Page 79 of Traces Of You
Reenie looked down at the three bags in her hands. “I got more than I thought I would. Are you only getting those sneakers?”
At least he hadn’t made that part up and had gone into the footwear store and tried on several pairs before settling on one.
Ford looked across the parking lot to some more shops. “I wouldn’t mind going over there. I need some more athletic shorts and T-shirts.”
“Whatever you want,” she said. “We’ve got time.”
It was twelve thirty and, as sad as it was that all it took was something as simple as shopping at an outlet, she was having a great time. Once they were done shopping, he’d probably drop her off and then she’d see him again at dinner.
“Let’s put these bags in the truck.”
When they left the cabin this morning, there was a black truck in the driveway. He said he couldn’t have any passengers riding in the sheriff’s SUV, so he grabbed his personal vehicle. She hadn’t even realized he had one but should have.
As they walked to his truck, the heat on her back had her spinning around for familiar faces, but there were none.
Once the packages were out of her hands, they moved to the street to cross to the other side, her head swiveling fast behind her again.
The hair was standing on her arms, Ford noticing it. It felt as if spiders were crawling across her skin, her mind screaming to run and look out.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his hand sliding toward the gun on his hip. He was never without it, even out of uniform. His belt had his badge on it, but most knew who he was and were nodding and waving.
It hadn’t occurred to her being seen out with him would draw so many eyes to her and she wondered why he’d done this.
Was it nothing more than that or were her instincts telling her someone was watching for another reason? She knew Oliver was looking for her. Had he found her? Was she stupid to think it would be so easy that he’d give up?
“Nothing,” she said. “I feel as if so many people are watching us.”
“It’s me, not you,” he said.
He was probably right, but it felt different. It felt as if someone was shooting daggers atherback, the pain of a hard shove into a wall flashing into her memory banks.
She’d had to run and hide enough in her life to know what survival mode felt like and this was a rush that had the trigger ready to go off, her hands moving up to cover her head, and her teeth biting on her tongue to not shout out in pain and make it worse.
This was a mistake to come out if every time they were together it drew so much attention to her.
Her nerves couldn’t handle it.
She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, but even a simple outing with her boyfriend felt more overwhelming than she’d ever imagined.
“You’ve had more people say hi or stop you today than I’ve had in the past year of my life.”
Because she stayed in the shadows, but today with Ford by her side, she was getting a tan.
She just hoped she didn’t burn and blister.
“Comes with the job,” he said.
When the traffic stopped, they jogged across quickly, walked into the store he’d pointed out, and they went right to the men’s section.
“Ford. How are you doing?”
“Good, Buddy,” he said.
The guy looked to be in his forties, maybe fifties. “Do you got a minute?”
“I’ll go over here,” she said. Reenie didn’t need to stand there while the guy was pumping Ford’s hand like a salesman.
She was going through the sales rack. She couldn’t remember the last time she paid full price for anything. Outlet shops or not, she wanted her money to stretch as far as it could.
