Page 49

Claire

Now

“I feel like I’ve heard that before on this trip,” he says with a joking smile. “It’s enough to give a guy a complex.”

“Shh,” I say fiercely. “Randy could be here and—”

“Relax, he wasn’t at the front desk.”

Josh looks at me pointedly, and I feel my cheeks flush.

“I’m assuming Declan’s up there?”

I don’t know how to answer, so I don’t bother. Instead, I brush past him, pulling at his arm to follow me down the stairs. “Come on, let’s talk outside.”

***

The sky is foreshadowing its first sign of sunrise as Josh and I enter the parking lot. As soon as the Inn door closes behind us, I feel a rush of relief, but it’s quickly replaced with curiosity.

“So, what are you doing here?” I ask again. “You should be asleep.”

He rubs his hand over his face. “I was, earlier. I woke up and realized Dec never came back to the room. After what happened with Kyan, I got nervous. I went to your room. I’ve noticed how close you two have been getting.

” My cheeks flare again. “But no one answered. Everyone else was asleep, so I started looking around, couldn’t find y’all anywhere.

Thought maybe you came back here for something.

It’s dumb luck that I ran into you when I did. ”

“Oh wow, that was really nice of you,” I say, feeling a pulse of affection towards him.

“Yeah,” he says, looking down at his shoes sheepishly. “There was actually another reason too.”

“Okay,” I say skeptically.

“This, uh, this trip, it really got me thinking,” he starts awkwardly, and now it’s his turn to look embarrassed. “I know we agreed to keep things back at home pretty casual. But seeing you and Declan getting closer, it’s made me feel a certain type of way.”

“What kind of way?” I ask curiously.

“I think we have something here, Claire. I think we could really be something.”

It’s the last thing I expect him to say, and in my shock, I take a small step backwards. Josh quickly closes the gap.

“You deserve better than Declan, Claire.” Now it’s my turn to look embarrassed. I mentioned to Josh offhand one night how I’d caught Declan and Phoebe, but he didn’t have much of a reaction then. He’s never brought it up again, and I figured he had forgotten. But apparently not.

Josh gives me his signature lopsided smile, reaches his hand out for mine.

After everything that’s happened with Declan, feeling so used and manipulated, here’s this kind, funny guy telling me he has feelings for me.

I know I should feel something more for him—love or at least something close to it—but I can still only see him as a friend.

I’ve used him, I realize. All these years, I’ve kept him close, not because I wanted to pursue a relationship, but to feel better about myself.

To be that twenty-year-old again, the girl who had yet to ruin her life.

It wasn’t fair. And I don’t deserve him now.

“I know it’s a lot,” Josh says, dropping my hand in the wake of my silence.

“No, no, it’s not that. There’s just…so much you don’t know.” I try to think of a way to explain everything I haven’t told him, but it seems impossible. “I just—I need to get out of here.”

Josh nods eagerly. “You want to go back to the hotel?”

“No.” My response is sharp. I could tell him about the police coming, but there’s too much to explain and not enough time. And to be honest, after pouring my soul out to Declan last night, I’m not sure I’m ready to repeat that again. “I need to get out of Jagged Rock. Just…somewhere else.”

Josh’s eyes go wide. I feel my chin drop, a terrible burning sensation forming behind my eyes.

“We’ll go,” he says finally, and my head darts up, clinging to that one word. We. “We’ll get out of here. Drive to another town and figure out our next steps.”

“I appreciate the thought, but we can’t. We don’t even have a car.”

“Actually,” he says, reaching into his back pocket. “We do.”

I stare in awe at the keys in his hand. “Where did you get those?”

“Turns out Luke has been calling all his friends trying to see if anyone has a car we could borrow to visit Kyan in the hospital. One of them finally came through after the girls went to bed, so Luke handed these over. I drove it here actually, parked down the street.”

I should tell him, I know I should. I should admit I don’t share the feelings he has for me, and I need to tell him the rest of it: the knife, the impending arrest. It’s not fair to let him try to save me when he doesn’t realize how much I’ve ruined everything.

What if the police pull us over? I would be evading arrest, and wouldn’t that make Josh an accomplice?

But what choice do I have?

I think of what Phoebe would do. The answer is easy: whatever it takes to protect herself.

“Okay,” I say, so quietly I’m not sure if he hears me at first.

But he smiles, grabs my hand, and leads me away from the Inn towards the car, a dust-covered four-door SUV parked at the edge of the street. I smile back, trying to ignore the lump in my throat that I can’t swallow away.

As we walk, I turn back once more to the Inn, and that’s when I see it, a figure filling one of the window frames on the second floor.

Declan stares down at me, his eyes wide.

And suddenly I’m angry. The betrayal, the hurt rises over me like a wave. I watch with clenched fingers as Declan mouths something to me through the window.

But I ignore him. Instead, I turn back around and follow Josh into the car.