Page 81 of Runaway Road (Runaway 1)

I already had that one on my list. “And?”

“Uh . . .”

I sighed and looked at Tony. He stood against a tool box, his chest shaking in silent laughter. Brooks and I didn’t just have this standoff for the grocery store. He’d always tack on a handful of parts right before I was ready to hit send on the order.

“I’m leaving in four, three, two—”

“Pickles.”

My face soured. Thanks to my unexpected pregnancy and a horrible bout of morning sickness, pickles were no longer on my favorite foods list. But I’d buy them for Brooks because he loved them on his ham sandwiches. “Okay, we’re taking off. I’ll meet you at home.”

“Drive careful.”

“I will,” I promised like I did each time he sent me off with the same warning. “Don’t be late. You have one hour to get home and get showered before we need to leave.”

Wyatt had his first football game of the season tonight and he was starting as linebacker. He was nervous—something I found exceptionally endearing—because the girl he’d been crushing on was going to be in the stands watching.

Wyatt was still grounded, both at Brooks’s house and at Moira’s, but it was coming to an end. One year of near angelic behavior and his parents were struggling to punish him any longer. If it had been my decision, he would have been forgiven months ago.

“Don’t worry, honey. I’ll be there.”

Okay, maybe I was just as nervous for tonight’s game as Wyatt. “Love you,” I called.

Brooks, lying on his back on a wheeled cart, pushed out from under the Chevy and grinned. “Love you too.”

I blew him a kiss, waved goodbye to Tony, then headed out the back door, where my Cadillac waited. She gleamed in the September sunshine, her color coordinating with autumn’s turning leaves. But I wasn’t driving her around Summers today. Brooks would bring home the Cadillac and I was taking his truck—it was safer for Ellie and her car seat.

It had taken a month to get the Cadillac fixed after the crash into the ditch. It hadn’t mattered much to me, considering anywhere I needed to go, Brooks was more than willing to drive me.

My first month as an official resident of Summers was spent waking up with the sunshine each morning and falling asleep beside Brooks each night. More often than not, I found myself at the garage during the day, where I stayed in the office while Brooks and Tony worked on cars.

The stack of paperwork in Brooks’s office called my name. I asked for the password to his computer and figured out the rest myself, only asking questions when necessary.

Though I was already doing the work, when Brooks offered me the job as office manager, I hesitated to accept. Was I repeating the same pattern from Boston? It took me a week to work past those fears and realize they were unfounded.

Life in Summers was nothing like Boston. Brooks was nothing like Thomas.

He hadn’t offered me a job with his company. He hadn’t given me a home in his house.

Everything about our life was ours.

Brooks added my name to the title on the house. I bought into the garage as his partner.

Summers was home, but Brooks and I talked often about where we’d go exploring. We had a few years between Wyatt’s graduation from high school and the time Ellie would start kindergarten.

Our plan was to take as many vacations as we could afford until it was time to put her in school. Then we’d limit travel to summers. Maybe Wyatt would come too, depending on his college schedule, and we’d make it a family trip.

Ellie was a beautiful surprise.

She was one month old and the anchor of my heart.

Brooks and I hadn’t planned on getting pregnant. We hadn’t even talked about marriage until that fateful day when I’d held a positive pregnancy test in my hand as joyous tears streamed down my face. But somewhere along the way, a condom hadn’t worked, and like all things with our relationship, we’d moved into the future at warp speed.

The two of us had married in his parents’ yard beside the lake two weeks later. Then we’d waited for Ellie to arrive. The day she was born was the day I’d learned true peace.

I’d learned unconditional love.

I vowed never to fail her the way my parents had failed me.