Page 10 of Quarter Miles (Runaway 3)

“When?” My eyes bugged out. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Didn’t I?” She twirled a lock of her chocolate-brown hair. “Huh. I thought I did. Pregnancy brain is no joke.”

I narrowed my stare but she refused to make eye contact.

“We need to change activities,” I said, instantly switching to crisis management mode. “We can’t have guests out hiking if there is a lion in the area. Should we call that guy? What was his name? The one with the hound dogs?” My vacation had just taken a hiatus, but I couldn’t leave guests at risk. “I’ll go to the office and call the game warden.”

“Hold up.” Easton raised his hand, stopping me before I could race to my truck, and looked to Cash. “Did you see any signs?”

He shook his head. “Not a sign. I hiked all over, looking for paw prints or scat. Didn’t see a thing.”

“When?” I asked.

“Where do you think I’ve been for the past two nights?”

My heart stopped. He hadn’t been with Dany.

“Glad you missed me at home. Did you watch our Netflix show?”

Yes, I had watched the show we’d been binging, but I hadn’t felt guilty about it until now. “Uh . . .”

“I knew it.” He frowned. “Watching our show without me, eating my popcorn while I was sleeping in the back of my goddamn truck, trying to find this mysterious lion.”

He hadn’t been with Dany. My spirits soared like a kite on the wind, flying into the open blue sky. But before I got carried away, I tugged them back in. Cash still had a girlfriend. They hadn’t had a tryst this weekend, but it was only a matter of time. He had a girlfriend. And I was only his best friend.

“Gem, are you sure you saw a lion?” Cash asked.

She lifted a shoulder. “I thought so. It was big but pretty far away. Maybe it was a coyote.”

A coyote. A toddler could tell the difference between a mountain lion and a coyote even at a distance. What was she up to?

I planted my hands on my hips and willed Gemma to look at me. She was six inches taller than my five one and she kept her gaze carefully lifted above my head. With Easton and Cash both standing inches above six feet, I was by far the smallest in the group.

The runt.

I hated being short. I squared my shoulders and lengthened my spine, demanding attention. Maybe I was short in stature but that didn’t mean I didn’t have my own force. “What’s going on, Gemma?”

“What?” She feigned innocence. “I thought I saw a mountain lion.”

Easton dropped his gaze to his boots, shuffling and kicking at a rock on the gravel driveway. That asshole had never been a good liar.

Regardless of their motives for this lion stunt, at the moment, I could hug them both. Cash and Dany were an inevitability that I’d have to deal with. But for today, I’d get to leave for my trip and not have mental images of them together clouding my windshield.

Gemma finally met my gaze and gave me a small smile.

I mouthed, “Thank you.”

She winked.

“Are you guys taking the Cadillac out today?” Cash asked Easton, covering a yawn with his fist.

I shook my head, willing Gemma to keep her mouth shut. She did. It was Easton who I should have kicked in the knee.

“Actually, Katherine’s taking a vacation,” he said.

“What?” Cash asked at the same time I shot Easton a glare.

So much for disappearing. Part of the reason I hadn’t wanted to tell Cash about this was to punish him. The other part was because he wasn’t the only overprotective Greer in the mix.