“Moose? You still there?”
I nod, pushing off the truck. “Yeah, sorry. Where am I picking her up?”
“Mercedes sent me the address of a restaurant. She said she’ll meet you there at midnight.”
“Midnight, huh?” Certainly doesn’t sound like someone who just needs a ride. “What’s her name?”
“Juliette.”
Cora walks out of the gas station with her hands full and I nod. “Yeah, all right. I’ll pick her up and call you before we take off tomorrow.”
“Sounds good. Make sure you call if you run into any trouble.”
I nod as Cora stops at the hood of the truck. “Will do. Talk to you tomorrow.”
We say good-bye and Cora steps closer with a smile as she holds out my cup of coffee to me. She has a plastic bag in her other hand and my stomach growls as I spot a couple different candy bars.
“Can you put the coffee in the cup holder for me?” I ask as the numbers on the pump slow. She nods and carries my drink and her bag of goodies around to the passenger side before climbing in. When the tank is full, I pull the nozzle out of the truck and grab my receipt on my way back to my door.
“How much longer?” Cora asks as I slip behind the wheel and drop my phone in the holder before bringing up the GPS.
“About an hour.”
She nods and begins typing out a text to her sister on the burner phone I gave her at the start of this trip. I barely make it out of the parking lot when she sighs and shakes her head. “Gah, I hate this thing.”
“As soon as you’re settled, you can get a new phone but we couldn’t risk him following you.”
“I know,” she whispers, peeking up from the phone. “He has to know I’m gone by now.”
I nod. “He does.”
“Is he freaking out?” she asks, her voice shaking and it sends me into a rage. Nothing in this world makes me angrier than a woman with terror in her voice and tears in her eyes. I’ve seen way too much of it for my liking and I wish there was more I could do.
“You don’t need to worry about him anymore. We’re keeping a close eye on him and you are safe.”
She sighs. “Thank you again for this. I’m sure you have better things to do with your weekend than babysit me.”
“Don’t worry about it. We just want you to be safe.”
My phone starts ringing before she can reply and I growl when Tawny’s name pops up on the screen again. Leaning forward, I silence it as her gaze bores into the side of my head.
“Girl trouble?” she asks as the cab falls silent again. I scoff, my grip tightening on the wheel.
“Yeah, something like that.” I glance over and find her studying me with a curious expression.
“Wanna talk about it?”
I bark out a laugh. “No.”
“Oh, come on. We have to pass the time somehow and it’ll be nice to think about someone else’s mess for a little while… please?”
“Fine,” I grumble, rolling my eyes and she claps her hands before turning to face me on the bench seat.
“Okay, start at the beginning. How did you meet her?”
Reluctantly, I start telling her all about Tawny - how we met at a clubhouse party after she’d tried her hand with a few other guys and how it was only supposed to be casual but then she started getting attached.
“You know what I think?” she asks, interrupting me and I shake my head.
“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
She nods. “Yes, I am.”
“Go on, then. Tell me why I can’t pick a good woman.”
“Oh, you’re perfectly capable of picking a good woman. You just choose not to.”
Turning to her, I blink in confusion as I try to process her words but she doesn’t give me any time to respond.
“See, I think you want something real. I think you want the same thing your brothers have found but there’s something holding you back. You’re scared which is why you chose someone that you knew it would never work with. You sabotage yourself.”
I suck in a breath and turn back to the road in front of us. “I’m not afraid of a relationship.”
“Mmhmm,” she hums, turning to the front of the truck. “You can deny it all you want but you know I’m right. If you truly want something real and something that will last, you have to push yourself past whatever it is that scares the shit out of you.”
“How the hell did you get that I want something real from what I told you? I was only looking for something casual.”
“Then why the hell did you pick a woman that made it very clear she wanted a relationship?”
I open my mouth to reply but nothing comes out. Shit. Why did I choose to hook up with Tawny knowing she wanted more than just sex? It was a disaster from the start and I knew it. There was always that little voice in my head telling me what a bad idea it was but the loneliness forced that voice to shut the hell up real quick.
“Now, you just need to figure out what scares you so badly about being in a relationship.”
I grunt and shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m swearing off women until I get my shit together.”
“Yeah.” She laughs. “Good luck with that. I can’t tell you how many people I know who have said the same thing and the next thing you know, they’ve met their soul mate.”
“Yeah, right. I think I’d have better luck with the lottery.”
She points to my face. “And you just proved my point.”
“Which point would that be?”
“That you want a relationship,” she answers, looking smug. “But you’re also scared to open up your heart to someone.”
“What is it you do for work again?” I ask, glancing over at her. I’m certain she’s not a therapist but I feel like I just got thoroughly shrinked and now I’m questioning everything I thought I knew. She laughs.
“I’m an accountant.”
I scoff, shaking my head. “Maybe you should think about a career change because you have a talent.”
“Naw. Girls are just better at this kind of thing. Besides, I did a whole lot of work on myself in the last year but I’m glad to see my self-help book addiction helped someone.”
She starts telling me all about her massive shelf of self-help books and how each one helped her and the closer we get to Miami, the more animated she becomes. It’s like watching her being released from a cage and one of my favorite things about the work we do. Each woman we help does things at her own pace but at some point, she realizes she is safe and she is free. She starts living again and I love watching the life spark in their eyes again. For some, it takes years of therapy and work but for Cora, all it took was getting away from Freddie and her life in Baton Rouge where the memories of his torment haunted her everyday of her life.
“So what is it?” she asks. Her whole body is twisted in the seat so she can study me as I drive and I glance over at her with an arched brow.
“What is what?”
“The reason you’re scared.”
My gaze flicks between her and the road a couple times before I let out a sigh. “Let’s just say past heartbreak and not take it any further.”