Our gazes held. And even though it had been hard to put the night Abel died to words for the first time, and difficult to dredge up all those emotions, I also felt unexpectedly glad that I’d not only told the story but told it to Emily. “Thank you for listening.”

She placed her palm over my knuckles and laced our fingers together. And even when we parted a few minutes later, I swore I could still feel her hand in mine.

chapter thirty

Emily

Day Seven

In the morning, Charlie was gone. I wasn’t exactly surprised, and maybe I was even a little relieved that I’d no longer have to travel with someone I’d lost all respect for. But I was a little worried for him. There was no future for us as a couple or anything more, and I was fully aware of all his shortcomings—to put it mildly—but Charlie was no match for the state of society right now.

He’d made his choice, however. And perhaps whatever happened to him was well deserved. Hosea told me he’d seen him leaving that morning with the young woman who apparently had access to a usable vehicle—and the desire to head west with a stranded movie star.

Tuck emerged, wearing new clothes and sporting a freshly shaven face, his hair slicked back. And I didn’t want to swoon like a schoolgirl, but I did. No one could affect me like him, no one ever had. And I suddenly felt vulnerable to it, a twist of fear funneling through me. Because until now—and despite Charlie—I’d used the judgment of what I’d deemed Tuck’s flawed character as a shield against my attraction. I no longer had that defense, flimsy though it had become the more time I spent with him. And I had to admit my attraction didn’t stop at his chiseled jaw, or his perfectly formed features. It went deeper than that. He just did something to me that no one else ever had. And I didn’t know how to describe it. I certainly didn’t know how to ignore it. And I wasn’t even sure I wanted to fight it anymore. Hence the fear.

But I didn’t have the luxury of dwelling on all that anyway. Tuck and I had far bigger fish to fry and the continuation of our journey home in front of us.

“Morning,” I said with a smile.

He looked me over, smiling back. “Feels good to clean up, doesn’t it?”