Page 93 of Sheltered By Love

“But why Maine? Why Blueskin Bay?”

She toys with the half-empty coffee cup on the table. “Stupid really. I’ve always loved the movie, Mermaids. And I just thought, wow, I could do that, just pick a place on the map and go there.”

My eyebrows rise. “You threw a dart at a map?”

She tilts her head at me. “You’ve seen the movie?”

I can’t meet her eye, so I cough as I come up with an excuse. “Mom liked it, I saw it once, I think,” I say.

Her lips curve into a half smile. “The dart landed on Maine, but it was so huge and I’d never really been to the beach, so I just picked the place I liked the sound of.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “Just like that? You didn’t have a job to come to? No friends nearby?”

“All my friends were too embarrassed to be seen with me.”

“Does anyone know where you are?”

She screws up her face. “Now they do. But they’re hardly likely to come to see me, are they?”

I hope they don’t. For their sake. I’m not sure what I’d do if her ex came here. Dunk him in the Bay or worse probably.

I shake my head at her. “You didn’t know anyone here and you didn’t have employment, what were you going to do for money?”

She shrugs. “I wasn’t exactly thinking that far ahead. I just wanted to get away. Then Viola came over the day I moved in, she introduced me to Nicki and it all seemed to work out okay.”

“Until you made yourself a target last night,” I add.

Her lip quivers. “I’m going to have to leave town, aren’t I?’

I run my hand over my chin. That she’s worried about being forced to leave is just about the best thing I’ve had her say since I woke up.

“Don’t jump too far ahead. We live by a different code in Blueskin Bay.”

She snorts a laugh. “Well unless your code includes wiping out that video my future here isn’t any brighter than it was in Arizona. That footage is out there forever, if I have kids, they’ll see it. I thought I could escape it, but I can’t.”

“No. You can’t. None of us can. We make a mistake it changes who we are. It becomes part of us.”

“Is that supposed to be comforting?”

Think before you speak, Zane. Break the habit of a lifetime.

“I’m not good at offering comfort.”

She surprises me by laughing. “You can learn. If you really want to.”

I smile sidelong at her. “Is that why you bid three grand? You’re planning on teaching me how to be a better person?”

She runs her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I just knew I had to do it.”

“Do you even have the money?”

At the way her hands start to twist in her lap, it’s obvious she didn’t have it to spare. “I was going to buy a car with it,” she says quietly.

It’s a struggle to keep my voice level. “Because you were planning on leaving if someone found out?”

Her eyes meet mine. “I hoped no one would find out here! I was sick of asking Nicki to drive me places, but I don’t suppose there’s much point now. Now everybody knows, I have no reason to stay here.”

My chest has started to feel tight, and my throat is constricting. Somewhere in my brain, a voice that sounds an awful lot like my mom’s is prodding me to say something before Felicity packs up and leaves.

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