Page 11 of Hide My Heart
He presses his lips on my forehead and lets me go. “I told my mom you’re Sharon Williams, a girl I met in another town. You’re supposedly going overseas and leaving Beck with me. You have to be out of here before my mom shows up. She wants to invite you to our house to stay.”
“But the first bus doesn’t leave until ten.” I hug myself, missing Nate’s arms already.
“That’s why I’m here.” He picks up my backpack. “I’ll drive you to Spokane and take Beck home with me. After a few days go by, you can show up and visit your grandmother. No one will connect you and Beck.”
“Leave… leave Beck with you?” My voice rattles as a shudder shakes my entire body.
“Wasn’t that your original plan?”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t going to leave town. I was going to hang around. I thought I’d do housework or cook for you.”
Nate puts his hands on my shoulders. “Won’t work. The gossip mill will put two and two together. Beck shows up. You show up. This is the only way. Mr. Carson claims he saw you with a baby already. Everyone at the Bluebird heard Phil announce it. That’s where Mom found out. I already lied and said you were Sharon. Mom will be looking for Sharon tomorrow morning, so you can’t be here when she heads over.”
Beck stirs on the bed and gurgles.
“He’s hungry,” I say. “I have to feed him.”
“No time.” Nate gathers my toiletries from the bathroom, shoving them into my pack. “Get him changed. You can feed him in the car.”
My head is spinning, and I’m neither here nor there, but Nate is right. I can’t be seen here in the town at the same time Beck appears. With Mr. Carson telling everyone he saw me, it’ll take all of Nate’s convincing skills to make people forget about me and believe he has a mysterious girlfriend from out of town.
I grab his arm. “Nate, what about your real girlfriend?”
He presses his lips tight and shakes his head. “She’ll just have to deal with it. Don’t worry about it.”
“I can’t let you sacrifice her.” Well, actually I can, but he’ll never forgive me. “Take both of us to Spokane. I’ll figure something out and come back later.”
“Let’s just go.” He seems impatient, glancing at his watch. “We’ll talk about it on the way.”
“Sure, thanks.” I gather up the rest of my things and change Beck’s diaper. My limbs are heavy and aching, but I have to keep moving. I wrap Beck into the baby sling and pull on my jacket.
Nate carries my backpack, and when we step outside the motel, he takes my hand. “Don’t want you to slip on the ice out here.”
Yeah, he wants to make sure I don’t think there’s anything more than common courtesy. He has a girlfriend. Maybe driving me to Spokane is his way of getting rid of me.
SEVEN
Nate
I crank up the heatas I warm up the car. Amber has tucked Beck under her sweater and is feeding him. It’s so strange to see her acting like a mother. Beck makes these cute little sounds as he nurses, but it screws with the way I want to think of Amber.
She’s no longer the girl I knew, that’s for sure. Her eyes are closed and her lips are tight. She doesn’t even respond when I ask whether she wants to listen to music or not.
The miles roll by, but the night is clear and the roads are plowed. I want so much to talk to Amber, to find out about her life, but she’s exhausted. I hate having to drop her off in Spokane, but there’s no other way with Mr. Carson claiming he saw her.
When I’m sure she’s asleep, I reach for her hand and hold it. That’s all we’ve ever done back when I helped her pick apples at her family’s orchard. She’d sneak out with a big basket, and we’d fill the basket, then sit under a tree and eat until our tummies ached. Sometimes, we’d lie down in the meadow, and hold hands and dream. I wanted to join the Air Force and fly fighter jets. She wanted to teach English and write children’s stories. We imagined living in a big city and traveling around the world.
But here I am, years later, and still living at home. The day before I was to enlist, my older brother died in a car accident. That ended my dream to leave town and see the world. But Amber? She got to leave, and as long as she was gone, there was hope that she was living her dream.
Who knew she was busy getting pregnant by some brute named Hunter?
Bile rises in my throat, and my grip tightens on her hand. It sucks that we’re both so young and our dreams are busted.
Amber squeaks and squirms, tugging her fingers from me.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” I say while keeping my eyes on the road.
“Are we almost there?”
