d gone out with Will. It was the fact that she wasenjoyingit.
She was almost to her stop. She needed to say something to him.
“You didn’t upset me,” she wrote. “Things are complicated. I wish I could explain, but I can’t. It’s honestly not you. I’m so, so sorry.”
She got off at her stop and realized that she needed to catch a ride back to Will’s place to get to her car. She still had the address saved in her GPS from before; she ordered an Uber and was picked up a few minutes later.
After she got back to her car, the drive to Anacortes went quickly and she was able to get a spot on the ferry back to Friday Harbor.
Her escape was complete. Sort of.
When she was on the ferry, she looked at her phone again. Will had written back an hour ago. And Rupert had texted her – twice!
Will’s text said, “I won’t push you on it. I got home and saw that your car is gone – did you get home okay?”
This she could answer easily enough. “Thank you, I did. Have a good night Will.”
